'Naked football': Brazil prostitutes show ball skills to highlight sex workers’ rights

As football stars are scoring news goals in the World Cup, Brazilian prostitutes decided to join the football fever by organizing an impromptu match to draw attention to sex workers’ rights.

The prostitutes called themselves the Naked Football Club and teamed up with a Christian evangelical group from the US against a local university team in a Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. The ‘naked match’ was played right after the Colombians beat Greece 3-0 in the same city.

The players used traffic cones for goalposts and wore green and yellow Brazilian uniforms. Their impromptu match accompanied by enthusiastic cheers of onlookers, was organized by Prostitutes' Association of Minas Gerais.

"Rights must be the same for everyone. We're no different from anyone else just because we're sex workers," player Patricia Bonges told AFP. "We are finally breaking that prejudice and stigma."

Meanwhile, the girls from evangelical group also enjoyed the game and called not to forget about sex workers' rights.

"You just love people, you don't judge, you don't change people, you just love them," said Jenny Jack from the Christian group.

Brazilian prostitutes have long complained about humiliation and violations of their rights. They also were urging authorities to treat the ‘world's oldest profession’ like any other.

The Prostitutes' Association of Minas Gerais also launched a campaign in 2013 by offering free English classes for about 80,000 sex workers so that ‘naked Brazilian forces’ could be better prepared for the World Cup 2014.

"It will be important for the girls who will be able to use English to let their clients know what they are charging and learn about what turns them on," said Cida Vieira, president of the Association of Prostitutes.

Prostitution is legal in Brazil, however, it’s illegal to operate a brothel or to employ prostitutes in any other way.