Peladão

File:Peladao Brazil.jpg

A scene from Peladão - Football Teams and Beauty Queens

Peladão is an amateur soccer tournament with over 1000 participating teams that is celebrated between August and December every year. It has been held in Manaus, Brazil every year since 1973.

Events

Peladão differs from other tournaments in that the event is equal part soccer tournament and beauty pageant. Each team is assigned a beauty queen to participate in the pageant. If the football team is eliminated in the competition it can be brought back if the beauty queen is successful in the beauty contest. The idea for the event comes from local newspaper A Crítica and local commentator Arnaldo Santos. The goal of the event is to teach virtues to the community through soccer. One special rule of the event is that for every red card earned by a team, the members of that team must donate soccer balls to poor children of the community.

History

In 2006, a women's bracket was created, marking the first time women have participated as players in the tournament. A German documentary of the same name is scheduled for worldwide release in October, 2006. The title is "Peladão - Soccer Teams and Beauty Queens". It was made by Lunacy Film Ltd. The Peladão Tournament was also featured in the "Celso" episode of Ginga, a documentary about the style of football in Brazil produced by Nike's Joga Bonito. It was also briefly featured in Discovery Atlas: Brazil.

External links

• Peladão - Soccer Teams and Beauty Queens
• Peladão. Die Schöne und das Spiel In: Null Acht
• Peladão on the Internet Movie Database
• Goooool! A soccer tournament in Brazil's Amazon is a win for a community and a business
• Watch Peladão online on 3min.de (german version)