Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This study analyzes the forms of political manifestation related to football, observed in Brazil during the period of the military dictatorship. We emphasize the analysis from 1977 to 1978, marked by great political tension due to the military dictatorship, because we see in football context the outbreak of a clash between conservative and left forces in the Brazilian political scene. In the 1960s and 1970s, different subjects, linked to the opposition groups, also appropriated the communicative space created around football to externalize their political ideals. In this way, the sport served both the interests of the State and the interests of the subjects linked to the Brazilian left. These actions have won a chorus in the attitudes of players and artists, and in the media in general. In this article, in particular, we concentrated our exposure on the analyzes extracted from the manifestations described in the gestures and speeches of the player Reinaldo, idol of the fans of the Club Atlético Mineiro and the Brazilian Selection during the decades of 1970/80. His contestatory attitudes promoted in the press a fervent debate about the political role of the Brazilian soccer player in the days of the military dictatorship. We consider that sport, as well as other elements present in culture, take on new meanings and become phenomena capable of revealing the conflicts, interests, feelings, and symbolic struggles waged in society.