Traditional big guns stumble into new season in Brazil

After the most cursory of off-season breaks, football returned to Brazil this weekend as the state championships kicked off with their usual whimper.

As has become tradition, the first round of games drew precious few fans to stadiums, even in the nominally more glamorous Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo competitions, with most preferring to watch from home, if at all. Of all the flaws with Brazil’s footballing calendar, one of the most glaring is that it leaves no time at all for expectation to build.

Read the rest of my weekly Yahoo Eurosport column, on the early-season worries of Brazil's big guns, here.