Esporte Clube Radar was a Brazilian professional

women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national te ...

club, based in the Copacabana neighbourhood of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Founded in 1981, they enjoyed unprecedented success in the early days of women's football in Brazil, winning both the Taça Brasil de Futebol Feminino and the

Campeonato Carioca de Futebol Feminino The Campeonato Carioca de Futebol Feminino (''Carioca Women's Football Championship'', in English), organized by the Rio de Janeiro State Football Federation (FFERJ) is the women's football state championship of Rio de Janeiro State, and is con ...

on six consecutive occasions during the 1980s. Additionally, they would barnstorm in high profile,

televised Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

challenge matches against other Brazilian women's teams. The club functioned as the

Brazil women's national football team The Brazil women's national football team (Portuguese: ''Seleção Brasileira Feminina de futebol'') represents Brazil in international women's football and is run by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). It has participated in eight ed ...

at the 1986 Mundialito and the 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament.

History

The women's football club was founded in 1981, initially as a

beach soccer Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or beasal, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand. Whilst football has been played informally on beaches, the introduction of ''beach soccer'' was an a ...

team, by Eurico Lira; a promoter and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

who owned the Radar Sports Club on the Copacabana, founded in 1932. In 1983 a local rivalry developed with the women's team of

Bangu Atlético Clube Bangu Atlético Clube, commonly known as Bangu, is a Brazilian professional association football club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the western neighbourhood of Bangu. The team plays in Série D, the fourth tier of the Brazilian football le ...

, who were put together by gambling baron Castor de Andrade. After the referee failed to award Bangu a penalty in the away match at

Estádio Moça Bonita The Estádio Proletário Guilherme da Silveira Filho, but usually known as Estádio Moça Bonita is a football stadium inaugurated in 1947 in Bangu neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro, state of Rio de Janeiro, with a maximum capacity of 9,564 people. Es ...

the situation descended into violent disorder involving players, staff, match officials, journalists and spectators. The referee and his assistants had to leave the stadium under armed guard, while Radar's full–back

Rosa Rosa or De Rosa may refer to: People *Rosa (given name) * Rosa (surname) *Santa Rosa (female given name from Latin-a latinized variant of Rose) Places *223 Rosa, an asteroid *Rosa, Alabama, a town, United States * Rosa, Germany, in Thuringia, G ...

suffered a broken jaw. The final of the 1983 national competition, Taça Brasil de Futebol Feminino, at Estádio da Rua Bariri also erupted into violence. Radar's opponents Goiás were upset by the antics of flamboyant referee,

Jorge José Emiliano dos Santos Jorge José Emiliano dos Santos (19 March 1954 - 21 January 1995) also known by his nickname, Margarida (meaning ''Daisy'', in English) was a Brazilian football referee, known for his flamboyant style. He is recognized as an iconic figure in Bra ...

. Eurico Lira funded a club tour to the United States by selling two of his

Manabu Mabe (September 14, 1924 – September 22, 1997) was a Japanese- Brazilian painter. Mabe worked as a vendor of hand-painted ties in São Paulo before becoming a famous artist. In the late 1950s, Mabe won the top award in São Paulo's Contemporary Ar ...

paintings for below their estimated value. In 1988 Lira got

Brazilian Football Confederation The Brazilian Football Confederation ( pt, Confederação Brasileira de Futebol; CBF) is the governing body of football in Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country ...

(CBF) authorisation to represent Brazil at the 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament, but no additional funding, so he again paid the expenses of the team, who finished third. All but two of the Brazil squad picked for the

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international gove ...

were contracted to Radar. Lira, who had attended the tournament as the CBF women's football co–ordinator, left his position after the World Cup. ''

Placar ''Placar'' ( en, Score) is a monthly Brazilian sports magazine. Its first edition was issued by Editora Abril. on March 20, 1970, and since then it has become the most successful sports publication in Brazil, even though it focuses fully on foot ...

'' magazine reported that one of the players, Marcinha, had accused Lira of embarking upon a sexual affair with another player. Lira died in 1997, from injuries inflicted during the course of a robbery at the Radar Club.

References

Association football clubs established in 1981 Women's football clubs in Brazil 1981 establishments in Brazil {{Brazil-footyclub-stub