BRAZIL AND THE beautiful game go together like music and dance.
This is the land of Samba football; of Pele, Jairzinho, Zico, Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and Neymar.
Brazil have won the World Cup five times, and on the occasions they fail to win the competition the nation searches its soul. The game is everything to Brazilians, from how they express themselves to how they view themselves as a people.
So you can see why somebody who wants to gain political control of the country would seek the support of Brazil’s football heroes . . .
In the the first episode of On The Right Wing, Enda Coll speaks to Tim Vickery, the BBC’s South American football correspondent, and Andrew Downie, the Brazilian football correspondent for Reuters.
They detail the country’s shift to the political right, how Jair Bolsonaro used football as a vehicle for his message and the hijacking of the iconic yellow jersey by his supporters during the last election.
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Charting the journey of Brazilian politics through the prism of football, they explore the impact of of the Confederations Cup riots in 2013, the domino effect that followed, why some of Brazil 2002 World Cup stars came out in support of a former military leader and how the far-right in the country mimicked Trump’s tactics in the 2022 elections.
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Written by The 42 Team and posted on the42.ie
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