By IANS
Rio De Janeiro : Corinthians, the football club with the second highest number of fans in Brazil, face relegation to the second division football league.
With a 0-1 loss to Nautico Sunday, Corinthians are down to 16th in the 20-team league, whose bottom four teams will drop to a lower league at the end of the season.
The match-winner was the result of a 46th minute penalty, taking Nautico to 14th place in the league standings with 43 points.
Ironically, the nickname of the stadium where Sunday’s game was held is “Aflitos’, which translates to The Afflicted in English.
Corinthians have been facing an unprecedented crisis since last year, when its partnership with UK fund Media Sports Investments (MSI) started to be investigated for fraud in Brazil and for involvement in an international money laundering scheme.