Take as my initial point the conceptual group of theories produced according to the face works and the performance of teams, especially, by Goffman (1967 e1985) and Brown and Levinson (1987), with the object of explaining linguistically the criticism identified as Friendly Fire during the Lula´s government. The corpus consists of the principal episodes of friendly fire involving the ministers of Lula´s government and and outstanding personalities of the Labour Party (PT) and parties allied to it, divulged in the press between January 2003 and April 2006. The results suggest that fire friendly-fire is a type of threatening act to the face presenting specific characteristics which distinguish it from the others acts of disapproval, such as criticism or disagreements. It also suggests that a new variable - loyalty to the team - should be considered to explain the strategic options for the realisation of this type of atc.