BRAZIL NATIONAL TEAM
Why are Brazil wearing black jerseys in their friendly match against Guinea in Barcelona?
For the first time in their history, the Brazilian national team are in black for the first half of the friendly in Catalonia.
Brazil wearing black jerseys is something we’ve never seen before. Think of the World Cup and it won’t take you too long to think of Brazil, and if you think of Brazil, you can’t not think about the famous yellow jersey that some of the greatest players in the history of the game have donned, from Pelé and Zico to Ronaldo and Ronaldinho.
One of the stars of the current team is Real Madrid’s Vinicius Júnior, who is linked to the reason why they are wearing black jerseys for the first half of Saturday’s friendly against Guinea in Barcelona.
Real Madrid star Vinicius racially abused in Spain
Vinicius being racially insulted by supporters at a number of stadiums was sadly one of the main talking points of the 2022/23 LaLiga season. In his team’s defeat to Valencia in May, the Brazilian identified and attempted to confront fans who had abused him, the eighth time such an incident had been reported during the campaign.
Brazil’s ‘One-skin’ anti-racism campaign
Following the events at Mestalla, which drew huge attention and were condemned worldwide, the Brazil Soccer Federation (CBF) launched their “One skin” anti-racism campaign, which includes playing the friendly match against Guinea in Catalonia, as well as versus Senegal in Lisbon on Tuesday and against Spain in Madrid next March.
The CBF also announced that as part of the campaign, whose slogan is Com racismo nao tem jogo (’With racism, there is no game’), they would wear black jerseys for the first half of the game against Guinea before reverting back to their traditional yellow jersey after half time.
While Brazil have had black goalkeeper and training jerseys in the past, they have never played an official match in black…until now.
Vinicius to lead FIFA’s anti-racism task force
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, meanwhile, revealed last week that he had invited Vinicius to head up a new anti-racism task force, which will be made up of players who and whose main objective will be to suggest stricter sanctions for discriminatory behaviour in soccer.