Also reported on MSNand a variety of other sites. It looks legit.
Yep. This particular site used to be called soccernet.com, and when I entered that as the URL (unaware that they had changed it), it redirected me to espnfc.com. It’s legit.
Brazil didn’t make it to the semifinals of either the 1982 or the 1986 World Cup (and was really in a bit of a slump in those post-Pele years–Argentina had largely supplanted them as the major South American side). Maybe you’re thinking of the 90s? Brazil returned to the forefront in 1994 when they won the World Cup for the first time since 1970, and were runners-up in 1998 (and won again in 2002).
Having several Brazilian friends myself (including a woman I dated for several years), I will say that Brazilians really do come together in an extraordinary way to support the national team during the World Cup–even Brazilians who don’t normally follow club football become devout fans when it’s the national team. My girlfriend at the time was devastated when Brazil lost in the 1998 final against France.
This particular story is strange since it involves an amateur club team in the northeast of Brazil (most of the major professional clubs play in Sao Paulo or Rio, and attract very strong partisan support–not quite the same as the nationalistic fervor that grips Brazilians during the World Cup). It’s clear that the amateur team in Maranhao has very passionate supporters of their own–those pictures are incredibly disturbing.
And people complain that NHL hockey is too violent.
To be fair, this wasn’t player on player violence.
I could have sworn it was the World Cup but I must have been mistaken, as this game would have been in 1984, not a Cup year now that you point it out. Maybe it was Olympics? Is soccer an Olympic sport? Whatever it was it was important, because Denise was all broken up about the “loss” before we told her they’d actually won.
Nah, Olde School is to be drawn before quartering…
I think this sort of thing would make me more interested in soccer. Maybe they could introduce this to the NFL?
Brazil were runners up in the 1984 Olympic football, so would have won the semi final. They were also runners up in the 1983 Copa America (the South American championship) if you’re out by a year.
We could consider bringing back the Mesoamerican Ball Game, which often ended with players being sacrificed, sometimes bydecapitation.
Is there a jpg at the article now? It wasn’t there originally, I apologize if there’s one now (I’m not going back to check). That’s certainly not a picture I’d want to see or post.
I wonder if he was the Head Referee?
If not, he is now.
I saw what you did there. 
Arthur C Clarke has a short story where two rival South American football teams are contending for a title. the referee has been threatened and his a bodyguard. After an unpopular ruling the crowd uses their silver-backed game programmes to concurrently reflect sunlight onto the referee,crowd incinerating him.
He’s just a sign of the times.
And we only YELLED “Kill the umpire”.
I always liked “Roller Ball Murder.”
Jpg is spoiled in post 3, not in your article. I didn’t look.
I think it was in George Carlin’s “7 Words” monologue where he suggested crowds shout “Fuck the ump!” Which, in this case, would have resulted in an entirely different sort of story, I guess.
At least they won’t have to worry about head count at the gates.