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Tite uneasy over Mastercard food rewards for Neymar goals

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:11 p.m. ET

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LIVERPOOL, England (AP) There are some things money can't buy. And one of them seems to be Brazil coach Tite's approval of a Mastercard charity food campaign that gets a boost every time Neymar scores.

The credit card giant is a sponsor of the five-time World Cup champions and has promised to donate the value of 10,000 meals to a United Nations program for every goal scored by the Brazil striker - and Argentina's Lionel Messi - until 2020.

During Saturday's news conference at Anfield, where Brazil will play Croatia in a friendly on Sunday, Tite was asked if Mastercard's campaign put extra pressure on Neymar to score in the World Cup. It was not clear whether the person asking the question was a journalist or not.

As the question was being asked, Tite looked down, wrote notes and took a deep breath before answering.

''Mastercard, I will tell you something. This donation is very beautiful. It is beautiful and great. And it will still be if you give meals if every Argentina and Brazil player scores,'' Tite said.

''Here we work as a team, and with all these values it can be a little frustrating,'' the coach said.

Mastercard did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Brazil is in Group E at the World Cup with Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia. Its first game is against Switzerland on June 17.

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