Brazil Official Credits Make-Up and Shorter Shorts For Women's Soccer Popularity

Women’s soccer has struggled to gain popularity compared to the men’s game in Brazil. But Marco Aurelio Cunha, co-coordinator of women’s soccer for the Brazilian Football Confederation, is optimistic. He believes new developments such as make-up, shorter shorts and better hair cuts will go a long way. They give the sport a real “spirit of elegance, femininity.”

"“Now the women are getting more beautiful, putting on make-up. They go in the field in an elegant manner,” he said in a telephone interview from Montreal, where he is accompanying the Brazilian side. “Women’s football used to copy men’s football. Even the jersey model, it was more masculine. We used to dress the girls as boys. So the team lacked a spirit of elegance, femininity. Now the shorts are a bit shorter, the hair styles are more done up. It’s not a woman dressed as a man.”"

The comments channel Sepp Blatter’s call for “a more female aesthetic” with tighter shorts in 2004, which were treated with the deserved amount of ridicule at the time. Here’s hoping karma delivers Mr. Cunha an “errant” free kick to the junk when he’s walking around Brazil training, or perhaps just some real talk about his facial hair and flagrant “Just for Men” usage.