BRASILIA: The nomination of ‘Brazuca’ as the title for the official ball of the 2014 World Cup has created an embarrassment for Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The decision was announced last week by long-time FIFA partner and World Cup sponsor Adidas after a nationwide, three-week competition throughout Brazil which attracted more than one million votes.

Brazuca polled more than 70pc ahead of Bossa Nova and Carnavalesca. However the word, used by Brazilians to describe national pride in their way of life, is correctly spelled brasuca – and Rebelo has been an outspoken and long-time campaigner against compromise in the use of words or terms which are ‘foreign’ to Portuguese.

He has denied, however, that ‘Brazuca’ is a mistake, telling newspaper reporters: “It is a trademark of FIFA which not only uses French as a first language but also uses English, just like the International Olympic Committee. Renmember that football and the rules arrived here from  Britain and in English.

“Words like the playing positions such as goalkeeper, centre-half, offside, corner were all adapted phonetically over decades into Portuguese. So, in the same way, the trademark for the ball should be the way it works in the dominant international business language – and that is not yet Portuguese but English.”

Rebelo said he would have preferred to see the word spelled brasuca but ‘Brazuca’ is now a trademark so that was an end to the matter.

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