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| A Kaka led circus has hit town [AFP] |
Generations of Brazilian players have made football look easy. But the side currently in Qatar is posing a complicated question.
Why is a South American team preparing for an African World Cup about to play a European side in the Middle East?
Well Brazil versus England in Doha is not as strange a prospect as you might think. Brazil is the brand that travels.
Money talks
When Brazil agreed to play England in the opening match at their new Wembley stadium in 2007, they did so on the understanding that England would then play them in a return game.
A huge television offer from Qatar worth in excess of $6 million meant the venue for that match would not be Rio, but Doha.
It is far from an isolated example.
10 of their last 11 friendlies have been played outside of Brazil. It is part of what Kentaro, the Swiss based company that represents them, calls the 'Brazil World Tour.'
Their next stop is another lucrative fixture in Oman. A match that makes little footballing but a lot of financial sense.
"There are very few players who can now kiss their shirt and claim they are playing with true passion," says Brazilian journalist Edgar Alencar.
"It is all about finance. A match against England is at least good for the team, but in Oman it will just be about putting on a show and scoring lots of goals. It is not a serious game."
Backing the bid
By contrast the English Football Association will only take home around 10 per cent of the figure that Brazil collect.
The deal they did to bring Brazil to Wembley means they have to be here, but the match is at least a timely chance for the players to face quality opposition ahead of a rapidly approaching World Cup.
And England's other team of Knights, Lords and one or two former players will be just as busy.
The game is a perfect chance for England's 2018 World Cup bid team to ingratiate themselves with members of the Asian Football Confederation.
Their votes will be crucial in deciding the destination of that tournament.
Meanwhile Qatar has its sights set on trying to win the rights to host the 2022 World Cup.
There could hardly be a better global opportunity to advertise that effort, and judging by the hoardings that have gone up all over Doha, it is not one they are about to miss.
For the players, next years World Cup really will be all about the football, and an effort to excel on the game's greatest stage. But the business that surrounds them and their sport has long since lost that purity of purpose.
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