Tottenham have reportedly banned the media from asking Lucas Moura any questions about his support for the right-wing politician, Jair Bolsonaro.

The Brazilian presidential candidate, who was recently stabbed at a rally, is leading in the polls as the election nears. Promising to loosen gun control in the country and an ‘iron fist’ to combat the violent crime epidemic, many of his supporters believe his recent stabbing will increase his popularity.

“It was a political attack,” said Raul Pereira, 35, an architect, told the Guardian. “It will increase support.”

The stabbing was no small matter. Bolsonaro was left in intensive care and his opponents on the left were swift in their condemnation of the attack. But that still hasn’t helped Bolsonaro’s openly racist, sexist and homophobic comments go down any easier, nor Lucas Moura’s support of him.

According to ESPN Brasil’s Joao Castel-Branco, Tottenham banned reporters from asking the midfielder any questions about his support for the politician or questions about politics in general in the build-up to the Liverpool game that saw Spurs given a footballing lesson.

Moura involved himself when he posted a series of tweets defending the politician saying Bolsonaro “would be in jail” if he was a racist because that’s how it works, obviously.

He also backed Bolsonaro’s desire to give police more power to shoot ‘criminals’.

Despite Tottenham’s instructions, the player, however, had no problem continuing to talk politics and did so after the game:

O @LucasMoura7 foi capa da revista do jogo e aplaudido pela torcida. O Tottenham proibiu perguntas sobre política em entrevistas na semana passada, mas hoje após o jogo não teve intervenção na zona mista e o jogador voltou a falar no assunto com jornalistas brasileiros. https://t.co/qjtZmWlrvM

— Joao Castelo-Branco (@j_castelobranco) September 15, 2018

“Unfortunately, I already imagined that it would have an exaggerated repercussion, with more attention than it should on the part of the media, I just wanted to position myself,” Moura told reporters in the mixed zone after the game.

“Before being a soccer player, I am a citizen have the right to worry about what is happening in my country.

“I just responded civilly to some of the issues that appeared on my Twitter, but unfortunately some people do not know how to respect a different opinion, knowing how to live with different opinions is part of democracy, I love my family and my friends with passion, but I do not always agree with them.

“(I would do it again) No problem at all. I’m not an expert on the subject, I can talk and debate as far as I understand, civilized. Many attack and I did not answer whoever decided to do this, talked to whoever was educated. I worry about having a better life in my country for everyone.

“Before there were a lot of issues in my country and sometimes I felt bad for always being on the wall or being oblivious. We have to respect whoever wants to and who does not want to stand. Sometimes our fans want to know the opinion of their idols. I am Brazilian and I have family and friends in Brazil and I also worry about my country.”

Moura, as you can read in those comments above, simply wants ‘a better life in my country for everyone’, unless, of course, you happen to be queer or female.

The Guardian write of Bolsonaro’s politics, “The former army captain once said that to have a gay son or daughter was “equal to death”; he told a female lawmaker who called him a rapist that he would not rape her because she did not “deserve to be raped”, and has argued that Brazil’s brutal, 21-year military dictatorship should have killed more dissidents.”

Bolsonaro is also known as the ‘Brazilian Trump’ which should give you a fair idea of the person Moura is defending, a man even the S*n says is “notorious for making racist, sexist and homophobic comments.”

Married three times (funny how all these anti-gay, family-values types always have a ton of marriages under their belt), and from his anti-corruption platform, Bolsonaro hired his third wife to work for him, tripling her salary over two years before he was forced to fire her by Brazil’s Supreme Court.

The man who allegedly stabbed Bolsonaro claimed he was told to do it by God.

Problems between Emery and Moura

Lucas Moura slammed his time under Unai Emery as the ‘worst seven months of my life’ but what really happened between the two?

The new Tottenham hero, who arrived at the club for £25.2m in January, has got off to a blistering start in this season’s Premier League with three goals in three games, including a brace against Manchester United.

The Brazilian signed for PSG from Sao Paulo in 2013, three years before Emery was appointed as coach in Paris and played regularly under him in his first season, making 48 appearances, scoring 19 and assisting 10.

The 17/18 season, however, saw him play only 79 minutes for the French champions in a dramatic reversal of fortunes that saw him fail to start a single game.

“It was very hard, the worst seven months of my life,” Moura told ESPN Brazil.

“I came from a very good season, I was second top scorer of the team, only behind Cavani.

“The following season, I wasn’t even called up. I used to go to practice, I wasn’t even in the game. I used to go back home. 

“Anyway, it was very difficult. But I kept working hard, strong. And God gave me the best gift of life, my son.”

So what happened?

There are, of course, a few theories and it seems clear that something did indeed happen between the pair. Although Kylian Mbappe and Neymar had to be accommodated, a player rarely drops from 3,478 minutes and second-highest goalscorer to 79 the following season simply because new players arrived.

The most consistent claim is that Emery ostracised Moura because he believed him to be a dressing room leak, mainly around the whole Neymar-Cavani penalty debacle that the press had a field day with.

When asked about the player’s future before he was sold to Spurs (and shortly after the Neymar-Cavani story hit the papers), Emery couldn’t have been clearer that the door was open for him to leave “I have talked to him,” Emery said, “and with all due respect to him, I think he has no options here and he has to look for another club because he is a great player.”

Neymar, however, was not happy with the sale of his compatriot and spoke out about it in the press. “It is normal,” Emery told journalists in response to Neymar’s comments. “They are friends and they are both Brazilian — they have played together for their country.

“I wish Lucas all the best. He needed the chance to be a key figure for a team, so it was better for him to leave Paris. He has made a good choice in joining Tottenham — he will be an important figure there and he will continue to develop and grow.

“Lucas enjoyed a good spell here and helped PSG to develop, now he will continue to grow there.”

Unless Emery or Moura reveal what really happened, we will probably never know with any clairty.