Brazil World Cup Fans Ditch Yellow Shirt Tainted by Politics

If a deeply polarizing presidential election wasn’t enough to tear Brazilians apart, the World Cup is posing a new identity test: whether to wear their most-prized shirt.

The Brazilian national football team’s canary yellow and green jersey has become the choice accessory of supporters of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro. So closely is the shirt associated with the right-wing leader, that many fans are ditching it as they cheer on Brazil in this year’s tournament. The team, who are favorites to win, will play their first match against Serbia on Thursday.

“The future is blue,” William Enrique, who hawks jerseys in downtown Rio de Janeiro, said of Brazil’s secondary shirt. Pointing to a pile of unsold yellow jerseys, he added: “Buyers will tell me, ‘That’s Bolsonaro! Gimme the other one.’”

Worn by football greats like Pele and Ronaldo when they helped Brazil bring home its five World Cups, the iconic yellow uniform is a symbol of the country’s dominance of the sport. But it’s also being donned by Bolsonaro faithful at rallies, and as they take to the streets to protest President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s recent victory in the polls.

Celso Unzelte, a sports journalist and commentator, says the embrace of the national colors is a throwback to Brazil’s military government, which left power in 1985. But under Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has openly celebrated that regime, the adoption of the yellow shirt has been much more polarizing.

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