XtraTime Web Desk: Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro desperately wants football season to resume despite of that the five-time World Cup winner’s nation is still a hotspot of deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Brazil is for many synonymous with football and many of the all-time greats, from Pele to Neymar, hail from the nation.
But Brazil is also the epicentre of Latin.
America’s coronavirus outbreak. The death toll from coronavirus in Brazil has surpassed the toll of hard-hit Spain and making it the country with the fifth-highest number of fatalities.
Football has been suspended in Brazil since mid-March but President Jair Bolsonaro recently told Radio Guaiba that footballers would likely not fall very ill with COVID-19.
“As footballers are young athletes the risk of death if they catch coronavirus would be dramatically reduced,” Bolsonaro said.
Back in March Bolsonaro also claimed that thanks to his own sporting past he would only suffer a slight cold if he caught the virus.
The president says his chief motivation for wanting football to get back underway is to curb unemployment and the misery that accompanies it.
“The players have to survive somehow,” he said, explaining that while some top footballers earn a fortune, those from smaller regional leagues need to play “to feed their families”.
The way Brazilian politics works, it is not in Bolsonaro’s remit to restart football. This must be done by the regional states and municipalities.
When football was suspended, seasons at the regional level were underway, but the national championship had been due to start in May and as yet there are no solid plans to begin.
Bolsonaro and his son held meetings on May 19 with the presidents of two Rio superclubs, Vasco da Gama and Flamengo.
Photos of Bolsonaro and his son wearing the shirts of the two clubs stunned social media, with official supporter groups claiming their image had been sold out to politics.
“This is just political intolerance,” said Flamengo president Rodolfo Landim, explaining that Bolsonaro just wants football back as soon as possible and he himself “is defending the interests of Flamengo.”