Peladão

Peladão is one of the world's largest amateur soccer tournaments with over 600 participating teams. It has been held in Manaus, Brazil every year since 1973. 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.

Peladão is celebrated between August to December every year.

In 2006, a women's bracket was created, marking the first time women have participated as players in the tournament.

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.

A German documentary of the same name is scheduled for worldwide release in October, 2006.

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.

Links

Peladão - Soccer Teams and Beauty Queens

Peladão on the Internet Movie Database

Goooool! A soccer tournament in Brazil's Amazon is a win for a community and a business