Dr. William Douglas de Almeida
PhD in Physical Education and Sports from the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. Journalist and member of the Olympic Studies Group (USP).
Email: jornalismo_william@yahoo.com.br
Transforming a procedural act into something extraordinary. That was the goal of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) when it created a major media event to announce the 26 Brazilian players selected for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The announcement of which athletes make up a national team in a sporting competition is always surrounded by expectations from fans, and in a country such as Brazil, where the popular saying claims that every citizen is a potential football coach, such a choice takes on epic proportions.
After five World Cups without a title and four years marked by a cycle of decline, including changes of coaches and, above all, administrators, the CBF made a media gamble by turning the announcement of the players who would represent Brazil into a major event held on May 18. The chosen venue was the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro—a modern cultural space inaugurated shortly before the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Fausto Neto (2002)points out that the ecosystem of sports communication originally had three axes: the producers of the spectacle (clubs and confederations), the disseminators (media organizations), and the public. However, in the current model, producers have also become disseminators and now compete directly with traditional media through their own channels. The official broadcast was carried out by CBFTV, the confederation’s YouTube channel. Major Brazilian radio and television networks replicated the transmission using images supplied by the CBF, which therefore maintained complete control over what was or was not shown—an issue that recalls the discussion of image monopoly by Rubio, Veloso e Almeida (2025). Even the third axis, the public, deserves to be questioned. The event audience was composed of invited former players, artists, and even a group of “supporters,” a term used here deliberately because those selected belong to a movement supported by the CBF to follow the Brazilian national team.
With total control from production to content distribution, the CBF created a script that seemed designed not for football fans already interested in the sport, but rather to expand its base of “fans.” The event opened with a short theatrical performance recounting the history of Brazil’s World Cup victories. Starting with the 1958 tournament, the reenactment overlooked Brazil’s earlier World Cup appearances—such as the runner-up finish in 1950, when the country hosted the event. In a caricatured style, the actors portrayed the reactions of Brazilian fans during the finals of the tournaments Brazil won, while ignoring the other World Cups. Afterward, the CBF president was called to the stage for an interview featuring pre-arranged questions, during which he praised his own work; he had assumed the position a year earlier after his predecessor stepped down due to legal issues.
Even when addressing relevant topics, such as the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil and tributes to deceased former athletes, the event was marked by such an intense promotional tone that it became entirely artificial. Fans expecting information about the national team’s preparation for the World Cup may have felt confused or frustrated. Sponsors, however, benefited from the transformation of a procedural act into a large-scale event, seeing their brands displayed for hours across the country’s major media outlets, giving them plenty to celebrate even before the tournament began.
After more than an hour of staging, coach Carlo Ancelotti finally took the stage to announce the list of selected players. Despite being Italian, he attempted to embrace the atmosphere of the moment and joked by pausing before naming the forwards and saying, “now comes the beautiful part.” The main question surrounding the announcement was whether Neymar Jr. would be included, and he ultimately was. The traditional press conference, during which journalists questioned the coach about his selections, took place afterward in a separate venue, lasted 25 minutes, and was also broadcast on CBFTV.
It should be noted that other national teams, including the Czech Republic, England, and Senegal, also adopted the strategy of publishing videos that reinforced local identity and ties to football when announcing the players selected for the World Cup. The use of proprietary channels and social media has become commonplace. While in other teams’ videos the athletes were the protagonists, the Brazilian announcement reduced the players to mere pieces within a larger spectacle.
Sports coverage has long extended far beyond what takes place inside stadiums and well beyond the 90 minutes of a match. The event staged to announce Brazil’s 2026 squad marks a further shift: the organization being covered had become the producer, the broadcaster, and even the audience of its own coverage. What was presented as a celebration of the national team was, above all, an exercise in deciding who gets to tell its story and what is left outside the frame.
