Despite Flamengo having the largest fan base in Brazil, six months ago its official website averaged only 180 hits per month, a figure lower than that of smaller teams like Juventude. However, after a graphic and content overhaul, combined with the team's impressive run in the Brazilian Championship, the club's website has become the most visited among the country's soccer clubs, receiving around one million visitors per month.

According to Flamengo's executive marketing director, Ricardo Heinrichesen, the number of visitors is approaching the numbers seen on the websites of major European clubs.

"To give you an idea, Milan's has 1,2 million hits per month. Liverpool's has two million," he said.

Flamengo's project is ambitious. With the new features that will appear on the website in the coming days, the club aims to surpass Milan in promotions by the end of 2008.

"The website that's currently live is still under construction. The multimedia section, which is very popular with internet users, won't go live until January, as will FlaTV. We're also partnering with a team that produces some really cool cartoons. But these new features won't be live until the next 15 days," he said.

Adding: "Next year we'll have a lot of new things. Flapedia, which works like Wikipedia and is a success, has already been added to the site. We're going to add a social networking community similar to Orkut."

FlaTV, which will give the red-blacks access to exclusive images of the team's training camp, training sessions and games, will debut on January 3, the same day the players return to Gávea.

"In fact, the TV is already ready, but we decided that the ideal would be to launch it together with the team's return," he concluded.