Football shirts aren't just for matches anymore. If you look at the political stage right now, sport is being used as a weapon to win votes.
Colombia's bright yellow World Cup jersey used to be the one thing that brought the entire country together. When the national team played, everyone wore it. It didn't matter where you came from, how much money you had, or who you voted for. The yellow shirt was a neutral zone.
That neutral zone is officially gone.
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup only weeks away, and a fierce presidential election runoff happening at the exact same time, the iconic yellow jersey is the biggest political battleground in the country. A national symbol has been completely hijacked for political gain.
The Polarizing Fight for Yellow
The controversy exploded right after the first round of presidential voting. Hard-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, a celebrity lawyer who calls himself "The Tiger," pulled off a surprise victory. He took 43.7% of the vote, beating out the left-wing favorite, Senator Iván Cepeda, who captured 40.9%.
When De la Espriella took the stage to celebrate his victory with his wife and four kids, they weren't wearing suits or formal campaign gear. They were all wearing the yellow Colombian national football jersey.
His rallies have become a sea of bright yellow shirts. He is intentionally blending sporting passion with raw political energy. It's a calculated move to wrap his hard-line, pro-Trump platform in the comforting colors of national pride.
The left is completely furious about this tactic.
Iván Cepeda immediately went on the attack, publicly accusing his rival of stealing a national symbol that belongs to everyone. He called the move an opportunistic act and demanded that people stop treating the national team like private campaign property. Cepeda even asked his own supporters to stop wearing the jersey to his events to keep his campaign clean.
But that strategy is completely backfiring. By telling his people to skip the jersey, Cepeda left a massive vacuum. De la Espriella’s campaign capitalised on this by telling their voters to wear the yellow shirt even more. Now, a lot of voters view the shirt as a symbol of defiance against the current government.
The Copycat Playbook from Brazil
If this story sounds familiar, it's because we've seen this exact same thing happen before.
Look at what happened in Brazil with their famous yellow and green Canarinho shirt. During the late 2010s and early 2020s, conservative right-wingers completely took over that jersey. It became the official uniform for supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
For years, everyday Brazilian football fans who didn't support Bolsonaro felt like they couldn't wear their own national team shirt without being judged. It took a massive, years-long effort by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to try and reclaim those colors for the rest of the population.
Colombia is walking down that exact same path. The local football federation, which owns the marketing rights to the kit, is stuck in the middle. They admitted they have absolutely no way to control what people wear to political rallies, though they openly regret that their jersey is being dragged into a messy election cycle.
What the Yellow Shirt Really Represents Now
Politicians use sports jerseys because it's an easy shortcut to look patriotic. When De la Espriella wears the jersey, he isn't just saying he likes football. He’s trying to tell voters that he represents the real Colombia.
The timing couldn't be worse for the national team. Colombia is scheduled to play its opening World Cup match against Uzbekistan on June 17. The highly anticipated presidential runoff election takes place just four days later, on June 21.
Think about how tense that makes the simple act of watching a game. If you walk into a bar in Bogotá wearing the yellow shirt to support the team, people around you are going to wonder which candidate you're voting for. The shirt has been weaponized.
Some left-wing activists are starting to realize that giving up the shirt was a bad move. There's a new push among Cepeda's supporters to start wearing the jersey to their own marches. They want to show that the right wing doesn't own national pride. But trying to change the meaning of the shirt this late in the game is going to be incredibly difficult.
The unifying power of the Colombian jersey is ruined for the foreseeable future. When the players walk out onto the pitch for the World Cup, the fans in the stands won't just be thinking about football. They'll be looking at a shirt that has become a loud, divisive political statement.
If you own a Colombian jersey, the best thing you can do right now is wear it purely for the sport. Don't let politicians turn your love for the game into a campaign tool. Keep the focus on the match, support the players, and refuse to let a symbol of national unity get permanently ruined by a bitter election.
