Football
There are two major football teams in Florianopolis, both of which play in the Santa Catarina state championship and also in the Brasilerão, the Brazilian national championship. If you are spending some time in Floripa and want to see some Brazilian football, it is worth checking out if one of the teams are playing.
Avaí are the team from the island and play their home matches in the Estadio Adolfo Konder, close to Hercilio Luz Airport south of the city centre. At the end of the 2008 season, Avaí won promotion to Série A along with Corinthians, for the first time in the club´s history. They will play against the likes of Flamengo, Sao Paulo and Vasco da Gama.
They swapped places with their local rivals, Figueirense, at the end of the season. The team named after the huge fig tree in Praça 15 Novembro are based on the continental part of Florianopolis and will host Série B matches in their Estádio Orlando Scarpelli. This stadium, just north of the bridges on the continent, is one of the stadia hoping to be redeveloped to sufficient size and standard in order to host matches in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
With Avaí being promoted, this has brought to an end a period of supremacy for Figueirense, who won the Santa Catarina State Championship in 2008, with Criciuma coming second ahead of Avaí. As well as 5 state championships this decade, the Figueira also came to national attention when reaching the 2007 Copa do Brasil Final, where they lost 1-0 to Fluminense of Rio.
Despite being in different divisions for most of the year, the Classico Catarinense still takes place in the state championship at the start of the year. It may be a smaller clash than the classicos of Rio, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre or Belo Horizonte but the derby match incites passions in both sets of followers and the clashes can be quite spicy. If you want to watch a match in either stadium, it is worth checking the fixtures first for both teams in advance. If you do find yourself at the classico by chance, Avaí play in blue and white stripes, while Figueirense are in black and white. Make sure to torcer for the team amongst whose torcedores you are sitting.
Apart from this match, entrance should be easy for most games on Sunday afternoons or midweek. Against the big teams such as Gremio and Internacional of Porto Alegre; Sao Paulo, Palmeiras and Corinthians of Sao Paulo; and Vasco da Gama, Botafogo and Fluminense of Rio de Janeiro, enough supporters of those teams may be in Florianopolis to swell the crowd. Flamengo, similar to Manchester United in England and Juventus in Italy, have supporters from all over Brazil as well as from Rio. Their matches all over the country have a habit of selling out in advance, so get your tickets early if you want to see Mengo play in Floripa.
Professional football in Brazil is a more passionate, lively affair than in Europe, and Florianopolis is a good place to experience the atmosphere for yourself. It is relatively cheap as well if you don´t mind standing on the concrete terraces rather than sitting in the posh seats. You may need to take a little care in and around the stadiums but it should not detract from the enjoyment of being part of a jumping crowd watching good quality football amongst the flares and the smoke.
