Kely Nascimento, activist filmmaker and eldest daughter of former Brazil great ⁠Pele, says Brazil’s football system is broken completely.

According to Kely Nascimento, who spoke to Reuters, Brazil’s football tradition has broken with a lack of transparency and accountability in its administration, that has reflected in the national ‌team’s performances, especially the current FIFA World Cup holding in USA, Canada and Mexico.

She said the country’s wealth of ⁠talent continued to produce top players, but that their struggles on the international stage were symptomatic of deeper structural problems.

“Brazilian football is broken. Whether it is corruption … it’s like a closed, very ‌incestuous ecosystem where no one can see inside, and everybody knows why it ‌is not working, but nobody can fix ‌it,” ⁠Kely Nascimento said.

Brazil was eliminated ‌from this year’s FIFA World Cup 2026 following a 1-2 defeat by Norway on Sunday, the first time it has failed to reach the quarterfinals ‌since 1990.

It won the last of its record five World Cups in 2002.

Nascimento said her late father had long ⁠voiced concerns about the state of Brazilian football and contrasted the country’s decline with nations such ‌as France, which she said appeared to have built more effective systems.

One encouraging development, she said, was the revival of traditional clubs through foreign investment, citing Botafogo’s resurgence under U.S. businessman John Textor.

Since acquiring a controlling stake ‌in the Rio de Janeiro club in 2022, Textor has overseen a steady turnaround in the fortunes of the former Brazilian champions.

“There’s ⁠a lot of criticism about how he’s handling it, ⁠but, again, there’s good and bad to everything,” Nascimento said. “What he’s also bringing is ‌transparency … he has accountability to a foreign body. To me, that’s a positive, regardless of everything he’s being blamed for.”