KOCHI: What a miss! Had the financial health of the beautiful game in Kerala been better, a Brazilian Masters team featuring Ronaldo, Romario, Zinho, Cafu and Dunga, all veterans of the 1994 World Cup winning side, would have been playing an exhibition match here next Tuesday.As fate would have it, the inability to find the means to raise around `40 crore, coupled with difference of opinion among the promoters, meant that the plan stands shelved.Documents accessed by Express show that Buenos Aires-based football consultants We Are Futbol (WAF) had made arrangements to bring the ‘Brasileira Selecao’ to play against a reputed European club at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium.Italian champions Juventus, English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur and Dutch powerhouse PSV Eindhoven were among those on the radar.The Brazilian Masters’ match was being pursued in conjunction with the London- based sports management company Indian Football Evolution (IFE) and its Bangalore-based arm Kshatriya Sports Management (KSM), with Kerala Football Association roping in the Mumbai-based Football Development Foundation (FDF) as its investment associate.An April 5 letter from the WAF CEO Lucas Lugo to KFA president K M I Mather says: “We have been working with our exclusive partners Indian Football Evolution (Kshatriya Sports) to bring the Brazil Masters team comprising Ronaldo, Cafu, Dunga, Romario and other legends from Brazil on 15 May, 2012, to Kochi, Kerala.” “Our team of 20 FIFA player agents and match agents have put all efforts at the request of KFA through KSM/IFE.The players were made to fly down from various countries to Brazil to confirm this Indian tour,” the letter said.
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