Placar

It was launched just before the 1970 World Cup, in order to fill the void of a national publication about the sport, and Pelé was featured on the cover of the first edition, which sold almost 200,000 copies.

[3] The magazine defended the modernization of the administration of Brazilian football, and on issues number 23 and 24, in 1970, a series of articles by Michel Laurence and Narciso James proposed many changes, among them the creation of a forsooth national championship, which would be created in 1971.

Made with cheaper paper, it contained the "Tabelão", a listing of results and boxscores the magazine called "the Official Diary of Brazilian football".

Kfouri gave him a one-year deadline, rigorously met: on issue 648, dated October 22, 1982, an extensive story was published on the case, denouncing corruption and match-fixing.

Ironically, Placar sales were also negatively affected by the piece, since many readers bought the magazine exactly for its weekly lottery analysis.

In September 1985, for the 800th edition, the traditional "Tabelão" section, with the listing of local boxscores and results from abroad, was removed because it was deemed too expensive.

With stagnated sales numbers since 1985,[16] another effort was made in 1988, with a bigger format, less pages and a cheaper paper, in a phase known as Placar Mais.

The fatal blow came with the Brazilian flop in the 1990 World Cup, that was aggravated by the terrible campaigns of the bigger teams in the 1990 Paulista League (small clubs Bragantino and Novorizontino made the finals that year) and the controversial finals of the Carioca League (the title was decided in the courts).

Placar always turned a profit with commemorative editions of titles, but that year this option wasn't available, and Abril decided to stop investing in a weekly football magazine.

Just one year earlier, the letter from the editor of the 1,000th issue stated that Placar reached that milestone "healthy" and with average sales of 127,000 copies.

[21] The success of that edition made Kfouri propose that Abril kept a line of thematic magazines with a small newsroom.

The magazine maintained its critic position of the Brazilian football brass, which made the president of Federação Paulista de Futebol, Eduardo José Farah, deny the publication's photographers entrance on the field for the 1991 Brazilian League finals, between Bragantino and São Paulo, in Bragança Paulista.

[13] The success generated by the 1994 World Cup editions and the Brazilian victory itself triggered big changes starting April 1995, just after the magazine celebrated its 25th anniversary.

During the 1998 World Cup, Placar again published special editions after each Brazilian game, but, this time, many professionals were sent to host country France — even the page design was made there.

In March 2008, an article about TV color man and former player Casagrande's internment raised a controversy,[29] with journalists defending and criticizing[30] the magazine's posture.

Bola de Prata is an annual award given by Placar to the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A best players from each position.