Can Brazil Hold A Successful World Cup?

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.