On Feb. 18, Brazilian soccer teams Atlético Paranaense and Coritiba made a joint announcement that in their match the following day, history would be made. It was supposed to be the first match in Brazilian history that would be broadcast exclusively on YouTube and Facebook. The streaming was something innovative that many sports leagues would want to highlight for how forward-thinking it is.
But according to both Atlético Paranaense and Coritiba, the Federação Paranaense de Futebol prevented the match from starting because transmissions on YouTube and Facebook would have been contrary to the interests of the affiliates of the two teams, which called the cancellation “arbitrary and unreasonable.” It is a claim denied by the federation, which blames Atlético Paranaense and Coritiba for a different issue that led to the cancellation.
What everyone involved could agree upon was that fans in attendance were the biggest losers in this. Fans from both teams entered the stadium, watched the players warm up and stood for the national lineup before the players lined up at the center circle.
They waited.
And waited.
And waited.
But in a bizarre scene, the official never did blow the whistle to start the match that day. He came off the field, as players tried to stay warm. Phone calls were made. Executives had heated discussions. All fans inside the stadium could do was watch on their phones for more information from the very broadcasts that the teams claim led to the game being called. After players came together on the pitch to thank the fans, they emptied out of the stadium without a single ball being kicked in regulation, and it was streamed for the world to see.
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According to Atlético Paranaense and Coritiba, live streaming the event was the result of being unable to sell the rights to broadcast their games in the 2017 Campeonato Paranaense as they didn’t agree with the amounts being offered.
The Federação Paranaense de Futebol told a different story and released a statement in which it accepted no responsibility for the cancellation while pointing the finger back at the two teams. According to the federation, the teams disobeyed the official’s order to remove unaccredited people from the pitch, and by rule, an arbitrator would not authorize the match to start. It was in fact the two teams’ disobedience that led to the cancellation and not the Internet streams, according to the federation, which claimed it never questioned the live streams.
Brazilian media organization Grupo Globo distanced itself from the cancellation by expressing in a statement that the company was not connected to the episode, had been aware of the Internet transmissions that were planned, and did not wish to see fans “punished for lack of organization and common sense.”
Ultimately, the match was rescheduled to take place Wednesday, with fans able to receive refunds from the canceled match or exchanges for the the new game date.
For fans that couldn’t attend? They were able to watch on Facebook and YouTube after all, and millions did.
Atlético Paranaense reported that 1,749,675 unique viewers accessed the stream on its Facebook page, watching 3,145,381 minutes of the broadcast with a peak viewership of 41,909. For Coritiba’s Facebook page, the stream brought in 736,105 unique viewers without any investment in funded posts.
The YouTube streams of the match led to 7,460,000 minutes watched in 385,000 plays on the Atlético Paranaense channel and 4,923,000 watched in 286,000 plays on the Coritiba channel.
In all, 16,826,197 total minutes of the stream were watched by a peak audience of 208,500, leading to 850,000 interactions.
All that for a match that was nearly wasn’t able to be streamed.