(CNN)Brazil’s bright yellow jersey is a symbol that unites the country through love of football and national pride, but over the past two years the jersey has been embraced by right-wing supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, who wear it at protests and rallies to show their political allegiance show the Brazilian President, causes controversy.
The famous yellow jersey burned itself into the imagination of a global audience at the 1970 World Cup. Inspired by the mesmerizing performances of Pele – he wore the number 10 jersey – the yellow jersey represented Brazil’s success on the pitch and created a positive image around the world over the past five decades.
This 1970 national team also became involved in politics, particularly ahead of the World Cup in Mexico when General Medici, the president of a nation under military dictatorship, played a key role in ousting the coach – Joao Saldanha – who had overseen a perfect qualifying action .
Fast forward to 2020 and Bolsonaro’s critics say the iconic yellow jersey has now been sullied by his close association with the Brazilian president.
Walter Casagrande, former soccer player for the Brazilian national team and the Corinthians club from São Paulo, remembers the feeling of scoring a goal in his first game with the “selecao” in the yellow jersey in 1985.
“It was a magical thing,” Casagrande told CNN Sport, “like an enchanted object that gave me great emotions.”
Casagrande’s feelings lie to the left of the political divide separating Bolsonaro’s supporters and opponents, and he feels a point he values is being misrepresented.
“Now I consider the Brazil yellow jersey hijacked and appropriated by the right wing, so we cannot use it.”
Casagrande said that for him the power of the yellow shirt was that it represented democracy and freedom.
“Brazil seems awful to the world right now,” he said. “It’s the first time in my life that I’ve seen the yellow jersey being used against democracy and freedom.”
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“It’s not about politics”
As quick as the left is to criticize Bolsonaro, his supporters do not hesitate to hit back.
Cosmo Alexandre, a Brazilian fighter who holds multiple world titles in Muay Thai and kickboxing, believes the left is confusing its many issues with Bolsonaro and using the jersey as just another way to air grievances.
As a Bolsonaro supporter, Alexandre dismisses accusations that the kit’s symbolism is being tampered with and says the reason for supporters to wear a yellow t-shirt is simple: everyone in Brazil has a yellow t-shirt.
He points out that fans don’t always specifically wear the Brazilian team’s jersey and rallies are full of people wearing all kinds of yellow shirts.
Alexandre says there is a disconnect between the jersey’s sporting reputation and associations and what it represents politically.
“Everyone around the world knows the Brazilian soccer team and even if I go to a fight wearing the yellow jersey of the soccer team, everyone knows it’s Brazil,” he said. “So it’s not about politics – it’s just that the world knows about football in Brazil.”
Some may find it easier than others to isolate football and politics in a country where football is god.
Josemar de Rezende Jr. is a football fan who co-founded a Bolsonaro volunteer group in his city before the election. He said he is proud of the Brazilian team’s worldwide reputation for victories and to him the yellow jersey means “love for the country, leadership, achievement and pride”.
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Campaign for white and blue jerseys
Nonetheless, the issue of the yellow jersey is so controversial that a campaign is underway for Brazil to play in a white jersey.
João Carlos Assumpção, a Brazilian journalist, filmmaker and author of Gods of Soccer, a book about the political, sociological and economic history of Brazil, is leading a campaign for the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) to ditch the yellow jersey altogether They return to the classic white and blue kit from when the program began in 1914.
CNN reached out to the CBF, who responded that they chose not to comment on the matter “because it is a very unique issue.”
“People used to love Brazilian football because we used to play very well,” Assumpção said, “and if we play well in 2022 with the white jersey, I think everyone will buy a white jersey. It’s going to be very difficult to change, but I don’t think it’s impossible.”
The white and blue jersey was considered unlucky when Brazil lost the World Cup at home to Uruguay in 1950, so they switched to the yellow jersey and won five World Cups in the process – a finals record that still stands today.
Assumpção’s vision of changing the color of the shirt is to tell the world that Brazilians want changes in the country. “Not the changes that this government is making,” Assumpção clarified.
On the other side of the political spectrum, the color yellow, including the yellow jersey, stands for a positive change in the country. Bolsonaro supporter Rezende Jr believes the left’s attempt to retake the yellow jersey is an attempt to “mischaracterize the government,” which he describes as a “patriotic government representing and from all walks of life across the country.” is supported”.
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Rival football fans unite
Political unrest in the country reflects the fierceness between inter-city football rivalries across Brazil. Except that it’s not limited by city limits and has been bringing fans together over the past few months.
São Paulo is home to four main clubs: Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paolo and Santos. The rivalry between Corinthians and Palmeiras is particularly intense and in June groups from all clubs took to the streets to protest Bolsonaro’s supporters.
Sociologist Rafael Castilho, member of the Collective Corinthian Democracy and coordinator of the Corinthians Study Center, said that in order to overcome the current political situation, Brazil “must unite different ways of thinking and accept the contradictory”.
Castilho explains the civic responsibility rival clubs feel to support each other and join civil society movements “as the country is experiencing a crisis of party representation and social movements have been intimidated by police action,” he said, adding that “the attitude gained sympathy from the fans because part of society feels represented by the courage of the fans.”
The Corinthians have a long history of mixing football and politics. In the 1980s, during the pro-democracy movement called Diretas Já, the club team was led by national team leaders Socrates and Casagrande.
The two linked football to politics when the team wore shirts with the words “VOTE on 15th” written on them during a game in 1982 to encourage their fans to vote in the São Paulo state government elections.
Two years later, the Corinthians were at the center of a movement called Democracia Corintiana that, according to Casagrande, brought more than a million people to the streets in yellow.
“It was a very important moment for Brazilian democracy and this yellow jersey was at the heart of that movement,” said Casagrande.
“I don’t want communism in my country”
The yellow jersey was back on the streets in 2013 during the protests against ex-president Dilma Roussef and against corruption. A year before the World Cup in the South American country, conservative protesters wore jerseys representing the colors of Brazil, while left-wing protesters used other colors.
Alexandre and Rezende Jr. both say that yellow is an improvement over the red T-shirts government supporters wore when the left was in power, alluding to an underlying support for communism.
“When Bolsonaro started running, his supporters used the yellow color to show that I’m Brazilian and I don’t want communism in my country,” Alexandre said.
The battle for the yellow jersey leaves some yearning to reclaim a victorious past, while others push forward to bring new meaning to the iconic symbol. In a country so deeply rooted in football, it’s an issue that’s unlikely to go away.
Assumpção believes that it is only possible for the football community and Brazilians not affiliated with the far right to regain the shirt “maybe in five or ten years, but not now. Not now”.
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