Brazilian women’s‑football pioneers receive R$500,000 compensation

On Friday, June 26, TV Brasil’s program Sem Censura aired an interview with three trail‑blazing members of Brazil’s first women’s football team – Marilza Martins da Silva (known as “Pelezinha”), Marisa Pires (“Caju”), and Márcia Matos (“Russa”). All three played for Esporte Clube Radar in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, the club that revived women’s football in Brazil after the sport had been banned in the 1940s and only regularised in 1980.

The former athletes recalled how Radar, under the leadership of businessman Eurico Lyra, built the foundation for the national team in the 1980s and even travelled to China in 1988 wearing yellow Brazil shirts. They described playing without salaries, earning only small per‑match fees, and seeing packed stadiums at early South American championships.

A law signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva now awards each of the women who represented Brazil between 1988 and 1991 a lump‑sum payment of R$ 500,000, with the same amount going to families of athletes who have passed away. The pioneers welcomed the long‑awaited compensation as a vindication of their lifelong dedication to the sport.