The Shocking Downfall of Santos FC

these are strange times for Brazilian football the national team hasn't won the World Cup in over 20 years has only reached one semi-final over the last five tournaments and there they were dealt their greatest ever humiliation a 7-1 defeat against Germany on home soil of the 2022 World Cup Brazil suffered a second successive quarterfinal exit this time losing on penalties against Croatia a country with less than a third of sa Paulo's population and since then things have only gone from bad to worse one draw and three defeats from their last four matches against Venezuela Uruguay Colombia and Argentina has put even Brazil's 2026 World Cup qualification hopes at risk Brazil is the only country never to have missed a FIFA World Cup and if they fail to qualify for the first time following a massive tournament expansion to 48 teams in which either six or seven of combo Ball's 10 Nations will be represented it will be one of the greatest shocks and under achievements in the history of football in the club game two strange things are happening in Brazil but a Fogo threw away a 13-point lead at the top of the campionato brazero Seria this season which is the largest points Gap that a team has ever squandered in the entire history of Brazil's Top Flight having lost just two of their first 21 League games this season giving them a seemingly unassailable lead at the top of the table BOGO proceeded to win just two of their remaining 15 matches and none of their last 11 allowing palas Aro back in to retain their Crown BOGO actually ended up finishing fifth outside of even the copper libertador group stage qualification places but of Fogo don't accept that their collapse was entirely of their own making their owner John tter who also owns relegation threatened leyon Molen bake and more shares in Crystal Palace than any other individual once the results of six of bogo's matches to be either annuled or replayed due to suspicions of match fixing it took less than 24 hours for Brazil's superior court of sports Justice to dismiss texter's claims so he's now taking the case to Brazil's common courts elsewhere flumin under the guidance of Brazil boss Fernando Denise just when their first ever copper limited ores beating bcka juniors in the final despite only finishing seventh in the brazilan sa Paulo and Corinthians finished in the bottom half of the table below a Red Bull franchise that only joined the league in 2020 and cruo and Vasco de only narrowly avoided getting relegated for the second time in only a few years amidst all of this chaos though one story has taken all of the headlines Santos eight time brazero and three time Liberto ores winners the club of Caldo coutinho Neymar and most notably of all Brazil's most famous Sun pet and one of the most historically significant clubs in all of world football have suffered a first ever relegation in their 1111e history Santos fans responded to the club's Maiden relegation by storming the pitch setting fire to various Vehicles outside of the ground and asking a series of questions questions like how could this happen what's next and perhaps most importantly of all when is hitc kev's going to make a video about this the answer to that last question is right now and we will see if we can't take a stab at the first two well we're at it so sit back relax and join me on a journey to the sunny Seaside city of Santos located in the state of sa Paulo as we take a look at how Santos FC who once had indisputably the best team in all of world football and had never been relegated have gone from reaching the final of the copper limited ores to suffering a first ever relegation in the space of just 3 years for viewers outside of South America which statistically is likely to be over 90% of you it might be easy to visualize Santos as being just one of several Brazilian super clubs along with the likes of sa Paulo Flamingo and palas and in some ways they are whereas in England we have at times had a group of clubs known collectively as the top four the big six and now the rich seven in Portugal and the Netherlands there is a very clearly defined big three Syria has also historically had a three team elite Spain primarily just a big two and France and Germany increasingly now just a big one Brazilian football has a big 12 or the g12 as they are known in Brazil made up of four teams from the state of sa Paulo four from Rio and two from each of bellow Horizon and Porto Al gr when the term was first C point there was a belief that heading into a season any of those 12 teams could win the campionato brazero title and that's pretty much how things have panned out between them the Big 12 of were all but six brazero titles and only one team outside of g12 namely Bayer has won more than one title since the 1980s the Big 12 have won all but one brazero title with Athletico paren responsible for the sole upset in 2001 members of the g12 meanwhile have all finished in the division's top two places on at least six occasions Santos have achieved that feat a grand total of 16 times which is more than any other club and only Palmeras who have won four championships since 2016 alone have won the title more times than them those stats are made all the more remarkable when one considers that one of these things is not like the others Santos might have a record in Trophy cabinet that can rival any of Brazil's Big 12 but in so many ways they are radically different for a start they are the only one of Brazil's Big 12 that isn't based in the state capital gemio and international are based in Porto Allegre the state capital of Rio gr dul Atletico mono and cruso are both from Bell Horizon the capital of minus Shai fluminense Flamingo BOGO and Vasco are all based in Rio de Janeiro state capital of the same name and Santos's State rivals sa pawo Corinthians and Palmeras likewise in the case of sa Paulo Santos meanwhile are not a big City Club located about a 1 or 2hour drive from sou Paulo depending upon the traffic Santos is a coastal municipality that ranks 56th in a list of Brazil's largest cities home to a little over 400,000 people Santos isn't a village like hoffenheim in the Bundesliga but in a nation of over 200 million people they ought to have no right to have outmuscle clubs from Rio which is home to over 6 million people or sa Paulo which is one of the largest cities in the world with more than 12 million inhabitants there are cities larger than Santos in Brazil which don't even have clubs in the Nationwide League pyramid Santos emerged as a superpower having only previously won one state championship during the mid1 1950s to call the Santos team that during this period a golden generation wouldn't quite do it justice Santos went from not having a single player in the Brazil squad at the 1954 World Cup to three in 1958 when Brazil won their first ever World Cup and seven by 1962 when they successfully defended their Crown Santos didn't just have more players in the Brazil squad than anyone else though they also had the nation Stars Zito one of the best midfielders in the world joined Santa in 1952 prolific WID man Pepe graduated from the club Z own youth ranks and into their first team in 1954 Maro Ramos arrived from sou Paulo in 1960 and in 1961 he was joined by Brazil's number one gilmar by the time that a 15-year-old Pelle made his debut in September 1955 Santos were already on route to winning the campionato palasa sa Paulo state championship but over the next eight years Brazil's Boy Wonder soon to be joined by the likes of mangalo and coutinho would turn Santos from arguably the best team in sa Paulo to undoubtedly the best team in the entire world Santos won the state championship 11 times between 1955 and 1969 they won back-to-back coper limited ores crowns in 1962 and 1963 and they followed that up by beating Europe's best the European Cup winners Benfica and AC Milan backto back as well Pelle Santos didn't just beat the European Champions Benfica who had just beat the great Real Madrid team of hento push gash and his stepan 53 in the European Cup Final they battered them 84 on aggregate AC Milan would provide a Stern ATT test requiring a replay but even without P Santos still emerged Victorious by this stage Santos had grown tired of domestic dominance particularly once they discovered how much more lucrative it was to tore the team and play games elsewhere where as a result Santos became the world's first Globe trotting team traveling to six of the world's seven continents to play exhibition games and they would happily have made it seven if anyone in Antarctica had offered to pay them enough Santos didn't even participate in the 1966 1967 and 1969 copper libert to ores yet there were occasions during that time in which eight of Brazil's starting 11 played for them Santos's Brilliance and the national team sheer dependence upon them was so great that some supporters and even Santos players would and in some cases still debate which was the stronger team this was an ERA like no other not just for Santos but arguably in the history of world football inevitably it had to come to an end though Santos made a fortune traveling the world they rapidly squandered it on ill fated projects and soon found themselves heavily in debt Santos ought to have entered the 19 70s as the richest Club in Brazil but instead they were financially crippled and the season after P departed and retired for the first time in 1974 Santos fell from third to 26th in the brazero since losing Pelle and the rest of their golden generation Santos have struggled to relive some of their former glories aside from the mismanagement the realities of being a Small Town Club relatively speaking when compared to their peers has hit home throughout all of their trials tribulations and financial troubles though there is one thing that has kept Santos relevant and able to consistently punch above their weight and that is their youth Department simply put the Santos Academy throughout the entire span of its existence ranks as one of the best in the world even after the club's golden generation it was Peter and Howry Santos's own Academy graduates and future Brazilian Internationals who led them to their first postp campionato poista in 1978 in the early to mid 2000s it was Academy graduates and further future Brazil stars like Alex Diego Alano and Rabino who led Santos to two campionato brazero titles in only three seasons and so far Santos's only campionato brazero Titles since P retired in 2002 and 2004 and in 2011 another round of homegrown Superstars including Raphael cabal G so Felipe Anderson and most notably of course Neymar inspired Santos to their first copper limited ores Crown since 1963 these young players were the lifeblood of Santos as had always been the case but for a long time they masked over a lot of other underlying issues in 2019 for example under Jorge Sali Academy graduates Lucas veriso and Gustavo Enrique formed an ironclad Center back partnership in a Santos team that conceded just 33 goals in 38 games in the brazero That season as Santos finished as Runners up behind Flamingo meanwhile the starring role that a teenage Rodrigo played throughout the previous season and at the start of that one led to A40 million euro windfall for Santos when the youngster joined Real Madrid from the outside looking in you could be forgiven for thinking that this was Santos's business model working exactly as intended in reality Santos were a mess horribly mismanaged by at least their last four presidents Santos can't compete with most of the Big 12 in terms of attendances and consequently Revenue but they were spending money as if they could so inevitably their debt began to pile up to anyone paying close attention Santos have been a ticking time bomb and however shocking their relegation this season it shouldn't be that surprising Santos might have won three state championships and a first libert to ores in almost 50 years under the presidency of Ls Alvaro to Oliva hio but signings like bringing robinho back to the club on loan from Manchester City ands surprisingly didn't come cheap by the time that Modesto Roma Jr was elected president in 2015 Santos's Financial issues were not a very well-kept secret during Roma's presidency four Santos players ARA aruka Eugenio Mena and football manager Legend Leandro demow took legal action against the club due to unpaid wages only Mena's case proved to be successful in court Arna and ARA's cases were settled before things reached that stage and amow lost his case but almost regardless of the outcome it was indicative of a clubbing crisis constantly having to put out fires while a bunch of kids kept them competitive on the pitch Roma made some efforts to reduce the financial strain on Santos but it was nowhere near enough and in 2017 in part due to the anger of losing Brazilian International Lucas lemur to palas on a free transfer having failed to resolve his contract dispute he was voted out of office and replaced by Jose Carlos Perez shortly after assuming the role Perez revealed that Roma had used the club's corporate credit card for personal expenses citing transactions at virtual stores like Amazon Netflix and the Apple store plus one of a physical La costore one of Roma's primary pitches had been an ster approach to recruitment predominantly signing players on free transfers but Perez revealed that 24 million Brazilian Royale had been spent on agents fees alone equivalent to about £4 million or $5 million somewhat undermining that approach if Perez sounds like the cleanup candidate here who was going to come in get Santos's house back in order and finally reduce the debt well don't get your hopes up yet like all of Santos's recent president Perez promised a lot and delivered almost nothing rather than just spending money that they didn't have on agents fees under Perez Santos returned to also spending money that they didn't have on transfer fees as well roughly 15 million e was spent in paris's first year in charge meanwhile signing Gabriel Barbosa on loan from Inter Milan again unsurprisingly didn't come cheap commanding an almost €2 million euro loan fee and wages that made him just about the highest paid player in the division Perez's Financial mismanagement of Santos was so dire that in November 2020 for the first time in the history of the club a president was impeached he was replaced by his Deputy Orlando Rolo on an interim basis for the next three months an unusual decision given the close ties between the duo R's brief stint as president was noteworthy only for the controversial resigning of Rabino on a short-term contract after Rabino had been ConEd vied of gang rape by Italian courts and sentenced to 9 years in prison Brazil doesn't have an official extradition treaty with Italy meaning that robinho has so far escaped justice but no other Brazilian club would touch him with a 10-ft pole after R decided resigning Santos's prodigal son and potential additional points on the board were more important than you know not signing a convicted rapist and wanted fugitive one of Santos's main sponsors author Pride terminated their deal with the club citing Santos's lack of respect for women further pressure from supporters themselves and other sponsors eventually forced Santos into a U-turn just 6 days after signing Rabino and his contract was terminated robinho hasn't had a club since because no other club's management was willing to be either so callous or so stupid in those six days Santos caused another unwanted press storm and generated a flurry of deserved negative headlines upset a load of their own fans and didn't even get a single minute of football out of Rabino after all of that backlash and they lost one of their key sponsors well in the midst of a debt crisis it was like a week-long microcosm of how the club has been run for what feels like an awfully long period of time just over a year ago incidentally Perez and r two former Santos club presidents were expelled from even being Santos members after a motion to remove them past with 102 votes in favor 11 votes against and 17 abstentions Mario bores a lawyer who worked under R was expelled alongside them financial mismanagement and accounting irregularities were cited as the justification for their banishment from the club during their combined total of just two years in charge of Santos it was reported that they had leveraged the club's debt by more than 500 million Brazilian Royale equivalent to 80 million or about $100 million a month before the vote rol was arrested in Santos by the special Action Group for the repression of organized crime as part of an operation into organized crime and specifically drug trafficking and crimes against public administration R seemingly wanted Bandits on the pitch and in the president suite as well as you can see then Santos have consistently elected their very brightest and best at the highest office at the club over over recent years or decades and that is before we even get into the latest incumbent Andres Rueda who any consider to be the worst of the lot for all of hio Rodriguez Roma Perez and rollo's misdeeds ranging from the economically alliterate to the outright criminal Santos remain competitive throughout their Reigns in fact in the 2020 season which was the season in which Perez was impeached and R spent three disastrous months as president Santos reached the final of the cup limited ores South America's equivalent of the UEFA Champions League for only the fifth time in the history of the club it was a remarkable run in which Santos repeatedly defied all the odds going unbeaten throughout the group stage overcoming LD Kito in the round of 16 gemio in the quarterfinals and bcka juniors in the semi-finals the final played at the marican r was played in front of a crowd of only 5,000 people due to covid-19 and pitted sansos against Palmeras in the ninth minute of injury time after more than 100 minutes of football have been played Palmeras forward brino scored the only goal of the game titanized Santos of an almost unimaginable Triumph given the off field events that were enduring at the time Rua was elected as president and you might be starting to notice something of a theme emerging at this stage on a mandate of reducing Santos's debt and getting the club's finances back in order there will be no spoilers at this stage so you can all just take a wild stab in the dark as to whether he made good on that promise like all good Santos presidents and by good of course I mean absolutely useless and occasionally malfeasant Rueda started out by making positive noises and did make some genuine attempts to cut Santos's expenditure but as soon as the club's form and results began to waver and pressure mounted on his position he turned the Taps back on for much of the 2021 season season Santos looked to be in serious danger of relegation for the first time in decades six wins from their opening 27 games left Santos inside of the relegation Zone but once again it was the club's young players who came to the Rescue Academy graduates Gabrielle Pani Joel Paulo and most notably teenage Superstars Angelo Kai Kai and CAO were key to Santos's stunning turnaround and six wins and only two defeats from their final 11 matches Saw s climb all the way up into 10th once again though the metaphor of papering over cracks feels appropriate the summer before last Santos lost Kai Kai to La Liga side Al Maria meanwhile Wonder Kids David Washington and Angelo left to join Chelsea at the beginning of this season Santos aren't unique in being forced to sell their best young players to more affluent clubs typically in Europe that is the reality for every team in the brazero and it is vital to their business model for most but Santos are more reliant on it than almost anyone else Santos isn't a huge City Santos aren't a huge Club in terms of their support and they certainly don't have a huge Stadium the estadio abano Caldera better known as Villa Bel Mero has been Santos's home since 1916 and it holds just 16,680 of 27,9 64 this season in which every other Big 12 team has has averaged over 26,000 fans at their home games Santos only averaged 11,800 the fourth lowest figure in the division the brazero doesn't have broadcast deals worth billions of dollars so Match Day revenue is hugely significant and Santos in short don't generate much this isn't a new problem Santos haven't averaged over 12,500 fans at their home games over the course of a brazero season this Millennia and it's often joked in Brazil that Santos is a club supported solely by old people when almost half of their big 12 Rivals have stadiums which can hold in excess of 60,000 fans Santos's in action when it comes to modernizing Villa Balo or replacing it has caused them to stagnate and combined with poor results their attendance is to dwindle at the start of the Year Santos played a home game in the campionato Pista against Ferro viia and the estadio Doan about an hour and a half away in sa Paulo as part of a partnership with the grounds tenants portuga Santos said that the game made them a profit of over 200,000 Brazilian Royale or $40,000 but they've yet to return to the estadio the can since then Santos announced plans to build a new modern 30,000 seater stadium in 2022 predicting that it would cost 250 million Brazilian Royale as with everything at Santos though costs have already spiraled Rising costs of building materials combined with Rising interest rates has seen the estimated cost already increased to 400 million Brazilian rale it's not enormously surprising that the project is an expensive one Santos's current TI old ground sits on a small plot of land surrounded by buildings on all sides the architect lisis volat and his team have therefore had to create an Innovative design with steep stands raised up above the ground to pack all 30,000 seats in and a carbon fiber exteria the pitch itself which will be tight and compact will lie on the fourth floor of the building with commercial spaces and team facilities below it like a lot of new football stadiums in Brazil the Stadium's financing will also be Innovative the W Torah group who also built Palm's Stadium which opened in 2014 will take on the entire build project in cost and will own the stadium for the next 30 Years at which point it will be handed over to Santos it means that Santos don't have to cough at money they don't have to build a stadium themselves which they will one day own but it's also likely to mean fairly expensive rents for the next three decades once work begins on the new ground it is expected to take between 24 to 30 months to complete though that work hasn't begun yet previously Santos had explored the possibility of building a 40,000 CA stadium in kabato a different city known for its heavy industry and high pollution 12 km away with the team splitting their game 703 between their new and old grounds retaining their Roots but increasing their profits that seemed like the perfect solution for Santos given that it is incredibly stupid like most of the things that they do but this time around they decided to go in a different direction how if at all Santos's relegation might impact their stadium plans it's not yet entirely clear one thing that is clear is that Santos have to move on from Villa Balo and should have done long ago Villa Belo held P's funeral in January 2023 and it ought to have been retired along with Santos's greatest native lots of Brazilian clubs are Meed in debt what makes Santos so unique or unusual among the Big 12 is their low Revenue consequently player sales have formed the back of the club's Revenue generation for a very long time over the last 10 years Santos have raised more money in player sales and have the highest profits on player trades of any team in Brazil in total pich have raised over 300 million EUR in sales and they have only reinvested 84 million EUR of that on new arrivals as Santos's broader Financial predicaments has worsened though their ability to keep hold of players and to get maximum value for them has has been greatly diminished Neymar spent 4 and a half years in the Santos team before departing for Barcelona and was already Brazil's Starman by that stage Rodrigo by contrast spent barely 18 months in the Santos first team before he was snapped up by Brazil and he was yet to even make his senior International debut part of that is a broader macroeconomic Trend in football that isn't exclusive to Santos but part of it is Santos having to sell now as soon soon as possible in an effort to raise revenue Angelo and David Washington who both joined Chelsea at the age of only 18 over the summer were considered to of Brazil's brightest prospects Santos fans quite reasonably I think feel as though the 31 million EUR that they received for the pair of them ought to have been more akin to what they were each worth on their own on the bright side for Santos fans they have joined Chelsea which means that they're destined to be terrible it's not just young players that s have lost and lost very quickly often for below market value though in recent years the sheer level of squad turnover and churn has been staggering last season alone Santos signed 21 new first team players in their starting 11 on the final day of the season for a two1 defeat against Fort Elis which ultimately saw them relegated eight of their starting 11 were new signings all too often Santos has sold gems and replaced them with overpaid drops salvaged only by a couple more gems emerging each and every season as soon as that conveyor belt of talent from their Academy slowed down though Santos were always going to be in trouble and that appears to be exactly what has happened one of the few areas where Santos or not to have cut costs is their youth department but that is exactly what they've done an academy that was the Envy of the Brazilian game for so long and which inaugurated a new training complex in 2005 has been allowed to stagnate and has been leap frogged by more modern Innovative and better funded Academy systems at other clubs Santos are still producing players there are just fewer of them and fewer Superstars capable of bailing them out before they're old enough to drink Santos's turnover of managers has if anything been even more extreme than the routine overhauling of their squad in the 2021 season for example Santos had three different permanent managers along with a caretaker manager for a couple of weeks as well in that season alone Santos went from appointing Ariel Anan to Fernando Denise followed by Fabio K that might not mean much to most of you watching this but Olan is a detail obsessed tactician who demands high energy obsesses over data and looks to play football on the front foot Denise now manages fluminense and Brazil and is synonymous with a style of play known as relationism which relies heavily on the relationships and understanding between players a affording them lots of freedom in direct contrast to more positional and disciplined approaches and Kel is a defensive specialist renowned for tightening up leaky back lines and steadying ships it would be like a Premier League club appointing gry and Potter replacing him with well I suppose Fernando Denise I'm not sure there is any direct European counterpart and then when things aren't going quite as planned axing him and bringing Sam allise or Tony pus it speaks to a club with no leadership no coherent vision and no long-term strategy this season Once Again Santos had five different managers in fact just since 2020 Santos have had 17 different managers including caretaker appointments sometimes the importance of stability can be overstated in football but that degree of instability is invariably a recipe for disaster and so it has proved it's important to know note that though this is Santos's first relegation in the 100 and 11year history of the club they're not the first Big 12 team to Dropout of the Top Flight in actual fact all but two of Brazil's g12 clubs have now suffered at least one relegation the financial disparities among Brazil's traditional super clubs and everyone else are nowhere near as Extreme as they are in most of Europe's major leagues which means that most are only ever one or two Bad seasons away from relegation combine that with a fact that it is a big 12 rather than a big three or even a rich seven in a 20 team Top Flight and Chaos frequently in shoes Brazilian football is also in the midst of an identity crisis Brazilian clubs have long been structured as member owned organizations where supporters pay an annual membership fee and elect a president to manage the club's Affairs the economic inbalance in World football has become so extreme though and the financial difficulties at Brazilian clubs so common that many are now open to the idea of external investment in 2022 Brazil's Top Flight passed new laws around ownership and external funding in a move that some described as an attempt to replicate the success of the Premier League at the start of the 1990s BOGO as mentioned in the introduction and now owned by American investor John texter via his multiclub ownership conglomerate Eagle football Holdings Limited Vasco de GMA are majority owned by another American private investment firm 7 s Partners who also own Gena standardly age red star Paris her to Berlin minority stakes in Melbourne Victory FC and Sevilla and they currently trying to acquire Everton and cruo were bought out by Brazilian Legend Ronaldo who began his career there after he paid $70 million for the club during their financial crisis in 2021 that's just among the Big 12 but the more significant shift one could argue has been the external investments in less established clubs which has made them more competitive and has helped destabilize Brazil's established Elite Red Bull bragantino for example formerly Club Atletico bragantino had never played topf flight football before becoming part of an energy drink franchise in 2020 but this season they finished sixth above the likes of fluid International and sa Paulo qualifying for the copper libertadores in the process CBA who were relegated this season are owned by Brazilian private Equity Firm tree Corp and Bahia whose impressive 4-1 Victory against Atletico mono on the final day of the Season actually saw Santos relegated are owned by the city football group the largest multiclub ownership group in World football as a result over the last 10 years gemio Vasco de G BOGO cruso International and now Santos so half of Brazil's g12 clubs have have all been relegated BOGO have been relegated twice now and Vasco de GMA three times palmeres meanwhile were relegated to Sera B for the first time in 2002 and again in 2012 but have bounced back in emphatic style winning the brazzo title in 2016 2018 2022 and again in 2023 for the most part Brazil's Fallen Giants have tended to bounce back even cruso who were in Real mess though it took three grueling years and now back in the Top Flight that's the positive news for Santos it can certainly be done unfortunately there are a few reasons why it might be more difficult for them than it was for Brazil's other relegated g12 clubs aside from the financial woes and the added difficulty of repaying their debts with greatly reduced Revenue now following relegation they don't have the crowds or support to give them an automatic advantage over every other other Sera B Team secondly parachute payments were recently abolished for teams relegated from the brazero meaning that there will be no soft Landing for Santos and at long last serious cost cutting measures will have to be made it's not all doom and gloom it's possible to imagine a future in which Santos modernized their Academy system making it among the finest in Brazil again move into a profitable new stadium and begin to be governed by serious people who understand football the is a Third Way in May it was reported that katar Sports Investments a wing of the katar investment Authority that also owns PSG were weighing up a takeover attempt with Neymar's dad acting as an intermediary there has also been talk of Neymar being involved in a potential investment in Santos himself not unlike Ronaldo at his Boyhood club cruso for now Santos must prepare for life in Sera B which will be a culture shot for a club who have only ever competed in the top flight Brazil's second tier is less glamorous involves arduous travel and has no respect for a club's former glories in preparation Santos just elected a new club president Marcelo Tesa who previously served as Santos president between 1991 and 1993 and again from 1999 through to 2009 and he has returned for a third stin in charge his First Act was to temporarily retire P's number 10 shirt announcing that the number would be out of use until Santos regained their top flight status former president Andres Rueda didn't turn up for the vote citing concerns for his safety instead posting an apology video on social media as he was dethroned it's easy to blame Rua for all of Santos's problems and he certainly played his part on the face of it he inherited a team that had just reached the final of the copper limited orz and in three seasons he oversaw the first relegation in the 111 11 year history of the club in reality Santos's run to the libertadores final was a freak occurrence during a time of extraordinary turmoil the year before FIFA actually put Santos under special measures and a transfer embargo due to their financial issues and it seems telling that Santos haven't won their state championship the campionato Pista since 2016 in the last four seasons Santos have finished 8th 13th 13th and 12th in the campionat easa coming close to being relegated even from their state championship in short relegation for Santos though avoidable with sound management has been a long time coming and even a victory on the final day of the season and other results going for them would likely only have delayed the inevitable 88-year-old Santos Legend Pepe wrote May the football Gods protectors on Instagram following Santos's relegation sansos fans unsurprisingly have lost fa faith in the mere mortal and pepe isn't alone in appealing to the Divine and Supernatural after the unthinkable finally happened the only Solace for Santos is that their own deity P wasn't around to see it that is it for today's video but thank you all very much as ever for watching I hope that you enjoyed it or found it interesting in some way hit the like button if that was the case let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments and of course make sure that you're subscribed and have notifications turned on for both this Channel and my second Channel Alie pots arm both of which should be about to appear on your screens now along with a couple of videos that you might enjoy watching after this one you can also find me on Twitter Instagram or threads via the username @ hc7 on all three and you should be able to find all of those links plus a lot more down in the video description below should you wish to do so cheers

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 161,300

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Santos, Downfall, Relegated, Documentary, Santos FC, What On Earth, Is Going On, Neymar, Pele, Pelé, Brazil, Brasil, Premier League, Campeonato Brasileiro, Demise, Relegation, Finance, Serie A

Id: HIFRt7AxzMg

Length: 38min 50sec (2330 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 18 2023