Ibis, the “worst football team” in the world, tired of losing

Ibis Sport Club is proud of its nickname: the “worst team in the world”. His mascot is called “Derrotinha” and his fans' protest 'when they win games. But after decades of sporting missteps, this modest club in northeastern Brazil now wants to win.

On the court, the so-called “Black Bird” carved his fame as an eternal defeated man, especially in the early 1980s, and in the age of social networks, he has been able to take advantage of a nickname from which many would flee.

“Let's leave the story of the 'worst team in the world' until the eighties, when the Ibis really was the worst team in the world. Today we are not, but that remains for marketing, so that they can get to know us,” the enthusiastic cast president, Ozir Ramos Júnior, tells AFP.

The 64-year-old manager justifies his joy in encouraging sporting and financial reasons, which have given wings to this club in the municipality of Paulista, located about 18 kilometers from Recife, and which usually competes in the second division of the Pernambuco championship.

Decades of jocular advertising campaigns that repelled victory came to fruition last June with the signing of the largest sponsorship of this octogenarian squad, with the Swedish online betting company Betsson.

The “offer” for Lionel Messi to join them after leaving Barcelona (on the condition that he did not score “many goals” or be champions), comparisons with PSG because none of them have raised the Champions League or chances of casts in crisis gave them unexpected visibility.

- The “winners” -

For that fame “we are known all over the planet, but that cannot be mixed with the professional side. We have competent people there,” Ramos clarifies.

Sponsorship made it possible to improve infrastructure and pay salaries to the squad, made up of goalkeepers or waiters who previously played for “love of the shirt”.

Last season they climbed for the first time in 21 years to the first division of the Pernambuco Championship, which is played before the start of the league and is the gateway to Serie D. But their permanence is threatened by poor results.

“Nowadays you can see that (...) we only work with winners. We're going to get rid of that reference!” , says Paulo Jesse, technical director and school guard.

Founded in 1938 by the owners of a textile company in Recife, Ibis created its bad reputation by lasting three years, eleven months and 26 days without winning (July 20, 1980 to June 17, 1984).

There were 54 matches without celebrations (48 defeats and six draws), with 25 goals scored and 225 conceded, recalls Israel Leal, author of the book “The Flight of the Black Bird: The Story of the Ibis, the Worst Team in the World”.

In the midst of that streak, Placar magazine gave them the report “This is the worst team in Brazil”. They became the target of mockery, but they took the opportunity to create a sustained mark in the defeat and even boast of having obtained a Guinness record for which there is no record.

- Very earthly idol -

“For many years the Ibis only lost and now it is winning. We then go back to that story that the Ibis is resistance, that it looks like people when they are in a bad time and they start to fight to win”, Leal points out.

Although Náutico and Sport Recife, which range between Brazil's first and second divisions, are the most popular casts, the squad has made its way into Pernambuco... at least in the heart of the fans.

“Ibis is the second team that Pernambucans are fans of,” says Ramos, whose family took over the club after the founding company withdrew support.

Legends such as the two-time world champion Vavá or Rildo, Pelé's teammate in Santos, passed through the minor categories of the “Black Bird”.

But sympathy has been fueled by endearing characters, including Mauro Shampoo, a hairdresser like René Higuita's who defended the red-black coat in the late 1980s.

Top idol of the club, the former flyer swears to have scored a goal, in an 8-1 setback with Ferroviário de Recife. But there are no records of that score and the president of the time claimed that it was an own-goal.

“That was what folklore remained,” says Leal. The folklore of the “worst team in the world”.

raa/app/ol