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<DIV class=pagetitle><DIV class=pagedate>Sep. 2, 2006 </DIV><H1>Corinthians low in spirit</H1></DIV><DIV class=bylinebox style="MARGIN-TOP: 8px"><DIV class=bylinetext>Andrew Downie</DIV><DIV style="FLOAT: left"></DIV></DIV><BR clear=all><DIV class=text11 style="BACKGROUND: rgb(255,255,255) 0% 50%; moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial"><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - When British investment firm Media Sports Investments (MSI) moved to buy Corinthians at the end of 2004, the club was in the middle of a typically Brazilian crisis. <DIV class=phinline>
<DIV style="WIDTH: 205px"><DIV class=photocred2>TonyMarshall/Empics</DIV><DIV class=photosubtext>Leao: Backed against MSI and alienated the club's best players.</DIV></DIV></DIV>
Like many of their rivals, Corinthians were bankrupt, stifled by debt and in constant danger of losing their decent players to Europe and Asia. They had gone five years without winning the Brazilian League Championship and didn't look like they would win it again any time soon. Within months of taking over, MSI had paid unheard of sums for a Brazilian football team in signing big name players from Europe and South America. They spent £4.5m to bring Champions League Winner Carlos Alberto back from Porto, £8.5m to sign Javier Mascherno from River Plate and shelled out a South American record fee of £12m to steal Argentine Carlos Tevez from under the noses of top Spanish, Italian and German sides. Less than a year later, Corinthians were crowned league champions. Today, those glory days seem a world away. The club has been split apart by infantile pettiness of their directors, the arrogant pettiness of their new manager and the stupid pettiness of their fans. Corinthians lie third bottom of the league, with just 23 points from 21 games. Their two best players, Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, opted to leave the club not for the glamour of Chelsea or Real Madrid, but for West Ham United. Amazingly enough, it could still get worse for Corinthians. Not only are they in real danger of going down, the turbulence could mark the beginning of the end to MSI's partnership with the club. No one could blame MSI boss Kia Joorabchian if he cut his losses and headed back to London. The Iranian-born Brit made a valiant effort to professionalise the club and has been vilified for it by sections of the fans, and more importantly, by the faction led by Corinthians' long-standing president Alberto Dualib. Dualib is a Corintiano through and through and his credentials as a fan are not in doubt. But his behaviour in the pathetic feud with Joorabchian, whom he has undermined at every opportunity, has helped tear the club apart. Never was that more evident than in the club's recent hiring of Leao as manager. With Joorabchian in London following the death of his father, Dualib hired Leao, the authoritarian former Brazil coach. Leao made it clear during his first few days in the job that his loyalties were with Dualib, not MSI or Joorabchian, comments that only served to inflame the rift between the two factions. Leao then made matters worse by immediately questioning the Argentine contingent and stripping Tevez of the captaincy. Adding insult to injury, he said the former Boca Juniors star couldn't lead the team because none of the Brazilian players could understand him. While it is true that Tevez made little attempts to learn Portuguese, his commitment to the club was not in doubt, as 20 goals in 29 league games and the Brazilian Player of the Year award showed. Handled the right way he would have been a vital part of the squad fighting to avoid
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - When British investment firm Media Sports Investments (MSI) moved to buy Corinthians at the end of 2004, the club was in the middle of a typically Brazilian crisis. <DIV class=phinline>
<DIV style="WIDTH: 205px"><DIV class=photocred2>TonyMarshall/Empics</DIV><DIV class=photosubtext>Leao: Backed against MSI and alienated the club's best players.</DIV></DIV></DIV>
Like many of their rivals, Corinthians were bankrupt, stifled by debt and in constant danger of losing their decent players to Europe and Asia. They had gone five years without winning the Brazilian League Championship and didn't look like they would win it again any time soon. Within months of taking over, MSI had paid unheard of sums for a Brazilian football team in signing big name players from Europe and South America. They spent £4.5m to bring Champions League Winner Carlos Alberto back from Porto, £8.5m to sign Javier Mascherno from River Plate and shelled out a South American record fee of £12m to steal Argentine Carlos Tevez from under the noses of top Spanish, Italian and German sides. Less than a year later, Corinthians were crowned league champions. Today, those glory days seem a world away. The club has been split apart by infantile pettiness of their directors, the arrogant pettiness of their new manager and the stupid pettiness of their fans. Corinthians lie third bottom of the league, with just 23 points from 21 games. Their two best players, Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, opted to leave the club not for the glamour of Chelsea or Real Madrid, but for West Ham United. Amazingly enough, it could still get worse for Corinthians. Not only are they in real danger of going down, the turbulence could mark the beginning of the end to MSI's partnership with the club. No one could blame MSI boss Kia Joorabchian if he cut his losses and headed back to London. The Iranian-born Brit made a valiant effort to professionalise the club and has been vilified for it by sections of the fans, and more importantly, by the faction led by Corinthians' long-standing president Alberto Dualib. Dualib is a Corintiano through and through and his credentials as a fan are not in doubt. But his behaviour in the pathetic feud with Joorabchian, whom he has undermined at every opportunity, has helped tear the club apart. Never was that more evident than in the club's recent hiring of Leao as manager. With Joorabchian in London following the death of his father, Dualib hired Leao, the authoritarian former Brazil coach. Leao made it clear during his first few days in the job that his loyalties were with Dualib, not MSI or Joorabchian, comments that only served to inflame the rift between the two factions. Leao then made matters worse by immediately questioning the Argentine contingent and stripping Tevez of the captaincy. Adding insult to injury, he said the former Boca Juniors star couldn't lead the team because none of the Brazilian players could understand him. While it is true that Tevez made little attempts to learn Portuguese, his commitment to the club was not in doubt, as 20 goals in 29 league games and the Brazilian Player of the Year award showed. Handled the right way he would have been a vital part of the squad fighting to avoid