The World Cup’s ’ecological’ mascot symbolizes exactly what’s wrong with the soccer fest Environmentalists are enraged that FIFA will earn millions from its endangered armadillo icon but won’t donate a cent to save the real creature.

The World Cup’s ’ecological’ mascot symbolizes exactly what’s wrong with the soccer fest Environmentalists are enraged that FIFA will earn millions from its endangered armadillo icon but won’t donate a cent to save the real creature.
When they unveiled Fuleco nearly two years ago, organizers of the 2014 World Cup vowed the official mascot would help green the planet’s most popular sporting event. The garish blue and yellow talisman, which is already omnipresent at the month-long soccer fest that kicked off in Sao Paulo on Thursday, is supposed to be a three-banded armadillo, known as the “tatu-bola” in Brazil, the only country where it exists. Officially classed as “vulnerable” to extinction — but due to be reclassified to the more urgent “endangered” next year — the species has seen…Read more …