THE FOOTPOL PODCAST
Lula has won a fourth term after overturning Flávio Bolsonaro’s first-round lead, and football was on the ballot again. Have Brazilians stopped voting and started supporting, backing politicians the way they back their club? Anthropologist Carmen Rial (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina), who chairs Brazil’s National Institute of Science and Technology for Brazilian Football Studies, joins FootPol to explain. In 2018 and 2022, Neymar and a string of Seleção stars campaigned openly for Jair Bolsonaro; this time the big names went quiet. Carmen explains what drives footballers’ politics, from evangelical faith reshaping the dressing room to tax rulings, beachfront property and casino laws. She also explains how Lula’s supporters took back the yellow Seleção shirt from the far right, how organised fans from Corinthians, Palmeiras, Vasco and Internacional mobilised behind Lula, and why women players spoke out this time while the men stayed silent. And with the 2027 Women’s World Cup coming to Brazil, a country that banned women’s football until 1979, we ask whether the tournament will change anything.
Read Carmen’s article (in Portuguese) on political loyalty as club loyalty on INCT Futebol’s Bate-Pronto blog: https://www.inctfutebol.com.br/post/futebol-lula-e-fl%C3%A1vio-torcedores-na-pol%C3%ADtica
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