In Brazil, you will almost never see a footballer with the number 24. Agence France presse had fun doing the accounts: on all the first division players who, since January, compete in tournaments in the 27 States of Brazil, only four wear jersey 24. The most famous of them, Victor Cantillo, is not Brazilian but Colombian. In his country, he had always worn the 24 because it was his lucky charm. When he arrived in Brazil in 2020, the sports director of Corinthians from Sao Paulo told him straight away: “Attention, here, no number 24! “Before finally apologizing and accepting.
In the Copa Libertadores, the Latin American equivalent of the Champions League, Brazilian teams are not allowed to remove the number 24. To circumvent this ban, they have found the trick: they systematically assign it to the third goalkeeper, to be sure that he never appears on the field.
This boycott has nothing to do with superstition. It is much more serious because this practice is in fact a homophobic posture rooted in Brazilian popular culture. To understand, we have to go back to the 19th century. An underground lotto game was being played in the streets of Rio. It is still practiced today. In this game, the “Jogo do bicho” (“animal game”, in French), the numbers are associated with animal designs. For the 24, it is a deer.
Now, the deer – veado in Portuguese – is a species whose males can have sexual relations with each other. In slang, to call someone “veado”, is to treat him as a homosexual, in the most pejorative way possible. This is why footballers especially do not want to appear with a 24 on their back: for fear of damaging their image of virility.
Last January, in an under-20 tournament, the side of America Mineiro who wore number 24 was the target of homophobic chants in the stands. The subject was even invited to the Copa America, played in Brazil in the summer of 2021. Exceptionally, due to Covid-19, each team could call up to 28 players. All the national selections presented themselves with a number 24, except the Seleçao which went directly from 23 to 25. The NGO Grupo Arco-Iris (“rainbow group” in French), which fights for the rights of LGBT + people , filed a complaint against the Brazilian federation. The case was dismissed without further action.
Off the field, it’s the same. It may sound crazy, but some men refuse, for example, to sit on armchair 24 at the theater or in the cinema, do not want to live in apartment 24 of a building or even use two different candles on their birthday cake, 23 and 1, rather than just one of 24. In 2015, in the Senate, where each senator has his own room, someone realized that door number 25 succeeded 23, without anyone knowing why . It took a media outcry and the renewal of the chamber for office 24 to reappear and things get back to normal.
It is a reflection of a society that deeply rejects homosexuality: it was only in 2019 that homophobia was recognized as a crime in Brazil, along with racism. This decision of the Supreme Court was, however, challenged by President Jair Bolsonaro who, in November 2020, during a speech at the seat of the federal government, urged Brazil to fight the pandemic with its head held high with this argument: “We have to stop being a country of fags!“
“Tem que deixar de ser um país de maricas”, diz o Presidente da Republica sober as died by Covid-19 pic.twitter.com/YBhWMUddMV
— Samuel Pancher (@SamPancher) November 10, 2020
The same year, the Minister of Education, an evangelical pastor, explained that homosexual adolescents necessarily came from “mismatched families”. The Brasilia prosecutor’s office filed a complaint in early February. Justice will decide whether to proceed. Legitimized at all levels of political discourse, the ambient hostility towards LGBT people has only increased (link to an article in portuguese) since Bolsonaro came to power in 2019. We are not about to see number 24 again on a pitch…