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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0632-2943

Abstract

This article examines the growing entanglement between football, political conflict, and national identity in contemporary Brazil, focusing on the Brazilian National Football Team as a highly charged national symbol. Rather than assuming a direct causal link between sporting success and political outcomes, the paper explores how football has become a space where political meanings and public emotions are constantly reinterpreted and disputed. The discussion revisits the changing political meanings attached to the national team over the last decade. Particular attention is given to the perceived relationship between football performance and electoral cycles, the politicization of the yellow jersey, the use of World Cups in governmental communication, the symbolic repercussions of landmark defeats, especially the 7-1 loss in 2014, and the recent decline in the team’s public prestige. This shift is significant. By approaching football as a cultural arena shaped by affect, memory, and media circulation, the article argues that the sport operates less as a determinant of political behaviour and more as a reservoir of shared emotions through which competing interpretations of the nation take form. In this sense, football becomes a disputed symbolic field where belonging, legitimacy, and national narratives are continually renegotiated. Overall, the article contributes to Global South sport studies by showing how national symbols are reworked in contexts marked by political polarization, expanding media environments and institutional instability.

Publication note/transparency statement This article is a corrected version of the paper originally published on February 2, 2026, “Politics, Catharsis, and Football: The Brazilian National Team as a Symbolic Device of Nationhood.” It introduces no new empirical or theoretical content; revisions are limited to correcting and standardizing citations and references to ensure accuracy and appropriate attribution.  


Artificial Intelligence Statement This manuscript was originally written by the author in Portuguese and subsequently translated and language-edited with the assistance of AI-based tools to improve clarity and grammar. All ideas, analyses, interpretations, and references are the sole responsibility of the author.

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