MUNICIPAL LEAGUES AND COPA DOS RIOS DE SELECOES: INTEGRATION OF THE AMAZONAS SPACE THROUGH THE UNDERGROUND CENTRALITY/LIGAS MUNICIPAIS E COPA DOS RIOS DE SELECOES: INTEGRACAO DO ESPACO AMAZONENSE ATRAVES DA CENTRALIDADE SUBTERRANEA

The amateur football organized by the Amazonas Football Federation (AFF) through municipal leagues and Copa dos Rios de Selecoes--promotes the integration of the Amazonas space in a way that the professional football does not manage to. Thus, the present study aims at analysing how municipal leagues and Copa dos Rios de Selecoes integrate the symbolic space of the Amazonian football through the underground centrality. In order to reach this goal, based on Foucault (2006), a three-dimensional spatialization of football is proposed: discursive, practical, and institutional. Data for the analysis were gathered through field observation and interviews conducted in the years 2007, 2008, and 2015 (in Manaus and Parintins) as well as document research. Te interviews were analysed under the lights of Discourse Analysis. The municipal leagues--that join selections to dispute Copa dos Rios de Selecoes--are organized through underground centrality and community feeling, articulating different municipal actors. In spite of the great distances, Copa dos Rios de Selecoes manages to integrate nearly all inner municipality in Amazonas (in 2013 and 2014, put together 54 out of 61 possible municipality). For both managers and participants, Copa dos Rios de Selecoes is the real Amazonas championship, being able of articulate over 80% of the municipalities by edition, as well as different sociospatial actors, such as players, football referees, public power, businessmen, among others.