Article Title
Politics, Catharsis, and Football: The Brazilian National Team as a Symbolic Device of Nationhood
Abstract
This article examines the Brazilian National Football Team as a symbolic device through which collective emotions, political disputes, and narratives of national identity are articulated in contemporary Brazil. Grounded in a qualitative and interpretive approach that combines political theory, sociology of sport, and cultural analysis, the study explores five analytical dimensions: (1) the socially constructed relationship between sporting performance and electoral behaviour; (2) the political dispute surrounding the national team’s yellow jersey; (3) institutional communication strategies adopted by governments during World Cups; (4) the symbolic role of emblematic defeats—particularly the 7–1 loss in 2014—in shaping political imaginaries; and (5) the contemporary reconfiguration of the National Team’s symbolic prestige. The analysis demonstrates that football does not determine political outcomes but operates as a powerful affective and symbolic infrastructure through which political meanings, collective sentiments, and national narratives are negotiated. By theorizing football as a contested cultural arena rather than a causal variable, the article contributes to Global South sport studies by showing how national symbols are continuously re-signified amid polarisation, mediatization, and institutional crisis.