Let them eat football, says Fifa

IF the ice cream-slurping child in your family started hurling stones at a Haagen-Dazs outlet, you'd be concerned.

And if, in the spiritual home of football, a Brazilian says "I hope my team loses in the first round", and goes to do battle with police over the World Cup, you know something is disturbingly wrong.

As you watch the first games, the protests will be ignored by Fifa-authorised cameras. But they will be there. This is not political activism. This is the showing of pain and outrage from a people whose deepest love has been prostituted.