Analysis: Copa America in Brazil becomes Bolsonaro’s trump card and smokescreen

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Copa America hasn’t kicked off yet, but the Bolsonaro government is treating the last-minute hosting of the tournament in Brazil as a victory. “Coherence won!,” celebrated Chief of Staff Minister Luiz Eduardo Ramos on a social network, after president Bolsonaro’s announcement that all games of the championship of South American teams – something rejected by Argentina and Colombia two weeks before its start-, will take place in Brazil.

The celebration is not by chance. According to professor Flávio de Campos, a researcher in
the sociocultural history of soccer at the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil’s acceptance of the emergency request from the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) is being used as a “smokescreen” for the government at a time of social protests, delay in the vaccination campaign against Covid-19, exposure of allies in the Covid CPI (parliamentary investigative committee), and decline in his personal popularity due to the strengthening of potential opponents in the 2022 elections.

“The smokescreen is the effort to hold an absolutely inopportune event at a time when the government is cornered. Bolsonaro is in an electoral campaign, and will play everything he has to preserve his popularity. It is natural that he will make political use of the most popular sport in the country,” says the researcher.

By “cornered,” the historian is referring to the most recent crises Bolsonaro and his main allies have faced in Brasília in recent weeks. In particular, the Pandemic CPI, which is a Senate committee investigating potential crimes committed by the federal government in the fight against Covid-19.

Despite scientists pointing to the risks of holding the championship at a time when Brazil is seeing a surge in hospitalizations, the Copa America would help divert attention from the pandemic to the event. “Bolsonaro’s only commitment to soccer is to use it to improve his own image,” Campos opined.

According to the historian, Bolsonaro also expects to see the repercussions of protests calling for his impeachment overshadowed by the hosting of the tournament, as is also the case with the Federal Police investigations targeting Environment Minister Ricardo Salles for suspected illegal timber smuggling and the recent polls on the electoral scenario in 2022, which place ex-president Lula (PT) ahead of Bolsonaro in a potential runoff.

This is not the first time Bolsonaro has used soccer to protect his popularity. In addition to common appearances wearing the shirts of several teams, the president invited ex-judge Sergio Moro to attend a Flamengo match in Brasília in June 2019, in order to reap some applause amid the Vaza Jato crisis, which had the then Justice Minister as one of its main protagonists.

A month later, this time under booing from the crowd, Bolsonaro went to the Maracanã ground to pose with the Copa America cup and the Brazilian national team, champions of the tournament’s last edition -just as he had done a year before with Palmeiras, when the São Paulo team was Brazilian champion in 2018, even before he was elected president.

Soccer as a political weapon

The sports historian also recalls other political figures, such as fascist Benito Mussolini, who made constant use of soccer in an attempt to circumvent crises in his governments. Mussolini promoted his dictatorship using the World Cup in Italy, in 1934.

In Brazil, military dictator Emílio Garrastazu Médici used the popularity of the Brazilian national team in the 1970 World Cup: “He triggers this patriotism with the national team, what Nelson Rodrigues called the homeland of cleats. Only now it is the death of cleats. It is the behavior of someone who is a demagogue, who is cornered and has no scruples whatsoever,” criticizes the researcher.

In defense of holding the event in the country most affected by Covid-19 on the continent, Bolsonaro and his team justified the choice as “coherent” with the fact that other soccer tournaments are taking place at the same time in his country.

“We are in full pandemic, but the Brazilian Championship, which involves 20 teams in the A series, 20 in the B series, is taking place. I don’t know why people have spoken out against this event, if the Brazilian Championship games are taking place, state games, Libertadores and Sul-Americana games are taking place,” argued Minister Luiz Eduardo Ramos.

The president, in turn, attributed the criticism to Globo Network employees who, according to him, do so because the network does not have the rights to broadcast the tournament this year – it will be aired by SBT in Brazil.

Galvão Bueno, a Globo commentator and the most popular (if controversial) figure in the Brazilian sports media, on Monday, May 31, urged on his show for “someone to have a burst of common sense and for this madness not to happen.”

The holding of the tournament in Brazil was not only contested by journalists from the network, but also by doctors and epidemiologists, who challenged the government’s stance in agreeing to host a soccer tournament, at a time when the country is witnessing a new escalation of Covid-19 infections, which has now killed over 460,000 Brazilians and is heading for a third wave.

“However, I see the expression of a good part of the press as a great positive point. With it, we have achieved the creation of a critical mass that is used to following soccer, disassociating it from politics,” Campos points out.

Late Wednesday night, CONMEBOL confirmed that the matches will be held in four host cities -Brasília, Cuiabá, Goiânia and Rio de Janeiro- and released the match schedule for the tournament, which will run for a month.

Although the mayors and governors of the host cities advocate the adoption of strict security protocols for the Copa America, only the mayor of Cuiabá, Emanuel Pinheiro (MDB) declared himself against holding the championship in the city. “We are experiencing a pandemic and the moment is not adequate in respect to the thousands of deaths and confirmed cases,” he criticized after the announcement.

For historian Campos, comparisons made between the holding of the club championships and the Copa America are “false symmetries that build the argument with the purpose of freeing the president from his responsibilities.” It is worth noting that the South American tournament implies that one country will simultaneously host delegations from ten other
countries, unlike what happens in the other championships cited.

In addition, data from CONMEBOL itself shows that the Copa is a less financially relevant tournament than the Libertadores and, therefore, would have a lower impact if canceled, which undermines the comparison made by the Government. In 2019, US$118 million was  raised by CONMEBOL with the national team tournament in Brazil, while the competition between South American clubs raised US$300 million.

The Copa America 2021 will kick off on Sunday, June 13. The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), which CONMEBOL thanked for mediating the negotiations and to which the government assigned the mission of negotiating with states to determine venues and schedules, has not yet commented on the matter.

On the other hand, after receiving petitions from legislators and political parties seeking to bar the tournament, Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Ricardo Lewandowski requested an explanation from the Presidency about holding the competition in Brazil.

Source: El Pais