SPORT CLUB DO RECIFE

'Sport Club do Recife', more popularly known as 'Sport' in Recife or 'Sport Recife' in Southern Brazil, are a football team from Recife, Pernambuco.

Contents

History

1905 - Foundation

1905 - First Match

1916 - First state title

1950 - FIFA World Cup

1987 - National title

2006 - Return to the first division

Rivals

Most Important Titles

Most Important Runners Up

Current Squad 2007

Famous players

Famous Supporters

Stadium

Firms

Trivia

External links

History

1905 - Foundation

On May 13, Sport Club do Recife was founded by Guilherme de Aquino Fonseca after a meeting between the 23 founders at Associação dos Empregados do Comércio (In English "Commerce Employees Association") of Pernambuco, who loaned their great hall to the newly-formed club.

1905 - First Match

The first Sport Recife match was in 1905, against a team called English Eleven. The match ended in a draw. Torquatro Gonçalves scored a goal for Sport. Sport Recife players were L. F. Lathan; L. Parrot and E. Nosworthy; A. G. Silva, Colander and Ramiro; Guilherme Fonseca, Coimbra, Alberto Amorim, J. Gonçalves and Torquatro Gonçalves.

1916 - First state title

Sport competes for the first time in the State Championship, the ''Campeonato Pernambucano'', and wins. In the final match on December 16, Sport defeated Santa Cruz by the score of 4-1 (Mota 2, Asdrúbal and Vasconcelos). The champion squad was Cavalcanti, Briant and Paulino; Town, Robson and Smerthurst; Asdrúbal, Mota, Anagam, Vasconcelos and Smith.

1950 - FIFA World Cup

(Chile 5-2 United States) was played in the Ilha do Retiro Stadium during the 1950 FIFA World Cup. It was the only World Cup game played in Pernambuco.

1987 - National title

Sport's major title was the CBF Brazilian Championship of 1987. The victory did not come without controversy. Annoyed by the inconsistency of the Brazilian Football Confederation, the thirteen clubs with the largest fan bases in Brazil formed a group, known as the Clube dos 13, to organize a parallel championship, the Copa União, free from CBF authority (a move not unlike the creation of club-administered football leagues all over Europe). Since the official championship would have been a fiasco without the most popular teams in the country, the CBF decided the winner and runner-up of the Copa União (also known as Green Module) should face the winner and runner-up of the Yellow Module in order to decide the Brazilian champion -- a move which was not approved by the Clube dos 13.
Consequently, Flamengo and Internacional, winners and runner-ups of the Copa União, refused to face Sport and Guarani , which had shared the Yellow Module title after deciding to interrupt penalty shoot-out. Since Flamengo and Internacional did not show up, the CBF championship finals consisted only of a rematch of the Yellow Module finals. In the first game, in Campinas, both teams tied 1-1. On February 7, 1988, Sport beat Guarani 1-0 and became the first Northeastern team to win the national title (a feat only matched by Bahia in the 1988 championship).
Clube dos 13 and CND (Conselho Nacional de Desportos - "''Sports National Council''") supported Flamengo and Internacional in their claim and declared Flamengo as the 1987 Brazilian Champions. Ultimately, however, CBF declared Sport to be the national champions, and the club, along with Guarani, represented Brazil in the 1988 Copa Libertadores de América.

2006 - Return to the first division

Following the State championship title, Sport were promoted to the first division (Série A) in 2007 after having ranked second in the 2006 Série B with an 18-10-10 record (the same as Náutico, but Sport had a better goal difference, of +21 against the rivals' +16).

Rivals

Sport's greatest rivals are from the same city: Náutico and Santa Cruz. Náutico is the oldest club in Recife, Sport the second oldest -- thus a game between the two is called "O Clássico dos Clássicos" (the Classic of "Classics" -- "clássico" being the Portuguese word for a game between two teams from the same city). Sport and Santa Cruz have the two biggest fan-bases in Pernambuco, so a game between the two is called "O Clássico das Multidões" (the Classic of the Multitudes).
Sport Recife's first match against Náutico was in 1909, with 4,000 people in attendance.

Most Important Titles

★ Campeonato Brasileiro Série A - 1987

★ Campeonato Brasileiro Série B - 1990

★ Copa/Campeonato do Norte - 1959, 1961 e 1962

★ Copa/Campeonato do Nordeste - 1968, 1970, 1994 e 2000

★ Copa Norte-Nordeste - 1962 e 1968

★ '36' State Championships (Campeonato Pernambucano) - 1916, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1928, 1938, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1948, 1949, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007

Most Important Runners Up

★ Copa do Brasil - 1989

★ Copa dos Campeões - 2000

★ Campeonato Brasileiro Série B - 2006

Current Squad 2007

Famous players

★ Ademir

★ Djalma

★ Juninho Pernambucano

★ Manga

★ Marcilio de Aguiar

★ Traçaia

★ Vavá

★ Zé Maria

★ Dario

Famous Supporters

★ Jarbas Vasconcelos, famous Brazilian politician

★ Ariano Suassuna, one of the Brazilian greatest writers

★ João Paulo, brazilian politician

Stadium

Main articles: Estádio Ilha do Retiro

Sport Recife's stadium is Estádio Ilha do Retiro, inaugurated in 1937, with a maximum capacity of 35,000 people.

Firms

Sport has several "torcidas organizadas" (Firms). They usually have a drum section and wave large flags during the game (and especially after goals).
The largest and most famous is the yellow-clad Torcida Jovem (Young Fans), which occupies a large part of the stands behind the northern goal in the Ilha do Retiro. The Jovem is a loud, boisterous group that almost always has a new (and obscene) chant prepared for every derby. At the beginning of each match, the Torcida Jovem lifts an enormous banner that stretches across the "Geral" (Seats placed behind the goal) section of the stands from side to side and top to bottom. The Torcida Jovem is very controversial -- they are blamed for all manner of problems on matchdays, from vandalism to armed robbery. The truth of the allegations is difficult to ascertain, and it should be noted that most large torcidas organizadas in Brazil suffer similar reputations.
Treme Terra (Earthshaker) is a small group that plays frevo during matches. During home games Treme Terra is in the member's section, to the right of the Torcida Jovem. Treme Terra gave rise to one of Sport's most famous individual fans, Dona Maria José. Dona Maria has, as of 2007, dressed in only red and black for thirty years. During games, she dances frevo in front of Treme Terra's band. She is immensely popular and before and after every game she is inundated with requests for photos. She said, famously, "I can say that today I live only for Sport. If Sport were to come to an end, I would die together with it."
A Gang da Ilha (the Island Gang) might be the second-most famous (after the Torcida Jovem) of the groups. The Gang and its drum section are found to the left of the Torcida Jovem, opposite Treme Terra.
O Bafo do Leão (The Lion's Roar) occupies the stands at midfield, to the left of the Gang da Ilha. Like the Gang and the Torcida Jovem, O Bafo has a large drum section.
Os Leões da Ilha (The Island Lions) takes the far end of the field, to the left of O Bafo, and nearest to the visiting support.
There is one more organized group that, like the others mentioned, is represented in parties and parades, and sells t-shirts, but does not seem to have a drum section or a large presence at the games. That is the Máfia Rubro-Negro (The Red and Black Mafia). When they wave flags at games, they are between the Gang da Ilha and the Bafo do Leão, but they do not appear at every game.
These groups are neither completely official nor unofficial -- they have supply rooms in the stadium itself, but were formed independently by supporters.

Trivia

★ The colors of Sport Recife, black and red, represents the fighting spirit and the determination of the club's supporters.

★ Sport Recife's mascot is a lion which represents the royalty of the club in the Northeast Region sportive scenery.

★ 'Sport' is not a word in Portuguese and the club are so named as they were founded by a Brazilian, Guilherme de Aquino, who had studied in England.

External links

★ Official

★ meuSport.com

★ SportNet