We’d take a clip round the ear from our fathers over the universally-acknowledged “mammy look of death” any day of the week.
And Sport Club do Recife, a football club playing in Brasileirão, took full advantage of the level of fear that is put in the hearts of young lads the world over by kitting out 30 mothers as stewards ahead of Sport’s derby against Nautico yesterday.
We imagine the decibel level of the roaring crowd dropped a bit when the moms’ presence was made clear to the fans on the big screens ahead of kick-off.
The “Seguranca Mae” or “Security Moms,” for those too lazy to jump on Google Translate, were there to make sure that none of their rowdy sons started a kerfuffle in the stands.
“The idea was to make the most fanatical supporters aware and help in some way to bring peace to stadiums,” Aricio Fortes, vice-president of Ogilvy (the PR company who was responsible for the genius scheme) said.
“At the end of the day, no one wants to fight in front of a mother, especially his own.”
And it only bloody worked as the derby, which has been notoriously violent in the past, came and went with no arrests whatsoever as Sport claimed the 1-0 victory.
