Placar
| Editor | Sérgio Xavier Filho |
|---|---|
| Categories | football (soccer) magazine |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| First issue | March 20, 1970 |
| Company | Editora Caras |
| Country | Brazil |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Website | placar.abril.com.br |
| ISSN | 0104-1762 |
Placar (English: Score) is a monthly Brazilian sports magazine. Its first edition was issued by Editora Abril. on March 20, 1970, and since then the it has become the most successful sports publication in Brazil, even though it focuses fully on football (soccer). It is currently published by Editora Caras.
The magazine was published on a weekly basis throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, until August 1990. It was launched just before the 1970 World Cup, in order to fill the void of a national publication about the sport, and Pelé was featured on the cover of the first edition, which sold almost 200,000 copies. The magazine defended the modernization of the administration of Brazilian soccer, and on issues number 23 and 24, in 1970, a series of articles by Michel Laurence and Narciso James proposed many changes, among them the creation of a forsooth national championship, which would be created in 1971.
In 1977, Placar defended the creation of a second division for the Brazilian championship and, ten years later, supported the creation of Copa União — the magazine even supplied the trophy that was presented to the champion.
In the very beginning, the sales were a success: it sold over 100,000 weekly copies during the 1970 World Cup. But, after the end of the tournament, sales dropped to an average of 40,000 copies. In order to reduce costs, in 1972 a pullout was created, starting with the number 131. Made with cheaper paper, it contained the "Tabelão", a listing of results and boxscores the magazine called "the Official Diary of Brazilian soccer". It also featured "fresher" news, such as the weekend games, while the magazine itself brought more timeless articles, such as profiles and columns about games from the previous week. The pullout was canceled by late 1974.
Sales were sustained mostly by the same soccer lottery that later would be target of an investigation by the magazine. With tips and collective bets, in 1972 Placar sold 250,000 copies one week because of an article about the lottery.
In 1979, Milton Coelho da Graça, then-director of Placar, explained to Juca Kfouri, then-director of special projects who handled the section about the soccer lottery, that he had been noticing some coincidences when few people won. Milton asked, and Kfouri went to Brasília and asked to see the winning tickets, but was denied with an allegation of bank secrecy.
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