How Latin American World Cup jerseys became a political football

{"text":[[{"start":8.75,"text":"Unusually for a presidential candidate, Colombia’s Abelardo de la Espriella has his own fashion line. On the dapper populist’s website, you can buy a lilac checked blazer, paisley pocket squares or tennis shoes that cost over £110."}],[{"start":25.15,"text":"But in the build-up to this Sunday’s election, the far right de la Espriella has been sporting only one outfit: a bright yellow Colombia football shirt. "}],[{"start":34.4,"text":"De la Espriella, who is favourite to win the presidency, gave a local media interview earlier this week at his house, surrounded by expensive modern art, wearing the yellow top. At his closing rally, when he took the stage in a football strip, most of the crowd was dressed the same way."}],[{"start":51.95,"text":"With the election taking place during the World Cup, de la Espriella has riled leftwing opponents over his efforts to fuse his militaristic nationalism with the outpouring of support for the national team. His shirt is embossed with one of the slogans of his campaign: ‘Firme por la Patria’ or ‘Steadfast for the homeland’."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":69.65,"text":"Brazil, also in the midst of an election campaign, is facing a similar contest over the national football shirt. In recent years, former president Jair Bolsonaro has adopted the famous yellow and green strip as his far-right movement’s uniform."}],[{"start":84.25,"text":"Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running for a fourth term as president, has launched a counter-attack this week to reclaim the colours. The veteran leftwinger released an online advert where he criticises the Trump administration amid a flurry of supporters wearing Brazil shirts, while in a separate instagram post, he donned the football strip. "}],[{"start":103.85,"text":"As politics in both countries has become more polarised over the past decade, candidates are latching on to one of the few potent symbols that still bind people together. In the smartphone era, the World Cup is a rare, genuinely collective experience."}],[{"start":118.44999999999999,"text":"For the rightwing populists shaking up the region’s politics, football tops are also an easy shorthand for Maga-style narratives — that the left is unpatriotic, obsessed with minorities and weak on defending the nation. "}],[{"start":132,"text":"In both countries, the football strip plays an oversized role in national identity. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":137.95,"text":"In Brazil, the yellow shirt with a green collar became one of the defining images of the country with the triumph of Pelé and colleagues in the 1970 World Cup, the first to be televised in colour."}],[{"start":150.25,"text":"For Colombia, the yellow strip with red and blue details, created by a former designer at Dior, took on iconic status in the early 1990s when a golden generation of players captured the national imagination during a period of intense political violence. "}],[{"start":165.3,"text":"De la Espriella started wearing the football top shortly before the first round of voting on May 31 and urged supporters to wear the strip on polling day. The display of patriotism dovetailed with a campaign that is promising a “hard hand” policy against drug traffickers, while he accuses leftwing rival Iván Cepeda of being soft on organised crime."}],[{"start":188.8,"text":"“The country is tired of this insecurity, of this violence,” José Manuel Restrepo, his running mate, told the FT. “We have had a government which has done absolutely nothing to these criminal groups, which has been weak in the face of crime.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":204.15,"text":"Cepeda, the son of a Communist leader who usually wears collarless shirts reminiscent of Mao Zedong, initially asked the Colombian football federation to intervene. At one stage, a judge in Bogotá ruled that it was “improper” for de la Espriella to use the football shirt in a political context — a ruling he said he would ignore. Another judge later overturned the ruling."}],[{"start":226.9,"text":"However, Cepeda has changed tack. Many of his followers have taken to wearing the top and at a campaign event last week with supporters of several football teams, he was presented with a national jersey. “Don’t be a thief, don’t rob our shirt,” he said. "}],[{"start":242.70000000000002,"text":"De la Espriella has won the support of a number of prominent footballers, including Faustino Asprilla, one of the heroes of the 1990s team. He has managed to link his image with the jersey despite little apparent interest in the sport. "}],[{"start":256.95000000000005,"text":"According to a biography by Colombian writer Ángel Becassino: “Abelardo detests football, he has never been to a stadium to watch a match, and he couldn’t care less about what happens in a World Cup.” "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":268.50000000000006,"text":"During the last Brazilian election in 2022, Jair Bolsonaro’s association with the yellow top was so strong that some opponents pushed to change the national strip. "}],[{"start":279.50000000000006,"text":"However, a proposal to adopt an older white and blue top was widely criticised: that jersey had been abandoned after Brazil unexpectedly lost the 1950 World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro to Uruguay, an event still considered a national trauma."}],[{"start":295.70000000000005,"text":"Lula is taking no chances this year. The new advertising campaign called “Lula plays for Brazil” mixes images of the football strip with claims about the achievements of his government."}],[{"start":307.50000000000006,"text":"Earlier this year, he said that the left needed to make sure the national colours were not taken over “by any fascist”. "}],[{"start":314.70000000000005,"text":"His closest challenger this year is Flávio Bolsonaro, eldest son of the former president, who calls the football strip “the Bolsonaro shirt”. “Lula only uses the green and yellow during elections and the World Cup,” said the younger Bolsonaro on Instagram. “We have worn the shirt our whole lives.”"}],[{"start":338.8500000000001,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1781937127_7286.mp3"}