Governing Bodies
Qatar 2022 build-up: How the famous yellow football shirt has become politicised
When the much-awaited Brazil 2022 World Cup shirt was released in August, student João Vitor Gonçalves de Oliveira rushed to get his hands on the kit.
The 20-year-old went to the nearest store, grabbed the famous yellow and green top and took it to the till, where he was met with an excited smile.
“The shop owner assumed I support the current government because I was buying the shirt, and started to rage against left-wing candidate Lula,” João tells the BBC.
João does not support the government of Jair Bolsonaro, who is standing for re-election on Sunday. But buying the shirt, he realised in the store, could make people think he did.
In order to avoid confrontation, João pretended to be a Bolsonaro supporter. It was another sign that the yellow and green shirt – made famous by Pele, Ronaldo, and many others – has become a symbol of a divided nation.
“The shirt has become stained with political meaning since 2014,” says Mateus Gamba Torres, a history professor at the University of Brasília.
Eight years ago, millions of Brazilians took to the streets to protest against the then-President, Dilma Rousseff, dressed in the colours of the flag as they demanded the left-winger’s impeachment.
Then in 2018, the colours were again used by the current president – far-right Jair Bolsonaro.
This year too, green, yellow and blue are the key colours at Mr Bolsonaro’s rallies, with people wearing T-shirts, the national flag and accessories.
“The green and yellow shirt has become a symbol of those related to Bolsonaro’s government,” Mr Gamba Torres says, “which means a good part of the population no longer identify with it.”
João’s encounter with the shop owner is not the only reason he is now hesitant to talk politics. In Brazil, political disputes can seemingly get deadly.
In July, Marcelo Aloizio de Arruda – a supporter of former president and left-wing candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – was shot dead at his 50th birthday party, allegedly by a police officer shouting in support of right-wing President Bolsonaro.
Before he died, Mr Arruda retaliated and shot his alleged attacker – who spent some time in hospital before being sent to prison, where he awaits trial.
And on 9 September, 44-year-old Benedito Cardoso dos Santos was allegedly killed by a colleague, following a heated political discussion between the two. The 22-year-old suspect remains in police custody.
Tech programmer Ruy Araújo Souza Júnior, 43, tells BBC News he will only wear the shirt at home, to avoid being mistaken for a Bolsonaro supporter.
If ex-President Lula wins the election, he hopes the shirt will “once again unite us and symbolise true love of our country, not a political party”.
Left-wing candidate Lula has focused on “reclaiming” the flag. Several of his supporters, such as singer Ludmilla, international star Anitta, and rapper Djonga, have made a point of wearing the shirt during their performances.
Djonga, who was part of Nike’s official campaign for the Brazilian World Cup kit, told a crowd at one concert that wearing the shirt in public was an act of protest.
“They [Bolsonaro supporters] think everything is theirs, they appropriate the meaning of family, they appropriate our national anthem, they appropriate everything,” he said. “But here’s the truth: everything is ours, nothing is theirs.”
But it’s not just Mr Bolsonaro’s opponents who are wary of wearing the shirt.
“I’m a patriot and right-wing. I really want to vote wearing my yellow shirt,” says Bolsonaro supporter Alessandra Passos, 41.
But due to the tense environment between voters, she says, she is “afraid to wear it on voting day”.
But what do the footballers themselves think of the shirt becoming a political symbol? Brazil and Tottenham forward Richarlison says the connotations disconnect Brazilians from the shirt and the flag, taking away part of the country’s shared identity.
“As a fan, player and Brazilian, I do my best to spread the identification we have with them to the whole world. I believe it’s important to recognise that we are all Brazilians and have Brazilian blood [above anything else].”
And Nike’s advertising campaign for the new shirt features personalities from different sides of the political spectrum – focusing on togetherness as its main topic. The shirt, Nike says, is “collective. It represents more than 210 million Brazilians. It’s ours”.
The brand also banned the customisation of shirts with political references or religious terms. Yet many Brazilians still chose to purchase the blue away shirt instead, which sold out a few hours after its release.
Futsal (a form of indoor football popular in Brazil) coach Matheus Rocha, 28, tells BBC News he has decided to wear the blue shirt this year.
“I don’t feel any desire to wear the yellow shirt,” he says. “Actually, the idea of wearing it repulses me, I don’t even take my old ones out of my drawer. It’s a shame, because the shirt itself is gorgeous.”
He says the same sentiment was shared among his friendship group and colleagues. “RIP yellow shirt,” he says. “And I hope Brazil wins its sixth World Cup title in blue for the people.”
Although many share Matheus’s sentiments, the shirt is still popular with other football fans across the country.
Supporter group Movimento Verde e Amarelo (Green and Yellow movement) thinks the World Cup will help get Brazilians back behind the yellow shirt.
“We don’t agree with those who insist the Seleção’s yellow shirt is dead, it’s just sad to see it being used as an excuse for political clashes,” says Luiz Carvalho, founding member of the group.
“It makes no sense to say the yellow shirt doesn’t represent this or that politician when the whole idea behind it is exactly the opposite,” he adds.
“When our team enter the pitch, so does the pride we have as Brazilians. So whatever happens in the October polls, the love we share should prevail, as it always did.”
And yet, for some Bolsonaro supporters, the shirt has become an even bigger symbol of patriotic love – taking on a new life during his government.
“There was no sense of patriotism before Bolsonaro’s government, because leftist governments don’t wear our flag,” Adriana Moraes do Nascimento, 49, tells the BBC.
“Thank God our president loves Brazil and he has saved these values for us.”
To Adriana, the shirt used only refer to football and now shows love for the country.
“If the left wins the election, the flag will disappear once again,” she says. “Have you ever seen a flag in their hands? No. But that is not going to happen, as President Bolsonaro will win.”
This is the first time Brazil’s presidential election has been so closely aligned with the World Cup, both in its timeline and in social discussions.
Professor Gamba Torres says Brazilians need to disassociate the shirt with politics. “A shirt is just a shirt,” he says.
“Of course it has meanings, but it ultimately doesn’t represent one specific government. Governments come and go, but our country and our team will always exist.”
-BBC
Kirsty Coventry became the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the most powerful person in sport, on Monday in a handover ceremony with her predecessor Thomas Bach.
The Zimbabwean is the first woman and African to head the body, and at 41, the youngest since Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with founding the modern-day Olympics.
Coventry accepted the Olympic key from Bach, who, like her, is an Olympic champion — he won a team fencing gold in 1976 and she earned two swimming golds in 2004 and 2008.
Stepping down after a turbulent 12-year tenure, Bach expressed his confidence that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands” and Coventry would bring “conviction, integrity and a dynamic perspective” to the role.
Coventry, who swept to a crushing first-round victory in the election in Greece in March, leans heavily on her family.
Aside from her parents, who were present at the ceremony in Lausanne, there is her husband Tyrone Seward, who was effectively her campaign manager, and two daughters, six-year-old Ella, who Bach addresses as “princess”, and Lily, just seven months old.
“Ella saw this spider web in the garden and I pointed out how it is made, and how strong and resilient it is to bad weather and little critters,” said Coventry, who takes over officially at midnight Swiss time Monday (2200 GMT).
“But if one little bit breaks it becomes weaker. That spider web is our movement, it is complex, beautiful and strong but it only works if we remain together and united.”
‘Pure passion’
Coventry said she could not believe how her life had evolved since she first dreamt of Olympic glory in 1992.
“How lucky are we creating a platform for generations to come to reach their dreams,” she said to a packed audience in a marquee in the Olympic House garden, which comprised IOC members, including those she defeated, and dignitaries.
“It is amazing and incredible, indeed I cannot believe that from my dream in 1992 of going to an Olympic Games and winning a medal I would be standing here with you to make dreams for more young children round the world.”
Coventry, who served in the Zimbabwean government as sports and arts Minister from 2019 to this year, said the Olympic movement was much more than a “multi-sport event platform.”
“We (IOC members) are guardians of this movement, which is also about inspiring and changing lives and bringing hope,” she said.
“These things are not to be taken lightly and I will be working with each and every one of you to continue to change lives and be a beacon of hope in a divided world.
“I am really honoured to walk this journey with you.”
Bach, who during his tenure had to grapple with Russian doping and their invasions of the Crimea and Ukraine as well as the Covid pandemic, said he was standing down filled with “gratitude, joy and confidence” in his successor.
“With her election it sends out a powerful message, that the IOC continues to evolve,” said the 71-year-old German, who was named honorary lifetime president in Greece in March.
“It has its first female and African to hold this position, and the youngest president since Pierre de Coubertin. She represents the truly global and youthful spirit of our community.”
Bach, who choked back tears at one point during his valedictory speech, was praised to the rafters by Coventry, who was widely seen as his preferred candidate of the seven vying for his post.
After a warm embrace, she credited him with teaching her to “listen to people and to respect them,” and praised him for leading the movement with “pure passion and purpose.”
“You have kept us united through the most turbulent times.
“You left us with many legacies and hope, thank you from the bottom of my heart for leading us with passion and never wavering from our values.”
-AFP
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Former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry took over the leadership of the International Olympic Committee from Thomas Bach in a ceremony on Monday with the 2028 Los Angeles Games already threatening to fill her in-tray to overflowing.
Coventry, who starts her eight-year spell officially on Tuesday as the most powerful sports administrator in the world, became the first woman and first African to be elected head of the Olympic ruling body in March.
Much of the discussion during campaigning focused on the IOC’s need for change in its marketing strategies with several top Olympic sponsors having left in the past 12 months.
However, with Los Angeles hit by protests against immigration raids, and relations tense between state and city officials, and the U.S. government, the 2028 Games have become the major talking point in the movement that would ordinarily be focusing on next year’s Milano-Cortina Winter Games.
Coventry has long-standing ties with the United States, dating back to her time as a leading swimmer at Auburn University in Alabama. That will prove useful ahead of LA 2028, and she has said she will seek to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the Games.
Coventry will also need to find time to help secure the long-term finances of the movement. The IOC, which generates billions of dollars in revenues each year in sponsorship and broadcasting deals for the Olympics, has secured $7.3 billion for 2025-28 and $6.2 billion for 2029-2032. More contracts are expected for both periods.
COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Coventry is also expected to continue the IOC’s plans to expand commercial opportunities for sponsors at the Olympics with the organisation’s finances in a robust state and the privately-funded LA Olympics a good place to start.
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, beating six other candidates, making history for the African continent, with the IOC having been ruled for 131 years by European or North American men.
Her background and being the first female president will be assets in a diverse IOC membership and the international makeup of Olympic stakeholders.
On Monday she was handed the golden key to the IOC by Bach, who was the organisation’s president for 12 years.
“I am really honoured I get to walk this journey with you. I cannot wait for anything that lies ahead,” Coventry said in her address to IOC members and other Olympic stakeholders.
“I know I have the best team to support me and our movement over the next eight years.”
Coventry will hold a two-day workshop this week to get feedback from members on key IOC issues.
“Working together and consistently finding ways to strengthen and keep united our movement that will ensure that we wake up daily… to continue to inspire,” she said.
A seven-time Olympic medallist, Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and in Beijing four years later.
“With her election, you have also sent a powerful message to the world: the IOC continues to evolve,” Bach said in his speech. “With Kirsty Coventry, the Olympic movement will be in the best of hands.”
-Reuters
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Penalties scored when a player accidentally touches the ball twice must be retaken, world soccer’s lawmaking body IFAB has said after Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez had his spot kick disallowed in a Champions League last-16 match.
During a tense shootout with Real Madrid in March, Argentine forward Alvarez slipped and the VAR spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before he kicked it with his right.
Although Alvarez converted the penalty, the goal was chalked off and Atletico went on to lose the shootout and were eliminated from the Champions League.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said the correct decision was made under the current laws but IFAB (International Football Association Board) has said that in such cases the penalty must be retaken.
Atletico Madrid v Real Valladolid – Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain – April 14, 2025 Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo
“(When) the penalty taker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously or the ball touches their non-kicking foot or leg immediately after the kick: if the kick is successful, it is retaken,” IFAB said in a circular.
“If the kick is unsuccessful, an indirect free kick is awarded (unless the referee plays advantage when it clearly benefits the defending team). In the case of penalties (penalty shootout), the kick is recorded as missed.”
The decision to disallow Alvarez’s penalty left Atletico boss Diego Simeone livid and the club’s fans outraged.
IFAB added that if the penalty taker deliberately kicks the ball with both feet or deliberately touches it a second time, an indirect free kick is awarded or, in the case of shootouts, it is recorded as missed.
The new procedures are effective for competitions starting on or after July 1, but IFAB said it may be used in competitions that start this month.
-Reuters
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