Brazil and the Copa do Mundo



















Being in Brazil for the World Cup is different than I thought it was going to be. You think Brazil and you think World Cup and you immediately assume that they country that embodies o Jogo Bonito (The Beautiful Game) is going to love to be the host of the world's greatest sports spectacle. This is the idea I went to Brazil with. When I first arrived, everything seemed to be fitting in with this idea superficially. There are Brazilian flags everywhere, Brazilian jerseys and horns are in every market and store front, and people are wearing Brazilian jerseys. But when you start to talk to people about the World Cup, you realize that it is a much more complicated issue.

While Brazilians mostly like soccer, or futebol, many are extremely upset over the quantity of money spent in preparation for the World Cup, mainly stadiums. The most obvious example is Manaus which is remotely located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest and hardly accessible by car. The Brazilian government constructed a $290 million stadium there that will be used for 3 World Cup games. Afterwards, Manaus' team is nothing impressive and will be completely unable to fill the stadium for any of its matches. Brazil has lots of problems, education, health, income inequality, infrastructure; and citizens are upset about how much money was spent on a stadium for 3 games. The Brazilians feel like the World Cup isn't for them, it's for foreigners. While some lower cost tickets were offered just to Brazilians, it was extremely limited and those tickets sold out quickly. This meant Brazilians had to buy tickets at the foreigner price of $300 reais, which is well out of the disposable income range of most Brazilians. To put that in perspective, the students at the university I am attending teach class twice a week for 90 minutes and they earn $270 reais a month. Imagine spending over your entire month's salary on football tickets.

Brazilians also suspect that much of the money "spent" on the World Cup was not correctly managed and probably a good amount embezzled. Someone explained to me how this works, one company with "connections" will bid a project pricing it with the highest quality materials. They get the project because of their "connections", probably a bribe of some sort, then the company will execute the project using low to medium quality materials rather than the high quality materials originally in the bid, and pocket the difference.

A few Brazilians even suspect that Brazil has already bought the World Cup and will win because they have paid off the referees and teams. They say that the only way their faith will be restored is if Brazil doesn't win the World Cup. I think that this is too pessimistic. Given the international attention to the World Cup, I think it would be far to difficult to execute a stunt like this. I also think that given Brazil's performance against Mexico that they won't win the World Cup because they don't have a decent striker. Hulk, Fred, and Jo have been very lackluster.

Despite the objections of many to the World Cup, Brazilians can't help but cheer for the seleção (national team), when the games are on. Everything closes during the games. The university has a holiday, every market and shop is closed, and everyone is at home watching the game. Here is what Sao Paulo sounded like when Brazil scored a goal in the opener. Notice that there is NOBODY in the street and this is a major city with 20 million inhabitants:
http://mashable.com/2014/06/16/sao-paulo-sounds-brazil-scores/

So Brazilians are conflicted as rationally they are opposed to the administration of the World Cup, but once the game starts, they can't help but cheer for the Yellow and Blue. Brazil's tie to Mexico was a huge disappointment, and it's the first time in several World Cup's that Brazil has needed more than 2 games to qualify out of the group stage. So, we'll see how it turns out. Either Brazil wins the World Cup and Brazilians are super happy, or Brazil loses, and the citizen's faith in the integrity of the game is restored.

Here is a pretty interesting bit done by John Oliver talking about the World Cup and FIFA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I#t=735



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