Tomorrow, at 5:00 pm local time, (9:00 GMT) Brazil will kick off its World Cup against Croatia, at São Paulo’s Arena Corinthians. But an image more shocking than any goal has already come out of São Paulo, and the world is taking notice.

Food, not Football. Paulo Ito’s mural captures the inequality behind Brazil’s World Cup.

The celebrated São Paulo street artist Paulo Ito has created the first viral image of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, through his mural depicting a starving child given nothing but a football to eat.

Ito is not the first to criticize the decadence of Brazil’s hosting campaign, but he and a series of other artists have created some of the most meaningful impacts in the world’s eyes with their depictions of the harsh realities FIFA and the Brazilian government are hiding.

The construction of stadiums and other infrastructure has cost the Brazilian government $11 billion. Considering that much of the infrastructure will be left unused by mid-July through the foreseeable future, the frustration of Brazilians demanding accountability on behalf of their government for the suffering of its people has been elevated to the world stage.

Ito has been clear on the source of his inspiration. In an interview he stated, regarding the favelados who inhabit the run-down slums of many of Brazil’s major cities:

“They already live what I was supposed to paint.”

For those in the rest of the world who do not experience such striking poverty, Ito’s art acts as a gateway to understanding those left behind by Brazil’s progress, and through it he acts as an advocate for them.