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Brazil Sports But Not Really world cup 2014

Brazil Can Win The World Cup, But Can They Host It?

By Rachelle Krygier on February 5th, 2014

The FIFA World Cup is scheduled to start on June 12th in Brazil. While everyone’s excited to see some world

26/2/2014 Brazil Can Win The World Cup, But Can They Host It? · NYU Local

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class soccer, you also have to be somewhat worried to see that the country is dealing not only with budget andtiming problems but also ongoing protests.

Although president Dilma Roussef has recently tweeted that the tournament will take place as planned, most of

the stadiums are still under construction; just to make things worse, the transport system is still lacking. There are

also security issues involved, asworkers have died on World Cup construction sites. With all that in mind, FIFA

Secretary General Jerome Valcke inspected five stadiums on January and gave Brazilian builders a new deadline:February 18th.

Construction issues are tied with budget problems. Running major sporting events are rarely profitable, but this

World Cup is looking disastrous from a financial perspective; the costs of preparation have tripled in comparisonto the initial amount presented to the FIFA in 2007. The amount that the government has committed has

surpassed what many citizens are willing to accept, especially given the poverty in some parts of the country.

The most astonishing thing for any soccer fan, or even anyone in general, is that so many young Brazilians arecomplaining against the World Cup taking place in their country. Although Brazil has always been considered a

mecca for the sport, there are more important and urgent issues that the protestors prefer the government to

spend 15 billion dollars on.

On January 25th, approximately 2500 protestors hit the streets of Sao Paolo exposing their cause through shouts

and banners. The demonstration turned violent when the young protestors attacked cars, shops and banks and

128 people were detained.

That was far from the first time that the tournament had prompted protests. On the day of the final game of last

year’s Confederations Cup (a tournament that takes place a year before the World Cup, primarily to test the

host nation’s infrastructure), Rio de Janeiro was filled with police and protestors armed with fire and stones. Twoweeks of social unrest and mobilization of 1.5 million citizens throughout the country followed.

On January 9th President Dilma Roussef agreed to exchange ideas with members of the opposition to generate a

positive environment before the World Cup itself occurred. Of course, Rousseff is worried of the negative imagethese protest will give to the rest of the world; after all no president wants to look like she’s running her country

to the ground prior to a tournament broadcast around the world. She might also be considering the positive

consequences from hosting such event: the creation of many jobs, the fast development of infrastructure, and thegreat increase in tourism, but the protestors don’t foresee any good in investing in the event and are determined

to stop it.

It’s easy to be concerned about the fate of the World Cup (and that’s a perfectly valid concern) but we have toremember that, beyond a series of games, there are people who call Brazil home. For their sake, as well as

soccers, let’s hope things work out as well as they possibly can.

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26/2/2014 Brazil Can Win The World Cup, But Can They Host It? · NYU Local

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Haroldo Bergano

February 5, 2014 (3 weeks ago)

Yeah, U$ 15 billion on stadiums when 8% of our students leave high school with basic portuguse and

math skills.

U$ 15 billion on stadiums when our wonderful health system has a patient wait from 6 months to 7 yearsfor a surgery. Most wind up dead before then, of course.

U$ 15 billion on stadiums when 76% of our cities and towns have less than 20% basic sanitation services.

U$ 15 billion on stadiums, and while the Brazilian minimum monthly wage is less than U$ 300,00 with no

benefits (since the employer must pay more than 100% of the salary paid to the worker on taxes), our

mayors, senators, kongressmen, governors and president cost EACH more than U$ 500.000,00 per

year, have all their travel and personal dispenses backed with public money, have a lifetime health plan onthe best health institutions of the country (that extends to their families and remain active even when they

die).

The reason on why the stadiums are so badly delayed is because the government waited until the

“emergency” timeframe would kick in, allowing the Worker’s Party to contract the companies who

donated to Dilma Roussef’s 2010 campaign withouth having to go throught a reverse auction.

Another thing you may want to check is the illegal shifts going on the more delayed stadiums, such as

Curitiba’s Arena da Baixada (the one FIFA threatened to cut out from the agenda). People heve been

working on 16 hour shifts in order to get things done up to Feb. 18.

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