Behind the sun,
samba and the beautiful game there are concerns over the hosts' stadiums,
transport, security and the overall legacy of the World Cup
It has been 3 years since Brazil found out it was to host the most
famous footballing tournament in the world and since then the anticipation has
been gaining rapidly. With just over 175 days to go until the World Cup finally
begins the Brazilian nerves are rising. Just how will it all go when they have
the whole world watching?
The World Cup has been pitched as a chance to look forward and back,
celebrating the football and culture of the five-times World Cup winners while
cementing its place as one of the economic superpowers of the world. But the
challenges of hosting back-to-back major events in the World Cup and the
Olympics are starting to show.
Economy
Brazil boasts
the seventh largest economy in the world and a successful tournament will bless
their arrival as a global economic power. Brazil are also favorites to win the
tournament, and in the process they will look to, dethrone Spain, the reigning
Euro Cup and World Cup champions, a team that many consider the greatest ever
assembled.
However, the
recent protests and riots in Brazil, and the promise of more to follow, tell a
harshly different story, while sparkling new stadiums begin to dot the
Brazilian skyline, ordinary Brazilians are feeling the pinch. This summer, more
than a million took to the streets to express a popular exclusion that is now
spreading across the country. Many protested the rising cost of public
transportation; some excoriated the government for rampant corruption, which
runs in the billions of dollars every year; and others lamented Brazil's
crumbling infrastructure, which was recently ranked 114th out of 148 countries
by the World Economic Forum.
Amid the multitude of protests and countless slogans, a common grievance
emerged, and one that now reverberates throughout the nation: Why is Brazil
hosting the World Cup?
Luis Gustavo a Brazilian citizen currently on holiday in London and a typical football fan of 15 years, says: “The government say the
investment for the World Cup comes from a private investor but we know its
coming out of our pockets, the things they promised whilst bidding to be hosts
was lies nothings happening and of course its normal for people to retaliate.”
The tournament is costing the country an estimated $14.5 billion, which
is much higher than what was initially projected, and roughly three times the
cost of 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The investment is meant to be a
long-term project that would benefit the public, with improvements to the roads
and public transportation, but these have been delayed or cancelled.
The Brazilian public is getting hit from both sides: they're being asked
to foot a larger bill and receive even less in return, which can't be recovered
through tourism alone. South Africa, for example, recouped only $500 million of
the nearly $4.6 billion it spent on the event in 2010, as it drew far fewer
than the 450,000 tourists anticipated.
“The issue of violence exists, we do not have the same safety conditions
on the streets as in European cities” Said Gustavo.
“Sometimes we have specific vulnerabilities and demonstrations of
violence but it is not just Brazil - we live in a world full of problems. The
only time I was robbed was at an Madrid airport in Spain.”
There's also the prospect that many of the projects will have little
value after the mega-event concludes. The secluded cities of Manaus and Cuiaba,
for example, will soon have state-of-the-art stadiums but don't even have
first-division teams. These stadiums, and countless others, will resemble the
"white elephants" of Johannesburg, massive complexes built for the
2010 World Cup that now have little use.
Joel Fernandes, executive secretary of Brazil's Ministry of Sport,
agreed with Gustavo’s criticism, saying: "If the pace of work at the
stadium’s here in Brazil were to be kept as it is, then it would not be ready
to host the World Cup.
"With this is mind, we
agreed that we would take steps to guarantee that the arena would be ready to
host the games scheduled to be held there."
With the 2016 Olympics also hosted in Brazil It's unlikely that the
multi-million investment in stadiums will not be used for the games, unlike the
World Cup, which will be held in 12 cities, the Olympics will be held only in
Rio De Janeiro.
A human tragedy is unfolding thousands of Brazilians have been forcibly
uprooted from their homes to make way for stadium construction and other
development projects.
“People see Brazil as paradise the place of Samba and Sun but deep
inside the country there is tragedy, innocent people are being forced to
evacuate their own homes, and its just disgusting.” Said Gustavo.
A further 30,000
innocent citizens face evictions from their homes in Brazil because of the
World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games and both sporting events will result in at
least 200,000 evictions across the country.
“They are told it is
for vital transport developments,” he said. “But often its just new avenues,
and for four lane roads to sort out the traffic.”
Yet Brazilian Legend
Romario also agrees with the people’s opinions, “I’m not against the World Cup, I’m against the
excessive costs.”
The UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing has condemned Brazil for
forcibly evicting tenants without appropriate notice and compensation. The Amnesty
International launched the campaign, "Basta de Desalojos Forzados" (Stop Forced Evictions) to
ensure that relocation efforts in Rio de Janeiro are transparent and fair.
Like many international sports tournaments, the governing body is poised
to be the big winner. FIFA is expected to take home billions of dollars
tax-free from the event, mostly in the form of television and marketing rights.
Plus, unlike the host, FIFA won't be saddled with a mountain of debt and
useless arenas.
For Gustavo, the
issue of the World Cup is a simple: Brazil is spending money on football when
it should really be spending on its people.
“Our government
should have recognised that the country should be given priority to health and
education,”
“They should not have complied with the orders
of FIFA about the stadiums if we win or lose the tournament it wont pay the
bills for the citizens its ridiculous.” Who had stood grinning.
Of course, this is simply the way
in which the new breed of sporting mega-beano interacts with its captive
audience. The World Cup provides Fifa with £5.7bn in commercial revenue over
its four-year cycle, from the bulging roster of "partners" – the
usual partners Adidas, Coke, Sony, Visa, McDonald's and the others – to the
ghastly prospect of the "official song", outsourced this time to
Samsung which has launched a social media campaign calling for songs to be submitted,
with the winning entry recorded by Ricky Martin. In Brazil there is a sense
more than ever of the big-ticket event as a kind of death star hovering above
its target nation, colonising its infrastructure, suspending its laws,
co-opting its leaders.
Alex Bellos a British writer and broadcaster believes that protests will
continue during the World Cup but it wont affect the game, “there will be protests, but I think it
is most likely that they will be peripheral compared to the focus on the football. “
Prices
One of the
main questions that has to be answered is how much will the World Cup cost
travelling supporters, the prices of travelling around such a vast country
among alarming signs of profiteering by hoteliers and airlines. With the draw
for the games revealed, fans will now be able to discover how much the flights
to Brazil and the journey to the stadiums and accommodation will cost them,
More than 500,000 foreign supporters are likely to travel to Brazil, although
the number could dip if fears over inflated prices continues.
Yet, millions
of Brazilians can't afford them and FIFA would rather see them go unsold or
unused than lower the prices for the people. There were tens of thousands of
empty seats in the 2010 World Cup, and there will likely be many next year in
Brazil.
Indeed there
will be some Brazilians who will be watching from their homes due to
construction and most probably be asked to pay higher taxes to subsidize that
very construction, locked out of the stadium because they can't afford tickets
and then forced to watch as the stadium languishes unused.
“They aren’t
selling the number of tickets they wasn’t the price of a ticket is costing at
least £110 to £125 this is an absurdity, how can people afford such prices to
watch a game that will last 90 minutes it’s a disgrace that a nation that
prides themselves as the masters of the ‘beautiful game’ are making their own
citizens pay such prices.” Said the 28
year old from Sao Paulo.
“'But
there will be protests, and a lot of people will boycott games. Prices and
travel are so high, even the most wealthy of us are deciding not to pay.”
Profiteering
Rocketing prices in Brazil are causing major concern
among World Cup organisers, who fear profiteering could deter more football fans
than alarmist reporting about violent crime.
Brazilian government and FIFA officials have angrily
condemned what they see as emotional and inaccurate reporting, especially in
England and Germany, about the dangers to supporters from some of the world's
most violent criminals.
The prices are causing real anger, not just with the
home fans, it was recognized that the tournament was never going to attract the
same rush for tickets as Spain in 2012.
So "Why the huge price increase? Easy, it boils
down to one word, a word that hotels, bars and taxis are using more and more as
the tournament rolls into town “greed," one Brazilian said.
Peter Stephens, managing director of the British
travel agents DialAFlight said this week: "No wonder so many fans have
been put off heading to Brazil. The hoteliers and local airlines in the areas
where the games are being played have inflated their rates by between 50 and
100 percent."
He said fans that have already paid high prices to get
to Brazil "now face the grim prospect of paying massively inflated prices
for internal flights...to follow their team's progress. Hoteliers and flight
operators seem oblivious to the fact we are still in a worldwide
recession."
"I am very angry. It would cost me almost three
months wages to follow England around the country if you add hotels and
travel," said Stratford, East-London-based investment banker Terry Harts.
"It's really ridiculous, I have a TV at home they can keep their tickets."
He continued: “The world is still in recession, and before
the World Cup the flights to Brazil were expensive now it’s just a joke, only
the one’s who are mega-rich can afford to travel and pay accommodation, food
and travel.”
Cost Of Life
FIFA has been concerned about the timetable for constructing the 12
stadiums and has employed a mixture of praise and cajoling to try to hurry
things along. Half of the stadiums were delivered in time for the
Confederations Cup in the summer but the other four of the remaining six
stadiums it seems it’s crunch time.
Brazil's gameness to stage the world's biggest
sporting event has attracted extra scrutiny over the past few weeks after three
fatal incidents at two of six stadiums being built for the World Cup. Two
construction workers died in Sao Paulo’s Arena
Corinthians, where the tournament's opening game is due to be
played on June 12, after a crane crashed into the roof and another man plunged more than 98ft to his death from a roof at the
Arena da Amazonia building site in the city
of Manaus have set back the timetable.
“These tragic incidents is a massive setback for the
World Cup organisers, there are debates in my country already over whether the
stadium’s will be ready for the opening game. The incident highlights the
pressure the workers and organisers are under.” Said an irritated Gustavo.
“The scale of the projects proposed across my country
has been too much. Even with the evasion of normal democratic procedures, they
haven't been able to complete these projects. Us the people and foreigners will
arrive [at the World Cup] to a country under construction its an
embarrassment.”
José Inácio Werneck, a Brazilian sports columnist
said: “There’s always a way for everything in Brazil, But it’s a shame that
this happened because of the incompetence and corruption of our directors and
politicians.” And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Speculations suggest that there will be renewed
protests next summer, despite fears that the police's violent response to
dissent will be repeated.
With anger in his eyes and his red cheeks darkening he
continued: “I was In Brazil during the Confederation Cup there was a positive
energy about the demonstrations’”
“But when the violent reaction by the police begun it
put people off, we are afraid of getting shot and tear-gassed. I saw this first
hand, the military police treat the people as a threat, not as people to
protect.”
Brazil's police are notorious for their brutality,
particularly against those living in the poverty-riven favelas, which are
seen as a breeding ground for the country's crime epidemic.
“The government made promises that our lives would be
better with the World Cup coming to us, but for many people it's worse. We are
Brazilian’s and we love football and I'm sure people will celebrate the
football itself, as we will support our beloved Brazil.”
Security
The level of
dissatisfaction is so big that it generated a new meme expression among
Brazilians: “Imagina na Copa,” which literally means “imagine during the Cup,”
a phrase that sums up the concerns over the hosting of the World Cup, in
special those regarding Brazil’s high criminal rates.
Security in
Brazil has been the priority, ever since the protests have taken a violent
outcome between the protestors and the police.
After the
events at the Confederations Cup, opinions differ on whether there will be a
repeat of scenes that saw more than 1million Brazilians take to the streets. The
protests, which began as backlash over bus price rises, reflected a general
dissatisfaction with the state’s underinvestment in the people and corruption
but it specifically targeted FIFA’s demands.
At the
previous World Cup in South Africa there was also security fears over the
safety of travellers from other countries. And security issues and the high
prices will limit England's following to fewer than 10,000.
Sitting a pub
in West Ham is Richard Hopkins an England follower who has followed the national
squad to the 2004 Euro’s and 2006 World Cup said: ”Brazil are the South
American giants they have the biggest cities compared to their neighbours but
in these countries for some reason it is less safe than the European
countries.”
“In South
Africa, they combination of a high-profile police presence and heightened
awareness is saw a fall in crime, but I don’t want to take the risk plus the
prices are too much and I believe that crime will take part during the World
Cup.”
“I won’t be
attending the next World Cup either, but I will be at the next Euro’s as I feel
more safe and budget is reasonable.” He said.
Undoubtedly 2014 will be
a great time to show the rest of the world the beauty and rich culture Brazil
has to offer, but it should be a time as well to help—not a time to hide the
Brazilians living so close yet worlds away to where the events will be taking
place.
With FIFA banning instruments
altogether from future major tournaments and in Brazil their famous Samba drums
will be silenced inside the stadiums, and with their World Cup slogan "Juntos num so ritmo" (All
In One Rhythm) But with the first kick of ball next summer, could all signs
point to a World Cup dancing to two different beats.
