World Cup gives Brazil fans chance to reclaim yellow jersey from far right

Progressive Brazilians are embracing alternative versions of the football shirt, like Thainá Pinho’s designs. Photograph: Matheus Leite/Revolta Canária

Football, once Brazil’s great unifier, has in recent years fallen victim to the country’s polarised politics. The yellow and green football shirt, emblematic of a national team that has won a record five World Cups, is now shunned by many Brazilians who associate it with the outgoing far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and his authoritarian brand of nationalism.

“I used to feel proud of wearing the Brazilian football shirt. Not any more. Now I feel dread,” said Regina Valadares, a copywriter from the southern city of Florianópolis. The shirt evokes “shame” and “disgust” for the 43-year-old as “it represents everything bad about this government.”