ITAQUERA, SÃO PAULO – Anti-World Cup protesters have defied a FIFA ban on demonstrations at the exhibition of the tournament trophy at a shopping mall next to São Paulo’s World Cup stadium.
A small, vocal group of “Não Vai Ter Copa” (There Won’t Be A World Cup) protesters defied the ban, gathering outside the Shopping Metrô Itaquera, next to the Arena Corinthians stadium, where the trophy is on display to paying guests until 1 June.
Security closed access to the shopping mall as the activists converged on the entrance to the centre, trapping visitors inside.
This type of flashmob protest at shopping centres is known locally as a rolezinho.
The group then returned to the metro station – with verbal clashes between members of the public who shouted their support for the World Cup.
Some members of the groups also attempted to go back into the shopping mall to protests outside McDonald’s, a major World Cup sponsor, but were stopped from doing so by mall security.
A sister group of around 300 people also held a protest on Friday in Rio de Janeiro.
The São Paulo group now plans a march against the World Cup for Saturday 31 May, starting at 15:00 outside the city’s Teatro Municipal.
Ben Tavener 
I thought a rolezinho was when young people organized via social media to meet up at a mall to hang out in large numbers. This is the first time I’ve seen it associated with a form of protest.
The new wave of rolezinhos has always been a kind of protest movement, loosely termed at least – but this was definitely a protest! They called it a rolezinho, anyway.