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Sports Training
Funding and performance of amateur and youth organizations in
Brazil: a longitudinal analysis of a basketball league
Thiago José Leonardi
1
, Diego Monteiro Gutierrez
2
, Ariane Caroline Sarti
2
,
Lucas Arromba de Souza
2
, Paula Simarelli Nicolau
2
, Larissa Rafaela Galatti
3
,
Roberto Rodrigues Paes
2
1
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Escola de Educação Física, Fisioterapia e Dança,
Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil;
2
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação Física,
Campinas, SP, Brasil;
3
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciências Aplicadas,
Limeira, SP, Brasil.
Associate Editor: Ricardo Augusto Barbieri, Assistant Professor at the Estácio UniSEB, Ribeirão
Preto, SP, Brasil.
Abstract - Aim: The general aim was to analyze the prole of the teams participating in a basketball regional compe-
tition over 8 years (2012-2019). Specically, we aimed to a) analyze the variation in the number of an organization par-
ticipating, b) identify the variation in the type of funding, c) verify the existence of a relationship between the
performance and the longevity of the organization, d) verify the existence of a relationship between the performance and
the type of funding. Methods: The research was designed as an exploratory case study. A total of 86 organizations
took part in the league during the period, with 767 different teams playing competitions between U-11 and senior.
Results: Instability is the main characteristic of the league. The organizations competing are constantly changing the
type of funding and unable to stay in the league for long periods. The research also showed that there is a relation
between a stable source of funding and performance. Conclusion: Instability is the main problem in Brazilian youth
and amateur basketball organizations. This study presents useful information for managers better understand the pro-
blems and difculties of basketball in Brazil.
Keywords: sport funding, amateur sport, team performance, youth sport, basketball.
Introduction
Youth sport is a key theme within physical education and
sport, involving different areas of knowledge. The impor-
tance of youth sport for the physical and mental well-
being of young people and its inuence on adult life is a
well-known phenomenon
1
. Furthermore, the investment in
youth sport (i.e., soccer), is directed related to positive
results in international competitions
2
.
The national sports structure, especially amateur and
youth sports, varies from country to country. In the case of
youth sports, these structures can be centralized, focused
on sports clubs or schools. Regional specicities make it
difcult to develop a general analysis or compare two or
more sports in different countries
2
, thus, the research
usually focuses on individual cases. There is a growing
body of studies in sport management focused on the sports
structure of various countries; however, these researches
are usually done in developed nations. The studies dis-
cussing developing nations are scarce, with the few
research showing that these nations usually have an
underdeveloped sports structure
3
. This group of nations is
diverse and faces specic issues that can only be tackled
through individual analysis of these nations.
Brazilian sports management research is limited,
mostly restricted to federal initiatives
4
. The specic char-
acteristics of the country, territorial extension, and decen-
tralized sports policy limits the use of established
methodologies and prevent comparisons with other coun-
tries
5
, a problem shared by Latin America in general
6
. In
addition, there is a disconnection between the various fed-
eral, state, and municipal initiatives, often with conicting
goals and methods.
The development of young athletes is related to
access to an adequate competition system. An interesting
and structured competition maintains the athletes’ motiva-
tion while ensuring their physical and technical develop-
ment
7
. Thus, to better understand how youth competition
at the local level is funded and organized this study ana-
lyses the prole of the teams participating in a regional
competition in São Paulo state over 8 years (2012-2019).
Designed, as an exploratory case study, the researchers
determined the teams that participated in the entity's tour-
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1980-65742021001621Motriz, Rio Claro, v. 27, 2021, e1021001621
naments in that period, as well as their funding, with the
aim of a) analyze the variation in the number of an organi-
zation participating, b) identify the variation in the type of
funding, c) verify the existence of a relationship between
the performance and the longevity of the organization, d)
verify the existence of a relationship between the perfor-
mance and the type of funding.
The structure of Brazilian sport
Brazil sports competitions are historically cen-
tralized around confederations and federations. The Brazi-
lian Olympic Committee is the maximum sports entity of
the country, below are the confederations responsible for
the management of each sport at the national level (there
are 53 confederations in the BOC), in the case of this arti-
cle basketball is under the management of the Brazilian
Basketball Confederation (CBB in Portuguese).
The federations manage the sport at the state level.
In the case of youth sport, most competitions happen at the
state level. The territorial extension of Brazil difcult the
organization of national youth championships, even at the
state level, the situation is complex. Research shows that
the nancial burden of long trips limits access to youth
sport or makes it impossible in some cases
8
.
Despite the political and economic power of federa-
tions and confederations, the country does not have a uni-
ed sports project as in the case of Norway
9
or England
10
or a predominant type of sport organization. For example
New Zealand
11
, Canada
12
, and most of Europe
13
where
youth sport is linked to amateur clubs, non-prot organi-
zations run by volunteers. In the Brazilian case, there is no
predominant type of organization. The country has a vari-
ety of organizations, Non-governmental organizations,
municipalities, schools, amateur clubs, non-prot associa-
tions that mix in various competitions.
In this diverse environment, the rst contact with
competitive sports usually occurs at amateur clubs or in
initiates promoted by municipalities, often having the
work guided by a deliberate practice in a single sport
14
.
The clubs are expensive, so the membership is restricted to
the upper classes. Ideally, the municipality should be the
main promoter of youth sport, however, the efciency of
these initiatives depends on the region's socio-economic
development and is subject to political interests
15
. The
existence of thousands of municipalities, each with its pol-
icy, the absence of a national database, and the lack of
reliable data makes it difcult to conduct a comprehensive
survey on municipality sport in Brazil
16
.
Brazilian sport, as part of a global trend, has under-
gone important transformations in the last decades. The
advancement of the neoliberal ideology inuenced sports
policy
4
, with a decrease in the direct public spending and
an incentive to private investment. In Brazil, with the 2016
Rio Olympics and 2018 FIFA World Cup, the public
spending in sport had a sharp increase followed by a steep
decline afterwards
17
; the consequences of this process are
still not fully understood.
The main transformation in Brazilian sports institu-
tions took place in 1998, with the promulgation of the Pelé
Law
18
. Created with a focus on regulating labor relations
in football, it brought a series of important changes to the
sport in general, being the rst law to acknowledge sports
leagues. The Pelé law allows clubs to organize and man-
age their championships apart from the Federation and
Confederation. Before that, legally, there was no possibi-
lity of a championship outside federated control.
Youth sports have their characteristics and must be
thought differently from traditional championships
19
the
leagues allow competitions to be held on a smaller scale
than the state, so small clubs from nearby cities can create
their regional competition. Another issue is that youth
sport is not necessarily focused on performance and must
take into account the development and needs of children
20
.
The leagues allow clubs to shape competitions according
to their necessities by creating an environment that better
adapts to their athletes’ prole. In the traditional structure,
the relationship with the federations is more distant, and
given their size, the freedom of clubs to shape competi-
tions is limited.
Basketball in Brazil
Basketball is one of the most popular sports in Bra-
zil, has a wide base of fans and practitioners, is part of the
national school curriculum
21
. The country is also one of
the biggest international markets for the NBA (see Internet
Resources section). Brazil has a winning record in interna-
tional competitions, despite some poor results in the last
years. The men's team has three Olympic bronze medals
and two world championships. The women won a world
championship and a silver medal at the Olympic Games.
Nationally, basketball is managed by the Brazilian Basket-
ball Confederation (CBB in Portuguese), afliated to CBB
there are 27 state federations, responsible for managing
the sport at the state level, all Brazilian states have a bas-
ketball federation.
In the case of this article, the teams analyzed are
linked to the São Paulo Basketball Federation (FPB). The
state of São Paulo is the commercial center of Brazil and
the home to the majority of Olympic athletes
22
. The state
is also a basketball stronghold, with the largest number of
teams, professional and amateur
23
.
As already discussed, the distance is one of the main
problems in Brazil youth sport São Paulo is considered a
medium-sized state, however, it has an area like the United
Kingdom with teams in state competitions often traveling
more than 6 hours to play. To facilitate the ac to the sport
the FPB divided the state into four independent entities,
the Basketball Regional Association (ARB in Portuguese)
is one of them, these new organizations manage competi-
tions from U-11 to senior. From U-11 to the U-15 the
2 Funding and performance of amateur and youth organizations in Brazil
regional championships are classicatory to the state
championships, a small part-year tournament. To the cate-
gories above 16 years old, the state championship remains
a year-round event; the teams may choose to play both,
federation and regional, or one of them depending on their
rooster size and nancial conditions.
It is important to highlight that this is not a long-term
project or of the FPB. The regional initiatives appeared
spontaneous in the state. The 1998 Pelé Law gave juridical
support to the newborn leagues and the FPB eventually
realized the potential of these entities and include them in
the ofcial state structure. So, this is not an ofcial divi-
sion of the state and there is no obligation for teams to
play in their region. Some parts have a more active bas-
ketball scene while others are left behind with teams still
having to travel long distances to play.
The ARB was created in 1990 aiming to be a
cheaper alternative for the teams of the Campinas region
who had no interest in nancial conditions to play the state
championship. It hosts tournaments ranging from U-11 to
senior, female, and male. The ARB was originally ima-
gined as an independent league, but in 2000 it was of-
cially including in the FPB, however, the organization
maintains the freedom to organize its competitions. The
city of Campinas is located around 130km from the capital
São Paulo, it is the second-largest city of the state, and the
region, with around four million inhabitants, is the coun-
tryside mains economic hub.
Methodology
This study has a longitudinal cut; it analyzed 8 years
of sports competitions organized by the Regional Basket-
ball Association (ARB). The data were extracted from the
ofcial archive of the entity; therefore, this research is
characterized as documentary research whose sources
were in the public domain. The researchers extracted data
from all competitions between 2012 and 2019, the partici-
pating clubs and age groups.
The research also determined the type of funding of
the teams which were divided into three categories: a)
public: when it was funded only by a public entity; b) pri-
vate: when the team was funded by a private entity; c)
public / private: the joint relationship between the city and
a private entity. First, the researchers determined the main
funding source by analyzing the organizations’ names and
the ofcial websites, when the funding source was not
clear the researchers contacted the organizations for fur-
ther information, being able to determine the funding
source of all the clubs.
The sports results of each club were calculated based
on a ranking created by the team of researchers speci-
cally for this study in which the age group champion team
was awarded 4 points; the runner-up had 3 points; the
third-placed team had 2 points and the fourth-placed team
had 1 point. The ranking was created to differentiate the
best-ranked teams in each category and, consequently,
give different weights to these teams according to their
performance. After, we created three groups of classica-
tion: group 1 (organizations with 0 points in the ranking),
group 2 (organizations with less than 10 points in the
ranking), and group 3 (organizations with 10 or more
points in the ranking).
All data were organized in an ad hoc spreadsheet.
For the analysis, descriptive statistics were used from the
crosstabs command to verify the number of organizations
by year and in which age-grade they participated, as well
as to verify the eventual modication in the type of fund-
ing. Chi-square test with Fisher's exact test was used to
determine the existence or not of an association between
a) performance and the longevity of each organization the
ARB tournaments; b) changing in the type of funding and
performance, and c) the exclusivity of public or private
funding and the longevity of the organizations.
With these goals, the data was organized into 3 cate-
gories: performance (group 1: teams that did not play a
minimum seminal in anyone championship; group 2:
teams with 9 or fewer points in the ranking; group 3:
teams with 10 or more points in the ranking), the longevity
of each organization the ARB tournaments (group 1-2:
organizations that played one or two years on ARB tour-
naments; group 3-6: organizations that played between 3
and 6 years on ARB tournaments; group 7-8: organiza-
tions that played between 3 and 6 years on ARB tourna-
ments) type of funding (exclusivity or none of one type of
funding).
To calculate the magnitude of association (effect
size), we used Cramer's V interpreting by 0.01 to 0.1 as
little association, 0.1 to 0.3 as low association, 0.3 to 0.5
as moderate association, and >0.5 as high association. We
also interpreted the standardized residuals adapted from
contingency tables (> |1.96|)
24,25
.
Results and discussion
The instability in the number of organizations
Table 1 shows the total number of organizations that
participated in ARB championships between 2012 and
2019, and in which age group. A total of 80 different
organizations, encompassing NGO, schools, munici-
palities, and amateur clubs took part in ARB competitions.
In total 52 males’ and 28 females’ organizations played.
The data shows an unstable scenario with the organization
constantly leaving the competition, there was a peak in
participation in 2012 when 58 organizations disputed the
league with just 28 in 2016. Only 9 males’ and 2 females’
organizations played every year, even so, these clubs did
not participate in the same age groups.
Leonardi et al. 3
It is possible to note the absence of long-term pro-
jects. The predominance of short-term initiatives damages
the structure of the organizations and makes it more dif-
cult for long-term goals to be achieved
26
. The research
analyzed only the ARB competitions, it is not possible to
say if the clubs continued to play outside the league or ter-
minated their activities.
This instability was also present when analyzing the
age groups, the organizations did not compete in all possi-
ble age groups some played with 5 teams other with just
one. There was also no logic in this participation some
organizations played in one year in the U-12 and senior
and in the next in the U-17. This shows this is also a
reection of the absence of long-term projects with the
organizations competing each year with the players avail-
able at the moment. They are unable to create a structured
environment where, as they grow old, the players change
age groups. No analyzed organization was able to compete
every year in every age group.
This situation was more evident in the case of
females, where the competition was concentrated in the U-
13, U-15, and U-17 age groups. Possible due to the lack of
athletes the organizations decided to merge different age
groups to make the championship feasible, nonetheless the
number of female clubs is limited in each age group. The
instability is problematic to organizations and players.
Competing below the recommended age group impairs the
development of the athlete, as they play against weaker
smaller opponents while against older players, they have a
higher risk of injury.
The smaller female participation, when compared
with the male, was already expected. The gender imbal-
ance in sports participation is a well-discussed phenom-
enon in the literature
27,28
. The Brazilian women's
basketball achieved its greatest feat in 1996, the Atlanta
Olympic Games silver medal, however, the sport could not
capitalize on the good moment. Misguided strategies and
wrong investments lead to a crisis in the sport with poor
international results and a declining number of players
29
.
The data analysis shows the weakness of this cate-
gory in the region. The goal of the regionalization was to
reduce the distances and facilitate the practice; however,
Table 1 - Total of teams and organizations by year, gender, and age group.
Year U-11 U-12 U-13 U-14 U-15 U-16 U-17 U-19 U-21 Senior Teams Organizations
Female 2012 0 4 5 5 0 0 9 0 0 8 31 16
2013 0 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 0 6 21 10
2014 0 0 6 0 5 0 6 0 2 5 24 11
2015 0 0 7 0 8 0 5 0 0 10 30 16
2016 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 6 12 8
2017 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 5
2018 0 5 3 0 4 0 5 0 0 4 21 10
2019 4 6 8 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 23 10
Total 4 15 34 5 33 0 30 0 2 44 167 86
Male 2012 0 12 8 13 17 0 12 4 9 16 91 38
2013 0 11 15 10 10 0 15 0 7 12 80 33
2014 0 14 12 12 13 0 13 6 6 12 88 29
2015 0 12 10 12 17 0 15 0 8 9 83 29
2016 0 9 10 9 12 0 13 0 5 6 64 25
2017 0 9 9 12 10 0 13 0 4 6 63 23
2018 0 11 10 11 11 0 11 3 0 5 62 24
2019 6 8 10 8 9 12 10 0 6 0 69 22
Total 6 86 84 87 99 12 102 13 45 66 600 223
Total 2012 0 16 13 18 17 0 21 4 9 24 122 54
2013 0 11 20 10 15 0 20 0 7 18 101 43
2014 0 14 18 12 18 0 19 6 8 17 112 40
2015 0 12 17 12 25 0 20 0 8 19 113 45
2016 0 9 10 9 18 0 13 0 5 12 76 33
2017 0 9 9 12 10 0 13 0 4 11 68 28
2018 0 16 13 11 15 0 16 3 0 9 83 34
2019 10 14 18 8 14 12 10 0 6 0 92 32
Total 10 101 118 92 132 12 132 13 47 110 767 309
4 Funding and performance of amateur and youth organizations in Brazil
this does not seem to have contributed to an increase in the
number of clubs and players. An especially worrying sce-
nario considering that the interior of the state of São Paulo
is traditionally the largest producer of female basketball
athletes
30
.
There was also a constant decline in overall parti-
cipation as the player's age. The issue of sports partici-
pation is a hotly debated topic within physical education
and sports management. Participation is related to socio-
economic, demographic, cultural, and regional factors
31
.
In the case of age, there is no consensus in the literature
with studies showing a steady decline in participation
during time
32
while others describe this phenomenon in
a format closer to a U, with a return to sport in older
ages
33
. In the Brazilian case, the possibility of return is
small.
The data collected seem to support the idea of a pyr-
amidal structure on youth sport, as exposed in Graph 1. In
the female category, there is a decrease of 22.4% between
U-13 and U-15, 21.0% between U-15 and U17, and 93.3%
between U-17 and U-21, indicating the almost non-
existence of teams in this category. In the males, the num-
ber of teams in the U-15 is 9.4% higher than the teams in
the U-13, demonstrating a possibility of later entry into the
modality in that category. There is also a reduction of
38.7% in teams between U-15 and U-17 and 50.9%
between U-17 and U-19.
The overall number of organizations is reduced by
half between the U-17 and U-21 (Figure 1). This decrease
shows the difculty in maintaining athletes beyond school
age, a well-discussed phenomenon
34
. In the case of this
research, it is important to highlight the fact that most of
the clubs are in small cities, and many of the students after
nishing high school move to bigger cities. In the older
age groups is possible to notice a concentration in the
senior category. Like what happened in the female, the
organizations, instead of playing different age groups con-
centrated all above 18 athletes in one age group, to pro-
duce a more competitive championship.
Given the longevity of data collection is natural that
changes would occur during the period. In this case, there
was the appearance of the circuits. In 2017 the female
organizations broke with the ARB, not competing in any
youth category (Table 1), these teams opted to compete in
what was called “circuit”. The season consisted of several
stages of a one-day competition; all organizations traveled
to one city were played several short games. Also, the
organizations decided that there would be no champion.
The circuits pleased the teams due to the reduced
cost, with one trip is possible to face several adversaries.
The youth female clubs returned to ARB in 2018, which
adopted the circuits in the female U-12 and U-23 cate-
gories. In 2019 this model was expanded to the female U-
11, 12, 13, and 15 and the newly created males U-11 and
U-16 categories.
Youth sport requires a series of adaptations to ensure
the complete development of athletes. In this sense, cir-
cuits are a tool recommended by the literature, reducing
distances, and improving the athletes’ experience
35
. The
process of creating the circuits also shows one of the
objectives of creating regional entities, the easiness of the
teams to shape the championship according to their needs.
The funding
The organizations were divided into three funding
categories, public, private, and public-private partnership.
The instability detected in the number of organizations
participating is also present in funding, when analyzing
the organizations that played more than one season (of 80
organizations, 10 males and 10 females played just one
season). The participation over time in the league seems to
be related to the management's capability to nd new
sources of income (Figure 2). The organizations that parti-
cipated between 2 and 3 years had a more stable source of
funding, 17 (80.9% of them) did not change their type of
funding, while 4 (19.0%) changed. While the organiza-
Figure 1 - Pyramidal distribution of teams by age group between 2012
and 2019 (a) male, (b) female, (c) total.
Leonardi et al. 5
tions that played between 4 and 6 years, 15 (46.9% of
them) did not change their type of funding, and 17
(53.1%) had changed. However, the nine teams that
played in all seasons did not change the type of funding.
As an exploratory study is possible to speculate that
change in the type of funding can keep the organization in
the league, however, this situation has limits. And to have
a long-term project the organizations need a stable source
of income.
The leagues’ instability seems to be related to the
organizations difculties to nd a steady source of fund-
ing. The managers are constantly seeking new types of
funding transitioning between public and private money,
and when they fail the organizations drop out of the com-
petition. This contributes to an unstable scenario that is
prejudicial to players and organizations. The instability is
part of both categories, nonetheless, the research showed
differences between the way female and male basketball is
funded.
Male basketball is mostly privately funded, with
40.4% of the entities that participated in the eight seasons
having this type of funding, 38.4% are public and 19.2%
are public/private. The organizations that played between
1 and 4 years were mostly public. The difculties related
to public investment in sport are not exclusive to Bra-
zil
26,36
, with studies criticizing the way government
invests in sport
37
. In this sense, this research seems to cor-
roborate, even if is not conclusive, some of these criti-
cisms showing that public organizations tend to be short-
term projects contributing to the general instability of
competitions. Also contributing to this view is the fact that
of the 9 organizations that participated in the eight seasons
analyzed 5 were privately funded, with no public team
playing all seasons. The other 4 became public-private
partnerships at one point or another.
This category also presents an interesting phenom-
enon. Even with the limited time frame is possible to see a
change in the prole of the organizations. In 2012, 47.4%
(18 in a total of 38) of the teams were funded exclusively
by the government while in 2019, the proportion
decreased to 30.4% (7 in a total of 23). From the limited
sample, it is not possible to dene a standard behavior for
investments, but other studies point out that there is a ten-
dency towards a decrease in state investment in sport or a
change in the way the public authorities make this invest-
ment
38
. In the Brazilian case, the result also relates to the
decrease in the public investment in the sport after the
2016 Olympic Games.
One of the new ways for the state to encourage sport
is through public-private partnerships or by encouraging
private investment. This process, however, is not direct,
being subject to a series of difculties, which may explain
the general decrease in the number of teams, as state
initiatives are reduced and are not replaced by private pro-
jects
39
. In the case of the ARB, the public-private partner-
ships have been erratic, after a peak in 2017, when 6 out of
22 organizations had this type of funding there were no
public-private partnerships in 2018 and 2019.
The female category presented a different picture,
being mostly nanced by public money. In the 8-years
analyzed 64.3% of the organization that competed were
publicly funded, 10.7% were public-private and 25.0%
private. Public funding is central to the category, private
investment is restricted and often connected with public
Figure 2 - Changes in the type of funding in the ARB organizations between 2012 and 2019.
6 Funding and performance of amateur and youth organizations in Brazil
investment. Only one organization has been able to play
two years in a row with private funds, the others had to
resort to public-private partnerships to keep playing.
It is not possible to discuss the variation in the type
of funding in the female category. It is almost completely
publicly funded and the number organization playing the
ARB seem linked with the availability of publicly funded
initiatives in the regions when it grows there are more
teams when it decreases the basketball also decrease.
In brief, the female category is dependent on public
funding while the male presents a more diverse environ-
ment. Gender inequality in sport is a serious problem with
women having limited opportunities to engage in sports
practice
40
. This research also conrms the lack of private
interest in girls sport, traditionally basketball in Brazil is
linked with private clubs, but these organizations seem to
have little interest in the female category
41
. So, the only
institution interested in female basketball is the state, a
concerning scenario.
Sports results
Regarding sports results, considering the teams that
nished rst to fourth in their respective age group com-
petitions, there is a signicant association with a very
strong effect in the chi-square tests between the overall
performance and the number of years participating in the
ARB tournaments, as well a signicant association with
moderate effect between the overall performance of each
sporting entity and changes in funding type (see Table 2).
However, by observing the standardized residuals, is pos-
sible to see that the time of participation has a greater con-
tribution to the sporting result than the change in funding.
These results are also conrmed when looking at the
percentage of the organization that reached the top four in
any of the tournaments (Table 3). In total, 44.1% of the
teams that did not change the type of funding managed to
arrive with at least one of their teams among the rst four
placed in at least one championship, while 80.9% of the
teams that changed the type of funding achieved a similar
feat. The teams that did not change the type of funding
achieved 40.4% of the possible results, according to the
ranking created for this study, and 59.6% of the points
were achieved by the teams that changed the type of
nancing.
It is possible to observe an association with a moder-
ate effect between an exclusive source of investment, pub-
lic or private, and the longevity of ARB tournaments for
the total sample, especially to groups until six years of
participation in tournament (Table 4). However, it was not
possible to observe an association between exclusively
public or private investment and the result of the sport
(Table 4). These results indicate that the exclusivity of
public or private investment was essential for maintaining
the project, but not for obtaining sporting results for the
organizations in both categories.
The data are not conclusive, but as an exploratory
study, it is possible to discuss some trends. Thus, it is pos-
sible to say that a stable source of funding is important for
Table 2 - Crosstabulation, statistics test, and standardized residuals considering the association between overall performance and (a) the number of years
participating in the ARB tournaments, and (b) changing in the type of funding, for all sample (n = 80).
Performance group Statistics test Standardized residual
G1 n (%) G2 n (%) G3 n (%) Total χ
2
df p Effect size
*
G1 G2 G3
Years in tournament
G 1-2 27 (90.0) 2 (6.7) 1 (3.3) 30 6.1 3.7 3.2
G 3-6 10 (29.4) 20 (58.8) 4 (11.8) 34 67.958 4 0.000 0.652 2.6 4.6 2.0
G 7-8 0 (0.0) 3 (18.7) 13 (81.3) 16 4.1 1.2 6.3
Changing in the type of funding
No 33 (55.9) 15 (25.4) 11 (18.6) 59 8.482 2 0.013 0.326 2.9 1.9 1.4
Yes 4 (19.0) 10 (47.6) 7 (33.3) 21 2.9 1.9 1.4
*
p<0.05.
Table 3 - Scores in the rank created to this research divided by gender and changes in the type of funding.
Gender Change in the type of funding Organizations Organization that scored Points won Possible points
Female (n=28) Yes 22 9 100 183
No 6 6 83
Male (n=52) Yes 37 17 311 507
No 15 11 196
Total (n=80) Yes 59 26 411 690
No 21 17 279
Leonardi et al. 7
the team's longevity and inuences positive results.
Despite this, teams that do not have a stable source of
funding and can remain in the competition through alter-
native sources of revenue also present positive results,
even if inferior to those that are more stable.
Conclusion
This article analyzes the funding and performance of
the teams that participated in ARB competitions during
eight seasons. Given the lack of an established biblio-
graphy about Brazil, this study aims to initiate the discus-
sion by providing subsidies for future research as well as
insights that may contribute to sport management in Brazil
and other developing nations.
The instability is the great characteristic of the ARB
competition, both categories play in a constantly changing
environment dominated by short-term projects. Even in a
limited time frame, 8-years, the organizations were unable
to compete in all seasons participating only a few years, or
one year. Part of this situation occurs due to funding dif-
culties, if the organizations want to stay in the competition
they must be constantly looking for new sources of fund-
ing, transitioning between public, private, and public-pri-
vate partnerships. In the case of the male category, this
apparent instability is related, to a greater degree, to the
instability of public initiatives, although more research on
this topic is needed to conrm this hypothesis.
The predominance of short-term initiatives causes a
series of problems that hinder the technical development
of the athletes and the institutional development of the
teams. This is corroborated in part by the analysis of the
performance of the organizations with the entities that
presented a stable source of funding, public or private,
having better sportive results.
The research points to the instability of Brazilian
youth teams but has not dened their causes. More
research is needed to understand the roots of this instabil-
ity and the best way for managers to deal with this situa-
tion. Another important issue presented in the research is
the disparity in the funding of male and female teams,
showing the private disinterest in the practice of female
basketball, almost entirely supported by public invest-
ment. This lack of interest is detrimental to the female
sport, having roots in the different ways boys and girls are
socialized and introduced to the sport. In this sense, more
research on this aspect and ways to reduce these dis-
parities are important and incentivize private interest.
The methodology adopted by this article is not the
most usual, and we recognize the limitations of the sam-
ple. The lack of reliable data on the funding of sports
organizations in Brazil, both private and public
31,38
, and
the specic characteristics of the Brazilian system make it
difcult to apply established methodologies. Thus, this
research chose to carry out an innovative approach a
methodology that may prove interesting for more compre-
hensive research in the future, as well as in countries with
characteristics like Brazil.
Acknowledgments
D.M.G. and P.S.N. was supported by the Coordenação de
Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [PhD
grants].
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Internet Resources
https://exame.com/blog/esporte-executivo/head-da-nba-brasil-ja-
e-o-3o-maior-mercado-atras-apenas-de-eua-e-china/
Corresponding author
Thiago José Leonardi, Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Sul, Escola de Educação Física, Fisioterapia e
Dança, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil.
E-mail: thiago.leonardi@ufrgs.br.
Manuscript received on January 22, 2021
Manuscript accepted on March 8, 2021
Motriz. The Journal of Physical Education. UNESP. Rio Claro, SP, Brazil
- eISSN: 1980-6574 - under a license Creative Commons - Version 4.0
10 Funding and performance of amateur and youth organizations in Brazil
