Fluminense Football Club - History

Origins

Oscar Cox introduced football to Rio. He played in Switzerland during his studies in Lausanne. When he returned to Rio, aged 22, he gathered a group of men who also wanted to play this as-yet relatively unknown sport. After playing some matches in Rio and in São Paulo, they decided to found a club.

The foundation meeting took place on 21 July 1902, at the home of Horácio da Costa Santos on Rua Marques de Abrantes 51. Oscar Cox was elected the first president.

The first match was on 19 October 1902 on the Paysandu Cricket Club field against Rio FC. Fluminense won 8-0 and the first goal was scored by Horácio da Costa Santos. The team won the first championship they played, in 1906, the Campeonato Carioca, the State Championship of Rio de Janeiro. They also won the next three competitions in 1907, 1908 and 1909.

In 1911, they were again champions, and won all matches in Campeonato Carioca. However, a huge crisis took place at the end of this year, when nine players from the main team quit the club after quarreling over who should manage the team. These nine players decided to join Flamengo, which hitherto had only been engaged in rowing. By founding the football section of Flamengo, they started one of the most famous rivalries in Brazilian football: the Fla-Flu. The first of these derbies took place on 17 July 7 1912. Although Flamengo had nearly all the players who had won the championship the previous year, Fluminense, which retained only Oswaldo Gomes and James Calvert from that side, prevailed with the final score being 3-2.

On 27 July 1914, Fluminense hosted the first match of the Brazilian national team which faced the visiting English club side Exeter City F.C. at Laranjeiras Stadium. Brazil won 2-0 and Flamengo's own Oswaldo Gomes scored the first goal [1] .

Stadium

Main article: Estádio das Laranjeiras

Fluminense's own stadium is Estádio das Laranjeiras, built in 1905. The maximum capacity is 8,000 people but it was previously 25,000 [2]. Public interest in refurbishment of the stadium took place in the sixties, when the club sold a part of its grounds for the construction of what is now the Rua Pinheiro Machado. Laranjeiras is the oldest stadium in Brazil, and is heritage listed. The club is planning to build a new one outside the traditional Laranjeiras district (Rio de Janeiro's South Zone). Generally, Fluminense hosts matches at the Maracanã stadium.

The average attendance for league matches per 2007 is 17,071.

Total Atendance of Fluminense in Titles Won in Maracanã Era.

Matches when Fluminense won titles out from Maracanã

Matches when Fluminense won titles in Maracanã

Fans

Fans are called "tricolores", a reference to the team's three colours (claret, white and green).

One of the team's most famous chants is "A Bênção, João de Deus" ("Bless us, John of God"), a song that was composed in honour of the pope John Paul II on his first visit to Brazil in 1980. The tradition is that Fluminense fans spontaneously started singing the famous song when the team was to decide the 1980 state championship on a penalty shootout against their arch-rivals Vasco da Gama. Fluminense won the championship.

Fluminense's supporters are usually related to Rio de Janeiro's upper classes, in opposition to those who support Flamengo. However, the popularity of the club reaches beyond the city limits. There are an estimated 9 million Fluminense supporters all over Brazil and abroad. Only one-third of the fans actually live in Rio de Janeiro State.

Fluminense's ScreenSaver

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