To be released worldwide Nov. 4 on Prime Video, Amazon Original “ElPresidente: The Corruption Game,” from Academy Award winner Armando Bo, isaLatin American series about howaBrazilian, João Havelange, wrestled control from Europe of the biggest sport on earth.
Inaneat historical echo, backed by Bo’s about Entertainment, “Narcos” producer Gaumont TV, Pablo and JuandeDios Larraín’s Fabula (“La Jauría”) and Argentine powerhouse Kapow (“La Jauría”), the second season in the “ElPresidente” series saga of soccer business high jinks and low morals now looks set to become one of the biggest soccer titles released in the countdown to the greatest show on earth, the FIFA World Cup.
Whether FIFA will be entirely comfortable with it is another matter, ifatrailer, shared in exclusivity with Variety, is anything to go by.
One of Iberseries’ biggest market premieres, “ElPresidente: The Corruption Game” now world premieres its first two episodes on Oct. 14 at this year’s reinvigorated Festival do Rio.
Season 1 turned on the feckless, sly, amoral but simpático Sergio Jadue,aChilean small town soccer club supremo who’s electedpresidentof Chile’s soccer assn. The wrong man in the right place,afish out of water, he rises in FIFA’s hierarchy, sparking FIFA Gate,a$150 million corruption scandal. Bo tells the story as ironic farce.
Now narrated by Jadue, “ThePresident: The Corruption Game” teases out the human tragedy inastill arch comedy which unspools onafar grander scale.
It takes on another extraordinary – but far more towering – figure, Brazil’s Havelange, FIFApresidentover 1974-98.Ahulking giant with dashing blond looks, Havelange dedicated his life to serving Brazil – swimming in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, working as the vice-presidentof the Brazilian Sports Confederation from 1958 to 1973, when Brazil won three World Cups – and to serving himself from FIFA’s gravy train.
Glimpsed in the trailer, colorful scenes kick off “ElPresidente: The Corruption Game” with Havelange fuming as Pele is literally kicked out of the first round of England’s 1966 Word Cup, Havelange, the son ofaBelgian arms dealer, is outraged byaFIFA meeting where “third world” members are forced to sit inadifferent room from their European colleagues.
In 1974, as Johan Cruyff forged the modern game on-field, Havelange began to revolutionize its economics and reach – central events in the second season.
Seizing control of FIFA from Sir Stanley Rous,aneo-colonial buffer, over the next 24 years, he created soccer’s modern global business, powered by sponsorship and TV deals, while enlarging the World Cup to 32 teams and and introducingaFIFA Women’s World Cup.
But Havelange did so atatremendous cost, opening FIFA up to multi-million bribery and money laundering and losing his friends, family and honor when he fell into final total disgrace over the 2015-16 FIFA Gate at the age of 98.
“ElPresidente: The Corruption Game,”amixture of near doc recreation and self-declared fiction, begins withadoddery Havelange, now celebrating his 100th birthday. only one guest accepts his invitation.
Much of this is caught in the fast-paced, extensive trailer. Havelange used Brazil’s stunning 1970 World Cup triumph to bid to become FIFApresident. He is rebuffed by Europe’s still colonial FIFA members. “Even if Brazil wins 100 World Cups, decisions will never be made in the colonies,” FIFA general secretary Helmut Kässer tells him.
Havelange launches an extraordinary play for the votes of poor countries, winning them by his promises, backhanders andatour of Africa with Pele.
“FIFA is entering the future,” Havelange announces in the trailer. Nobody transformed soccer more off the field more than he did. It wasn’t all for the better.
PvNewtalked to Bo and Gaumont senior VP Christian Gabela, head of Latin America and US Latinx, in the run-up to the world premiere.
History is often written by the winners , so very often by the U.S, the U.K. and the rest of Europe. From its corrupt narrator, Sergio Jadue and its subject, “ElPresidente” Season 2 adoptsaLatin American viewpoint…
Armando Bo: Telling Havelange’s story wasabig challenge for us, because he took it upon himself to tell his own story. Inaway he had never lost any battles, nor had setbacks till he was 99, when the FIFA gate exploded so his last two years whereanightmare. He wasaguy that was 100% marketing. So with the writing team we chose to begin in the 1966 English World Cup [which Brazil didn’t win]. Havelange, in Brazil, wasaEuropean, an aspirational white man in those times. In Episode 1, he has to choose between trying to be one more European in Europe, which the European FIFA Executives laugh at, or marketing himself asa“third world” Latin American, which plays to his advantage because he will need to get the supportand votes from the Africans who are big fans of Pele.
Christian Gabela: And not justaLatino. At FIFA, he finishes up as the voice and face of the “third world,” especially Africa, which is ironic and cynical foraprivileged white man from Rio…..
Bo: Season 2 is very different from Season 1. This one is laced with politics and social considerations which make italot deeper than the first, it focuses on soccer’s transition from an amateur sport toamoney making machine. It talks, though shot through with irony, pretty deeply about colonialism, capitalism and military dictators. We mixed all that with the sport that all the world loves.
You also underscore the tragedy of Havelange, picturing him at 100, near totally abandoned….
Bo: It was the first idea I thought of when I began to think on focusing on Havelange’s story and how he conquered the world. Picturing the poor man from an ironic point of view at 100. If he’d died at 98, he’d never have heard of FIFA Gate….
Gabela: When researching, we discoveredabook written about him which he triedto control of its messaging. He wanted to write his own story, giving everythingapositive spin.Ashort timelater, FIFA Gate exploded, while he was still alive.
Foraglobe-tracking narrative, some of the scenes which stand out in Episode 1 are the bathetic vignettes of Havelange’s domestic life, as his wife bears the brunt of an absent husband….
Bo: Since Havelange was suchacontrol freak, we know nothing about his private life, so we had to inventalot, which isahallmark of the series: It’s never totally serious nor straight drama and tries to have fun with the importance of soccer in all the world.
For global streamers, Brazil is one of the biggest markets in international. “ElPresidente” Season 2 looks to me likeaplay for the Brazilian market which will also be global, given its subject….
Gabela: Yes, the subjectof the series offersanatural way to targetaterritory whilealso taking advantage of the World Cup, allowing us to createaglobal title. Brazil isareference in soccer, has always been so.
Bo: The challenge was to tellastory about Brazil which connected with the world. So having Havelange,acharacter who conquered the world, definitely helped. The global reach is in the DNA of the story. Amazon and Gaumont’s backing also allowed me to fly and havealot of freedom from the creative perspective and also to aim for high production values,abig production that this story deserves. The period VFX is very well achieved. The English characters are played by English actors, the Spanish by Spanish, the Swiss by Swiss. This also boosted the series’ realism.
Season 2 certainly looks likeastep-up in scale from Season 1….
Bo: The story has to be ambitious. We could tell the story of farmer and his farm and not be ambitious. But this man and this story? If we weren’t ambitious, we wouldn’t be doing it merit.
The first episode spans multiple events, hadahost of characters and is told in unflagging quick-fire scenes…..
Bo: The series certainly looks to tell this parody and entertain, that you don’t fall asleep, get bored, are trapped. For me, this rhythm was key.There was alwaysasense from the production that there were too many scenes in the scripts. But I knew that in editing we weren’t going to use all of the scenes all the time but instead, moments from scenes, highlights, as it were. And always moving at this rhythm which doesn’t let you rest. Havelange governed FIFA for so many years that I needed to chooseamoment and tell it inavery dynamic way. It was key to produce this in Uruguay because it has incredible locations, and they were all really near, so we had the possibility to move very fast between very different locations. Also we had two units shooting six daysaweek . It wasabig battle, but when you see the show I think the money is the screen. We are very proud of it.
