EITA! FLAMENGO DECIDES TO END THE BASE CATEGORY THAT WAS BRAZILIAN RUNNER-UP

Current Brazilian under-17 runner-up in the women's category, Flamengo decided two weeks ago to close the category on the eve of the 2024 championship, which begins at the end of July. The club gave up its place, and Bahia was invited to replace Rubro-Negro.

The information about the end of the activity was released by ESPN and confirmed by ge. Although the 2024 budget already includes the category, Flamengo internally treats the closure as a "strategic issue" due to the lack of championships and to expand the social projects where the club attracted talent. But it did not issue any official statement until the publication of this article.

Flamengo was the only one of the big clubs in Rio de Janeiro that maintained a female under-17 category since 2019. Fluminense and Vasco had it on a seasonal basis for a given competition (they competed in the Carioca Under-17 in 2022, but never in the Brazilian Championship). Botafogo does not work with youth women.

Despite the closure of the category, ge found that there were few layoffs. Flamengo decided to take advantage of almost the entire squad and committee by expanding the under-20s. The technical professionals took on other roles, and the younger girls started training at the same time, but in a different field.

Since 2019, the CBF has had two women's base categories. In the first three years they were under-16 and under-18, but from 2022 they became under-17 and under-20. To encourage the development of women's football in South America, Conmebol determines that clubs competing in its men's tournaments are required to have an adult women's team and an under-20 team, but not other lower categories.