O esporte como elemento para se pensar o Brasil, sua formação e sua contemporaneidade

This essay aims at analyzing sport as a Brazilian cultural element and its role in society, mainly when associated with social and political movements. Considered an important social object of contemporaneity, sport – especially football, from its historical, sociological and anthropological aspects allows the analysis of nuances that characterize the complex brazilian society. Thus, in this text, the relationship between sport and politics is reflected, bringing up the debate of some analysis regarding the popular demonstrations which occurred in some Brazilian capital cities in 2013 during the Confederations Cup, FIFA’s test event for the 2014 World Cup. In the reflective exercise that was conducted, some ambivalences related to the sport as a constituent of the formation of a Brazilian “society” or “nation” are found based on well-known elaborations surrounding the Brazilian cordiality, the malandragem (attitude) dialectics, the Brazilian way, the dialectics of marginality, and football as a “poison pill”