When FIFA awarded Brazil the 2014 World Cup in
2007 (more or less a given because FIFA rules required the
tournament to be held in South America, and the South American
soccer body endorsed Brazil’s bid), Brazilians took to the streets
to celebrate. Last year the mood turned sour; local protests over
rising bus fares eventually spread across the country, carried by
frustration over government spending on the World Cup. Those
protests continue; anti-World Cup demonstrations in Sao Paolo
reportedly
became violent over the weekend.
The Brazilian government insisted preparations for the World Cup
would cost less than $1 billion, and be financed largely by private
investor, when it first launched its bid. Thanks in large part to
cronyism, the costs have ballooned; building up the infrastructure
for the World Cup cost Brazil $3.5 billion as of
last summer, when the opening game was still a year away. The
tournament is now less than six months from kicking off, and six of
the 12 stadiums promised in the bid are still
under construction. Last week, part of the roof of one of
those uncompleted stadiums
collapsed because of heavy rains and winds, while FIFA issued
an
ultimatum to the city where another uncompleted stadium is
located giving them four weeks to finish or risk having games
scheduled there moved to another city. Just another reason you
might want to
hold off on buying tickets to the tournament just yet.
Related: The Brazilian national soccer team is only ranked #10
in the latest FIFA rankings which may be why the AP is asking today
what
might happen if Brazil doesn’t win the World Cup, as it failed
to do the last time it hosted it, in 1950, in a finals loss a
deputy sports minister insisted remained a “trauma” for the
country.
More Reason on Brazil.
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