One month after officials condemned adidas for selling T-shirts that "linked Brazil's image to sexual appeal," the practice of using sex to sell football "continues unabashed at the home of the 2014 World Cup," according to Andrew Downie of REUTERS. Not only do football federations "host their own beauty contests," many teams "promote their own competitions." Some "even put scantily-clad models on the front of their magazines and websites." Roberto Naves, web editor at Serie D side Brasiliense, a club that has a site featuring naked models, said, "About 90, 95 percent of people who watch football are male and so it is natural to link sex with football. What we're doing isn't at all forced. It's hugely popular. There's a saying in Brazil that was coined by a former coach who said, 'You don't change a winning team,' and we're abiding by that." Sex and football "have long been comfortable bedfellows in Brazil." The relationship "hit a rough patch" last month when adidas started selling two T-shirts the Brazilian government said "drew too clear a link between women and sexual tourism." The secretary of women's affairs "slammed the T-shirts" as not just "disrespectful and offensive" but "a crime against all humanity." Tourism board Embratur said they "strongly repudiate the sale of products that link Brazil's image to sexual appeal" and asked adidas to withdraw the T-shirts from sale. It did. However, authorities "have said little about the regular practice by clubs and media outlets of portraying women as sex objects" (REUTERS, 3/24).
