This archive report was first published on 29 June 2020.
On June 28, 2020, Brazilian football clubs Botafogo and Fluminense returned to the pitch in Rio de Janeiro, despite their protests against the resumption of professional football during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The clubs, two of Rio's biggest, initially won a reprieve from Mayor Marcelo Crivella's decision to resume football, but a court later ruled they had to resume play.
Before their matches, the teams made their stance clear. Fluminense's president, Mario Bittencourt, wrote on Instagram, 'Thousands of people are still dying in Brazil and we're forced to play football with no protection.'
Botafogo players held up a banner reading 'A good protocol is one that respects lives' before their match, while also joining the worldwide protests against racism by wearing black jerseys with the words 'Vidas Negras Importam' – Black Lives Matter – and taking a knee at the start of the match.
Fluminense played in the Nilton Santos Olympic stadium, after winning a fight with the Rio de Janeiro Football Federation not to play in the Maracana stadium, where a coronavirus field hospital has been set up in the parking lot.
Rio, which restarted its state tournament last week, is the first place in South America to resume professional football matches, after a three-month hiatus to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
As of June 28, 2020, Brazil had the second-highest number of infections and deaths from the new coronavirus worldwide, with over 1.3 million and 57,000 cases, respectively.
