Brasilia crowd shatters futsal record

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Sep 9, 2014

[CROWD COUNT] What do you do with a Brazilian World Cup stadium that has no first division club? Convert it into a futsal stadium. Brasilia's Estadio Mane Garrincha, one of Brazil's white elephant stadiums, drew 56,483 fans -- a record crowd -- for a futsal international between Brazil and Argentina.


The match, won by Brazil, 4-1, marked the return of Brazilian futsal superstar Falcao. Argentina was coming off a two-game sweep -- 6-0 and 2-0 -- over Keith Tozer's USA futsal national team in Buenos Aires.

The match was played on Sunday -- Dia da Independência (Brazil's Independence Day).

The old record was 25,712 fans for the Liga Futsal final in Belo Horizonte in 1999.

Stadiums in Cuiaba, Manaus and Natal also lack a big-time club to use the club on a regular basis.