Almost a century after its first match in a World Cup, the Brazilian team will have a number 24 in its ranks, ending an absurd homophobic taboo that links this number with homosexuality.
The hatred of this number comes from the ‘Jogo do bicho’, a kind of lottery invented in 1892 in a zoo – with the aim of improving its income – by which figures of 25 animals are distributed and every day a winner is chosen at random.
This practice, seconded by the Brazilian mafias and spread through the streets, where it is still popular, was banned just three years later, but caused the ’24’ to be associated with homosexuality.
Why? Because the 24th in this lottery corresponds to the deer or deer, which in Brazilian translates as “veado” and sounds like “viado”, an expression used in the country to refer to homosexuals in a derogatory way.
It may seem like a ridiculous relationship, whose permanence in society 100 years later is absurd, but you only have to dig into the Brasileirao to see that players and managers take that number into account when organizing.
Of the more than 600 players in the Brazilian first division, only three of them wear the ’24’ and none is an undisputed starter with their club. In fact, they are all reserves or very young players. This has been the ploy of Brazilian clubs to avoid controversy. If they could not hide the presence of the ’24’, they gave it to players who had practically impossible to wear it in public.
This scandal does not only splash the national championship. Brazil had always avoided the controversy of ’24’ in major competitions due to the restrictions of the squads to 23 players, but the pandemic expanded the lists. In the last Copa America, the quota was 28 players and Brazil was the only selection of the event that decided that there were not 24 on Tite’s list.
For this World Cup, held in a country where homosexuality is a crime, Gleison Bremer took the ’24’, closing a debate of decades and decades and one more reason for the politicization of a selection that has lived this World Cup in a climate of polarization due to the elections in Brazil and the public support of players like Neymar and Raphinha to Jair Bolsonaro, declared homophobic.
This has resulted in part of the country rejoicing in Neymar’s injury in the first match against Serbia and people wishing him the worst for having been one of the public figures who voted for Bolsonaro.
“I don’t understand that a boy with such a big heart could be wished anything bad,” Casemiro said a few days ago.
Only Richarlison, a footballer for Tottenham Hotspur, has been able to speak out in favour of the rights of the LGBT community.
“Football is becoming more inclusive, and it must be even more so. The world has changed a lot. We can’t continue to live like people did 100 years ago,” said the striker when he was still an Everton player.
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