⚽ Flick, flick, goal!

DISCLAIMER

Due to Good Friday and the Tiradentes federal holiday on Friday and Monday, respectively, our Brazil Daily newsletter will be back on Tuesday, Apr. 22.

Button football: the nostalgic tabletop game having a Brazil revival

It is Tuesday night as the mighty Manchester City take on Scottish side Aberdeen in a league match. Despite the seemingly endless Emirati wealth backing the Citizens, they are the underdogs going into this match — as they trail Aberdeen by 10 points in the table.

Though they play valiantly and take the lead, Manchester City cannot get past their Scottish opponents, and Aberdeen hold them to a 1-1 draw. A well-earned point for City, who thrashed Chelsea 4-1 an hour ago, and have an away game against Watford coming up in a few minutes.

In case it is not already abundantly clear, these are not real football matches, but for the players — located almost 10,000 kilometers away from the UK in a bar in São Paulo — it is certainly a serious affair.

This is futebol de botão — literally translatable as “button football” — a tabletop sport that formed a major part of the childhoods of Brazilian football fans throughout the 20th century. And at the Bar dos Botões in São Paulo, scores of players are keeping the tradition alive and well.

Essentially a soccer simulation, button football is not a million miles away from foosball and could be described as a sibling of fellow table football game Subbuteo. It is played on a replica football field (typically a table painted with traditional pitch markings) with goalposts and a small ball, and each player has a set of 10 plastic discs representing outfield footballers and a large acrylic cuboid “goalkeeper” to defend their own net.

Players use plectrums to “flick” their discs in the direction of the ball, moving possession upfield before trying to shoot for goal. “Each player can only touch the ball three times in succession, and each team has 10 touches before turning over possession,” explained Luciano Araújo, owner of Bar dos Botões and partly responsible for the button-football revival in Brazil’s biggest city.

While designed in the 1930s as a children’s pastime, button football involves plenty of strategy and dexterity — which is perhaps why almost all of the players at Bar dos Botões are in their 30s, 40s and above.

Realism turned up to the max

The 1-1 draw between Manchester City and Aberdeen was just one of more than 60 matches to take place on that Tuesday evening — a scene that repeats at Bar dos Botões every Tuesday and Thursday, and sometimes even on Saturdays.

On each night, scores of players flock to Luciano’s bar to play a handful of matches, hoping to improve their standing in one of three different button divisions. These competitions take place every six months, each with a different theme — “British football” being the theme for the first half of 2025, with players representing a variety of sides from the UK, including Arsenal, Liverpool, Celtic and Rangers, but also the more obscure Welsh sides The New Saints, Bala Town and Cardiff Met.

Indeed, the picking of sides and competition organization is a large part of the game’s fun. Each team’s buttons are painstakingly customized to feature the chosen club’s latest strip, alongside player names and numbers. Players also have home and away button sets for their teams, to avoid potential clashes in matches against similarly colored opponents.

While this may already sound like an incredible amount of detail for a tabletop football game, the gang at Bar dos Botões take things several steps further. Each week, players receive a detailed stat pack on how the league is progressing, along with a comically Photoshopped fanzine. What’s more, one match is selected per week to be broadcast live on the league’s Instagram page — complete with play-by-play commentary. 

“Everyone who plays here is mad about football,” said Luciano. “This is pure nostalgia, futebol de botão was our Playstation when we were growing up.”

The business side

Though it has changed address a few times, Bar dos Botões has been running for seven years, with the twice-weekly button football tournament in its 13th edition. A trained journalist, Luciano nurtured the idea of opening the bar back in 2014, and eventually managed to do so some years later — along with an online store selling equipment for those all over Brazil looking to play futebol de botão.

And while the pandemic could have been the death knell for the business, it was that online store that kept Luciano going. “We had to close the bar, but then orders on the website kept going up. People were looking for new pastimes during the lockdown,” he explained.

Now, with a captive audience and a regular crop of players, Bar dos Botões practically runs itself. “On a Tuesday night, for instance, these guys will have three or maybe four matches, all spaced out over several hours. So they’re all here every night,” he added.

Theme nights are also commonplace. “For instance, in November, we do a one-off Dia de los Muertos tournament. We all play with Mexican clubs, I stick on a Mexican playlist, and put some Mexican dishes on the menu.”

If you live in São Paulo, signups for the Bar dos Botões tournaments open every six months, with no previous playing experience required. Or you can swing by and practice whenever you like.

Photos by André Chiavassa.

Quick catch-up

🎲 Brazil’s Finance Ministry has launched the next phase of its regulation of fixed-odds sports betting, including the creation of a platform containing the data of banned or self-excluded gamblers. 

• On that note, the world of Brazilian football is up in arms after the Federal Police charged Flamengo forward Bruno Henrique with spot-fixing, for allegedly intentionally receiving a yellow card in a match against Santos in 2023, to the benefit of gamblers.

📺 Broadcasting giant Globo is reportedly keen on regaining the rights to show Formula 1 in Brazil as of 2026, having been the country’s F1 TV rights holder for almost 40 years until refusing to renew in 2020. Meanwhile, domestic competitors Record are hoping to develop their live football portfolio, with an eye on gaining the rights to broadcast matches at the 2026 World Cup.

🥊 Brazilian fighters had a mixed night at UFC 314 in Miami last weekend. Diego Lopes lost his featherweight title fight to Alexander Volkanowski, but walked away with a cool USD 50,000 Fight of the Night bonus. The highly promising Jean Silva choked out Bryce Mitchell, while Patrício Pitbull lost his promotional UFC debut against former champion Yair Rodríguez.

• After the event, UFC president Dana White said that the mixed martial arts promotion is set to return to Brazil before the end of this year, having not held a single event in the country in 2025.