Fernando Brito: 'Lack of a permit doesn't start a fire'

From the Brick - The Flamengo boys didn't die horribly because of a "lack of permit." A lack of permit doesn't cause a fire to start in seconds, a lack of permit doesn't prevent boys of that age, athletes, from having a chance to escape a fire that begins, a lack of permit doesn't transform those children into what they became: merchandise stored in containers to be sold, soon, for a fortune.

Because that's what killed the talented young soccer players: being talented and the fact that Brazil had once again become an exporter of... commodities Humans, dug up everywhere and "sifted" by an association between football clubs and shady "businessmen," looking for anything that can generate profit, big profit, millions, with boys who, at seven or eight years old, are deprived of their childhood because, besides representing this possibility, they also represent the possibility, certainly the only one, of lifting their families out of poverty.

Under the complacent gaze of the media, this talent scouting operation developed. "Franchises" of "football schools" were distributed throughout the outskirts and the countryside, with little or no sporting or educational interest, but always on the lookout for a boy who "had potential." From there, they end up going to the "high-level tryouts," like the one that caught fire in the early hours of today.

Last week, while driving, I happened to hear a program on CBN where former player Zé Elias and two sports psychologists were talking about the pressure on the boys who are going to be selected. And how all that matters is the "cut" that makes three or four out of a hundred. At no point was the development of these pre-teen or teenage boys highlighted, except for what they were trying to manage, full of fear, in their relationships with money and ambition. School was not a significant element in the narratives.

Nothing against talent, especially for someone who, since childhood, even without having it in their feet, has always enjoyed well-played football. But everything is in favor of children, who cannot be treated like this. They cannot be separated from their families, from their cultural environment, from the anchors that shape their personality.

There can't be a "boarding school for soccer players".

The lack of a permit and the 30 fines issued to the "Ninho do Urubu" fire department only matter because they reveal the complicity with which major football clubs are treated, because this was never news, because nobody was interested in getting on the wrong side of a major club, just as nobody wanted to get on the wrong side of Vale.

What killed the boys, it's clear, was living inside a tiny-doored container, lined with plastic that licked like the thin paper of a Japanese balloon.

During the construction of "Ninho do Urubu" (Flamengo's training center), there was no shortage of professionals and technicians who spoke out about how unsafe it was. Even if it meant treating children like the precious commodities they were to the owners of the sport.

If they are precious, they couldn't be piled up carelessly.

Without the love and care that every child deserves.