By Andrew Downie in São Paulo
First, the good news: after years of indecision, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has finally confirmed that the city of São Paulo will host the opening game of the 2014 World Cup. In a brand new stadium owned by Corinthians.
Now the bad news. The stadium isn’t built yet - and is unlikely to be ready by Fifa’s 2012 deadline.
Corinthians’ decision to build a new stadium came just days before it celebrated its 100th anniversary and was a coup for the club’s president Andrés Sanchez. Corinthians is the only one of São Paulo’s big four clubs not to own its own ground - a major sore point.
The stadium was chosen by the CBF and approved by Fifa ahead of São Paulo FC’s 75,000-seater Morumbi stadium, notwithstanding the fact that the head of the CBF, Ricardo Texeira, hadn’t even seen a design model of it.
That’s the way things are done at the CBF, but it also represents a massive gamble by Texeira, who, perhaps not coincidentally, is an ally of Sanchez and an enemy of São Paulo FC’s president.
One major question mark concerns the price. The new stadium is to be built by Odebrecht, one of Brazil’s biggest construction companies, and is slated to cost 350m reais ($199m), a little more than half of what São Paulo would have to spend to reform its existing ground.
Another issue is seating. The Corinthians stadium is designed to hold 48,000 spectators. Yet Fifa guidelines state that the stadium that hosts the opening match must seat 65,000. Sanchez said Corinthians’ stadium can be upgraded to meet that demand but that the club won’t finance the increase, which could cost up to 180m reais ($102m). The city and state authorities have said they won’t pay the difference either.
But perhaps the biggest question is time. Infrastructure experts say it takes 30 months to build a stadium from scratch. More time is needed beforehand to complete environmental impact reports, consult residents and deal with the almost inevitable legal challenges.
That means that even if building began tomorrow, the stadium wouldn’t be completed by the end of 2012, Fifa’s deadline, and there are no guarantees it will be better than what exists already.
So as with almost all of the 2014 World Cup’s organisation, there are still more questions than answers.
Posted By: Michael Anderson
Brazil is a country of vibrant colours and sounds. It is one of the biggest tourist attractions because of its beautiful beaches, its breathtaking landscapes and its fantastic music and dancing.
On the other hand, though, Brazil faces a lot of issues as well; prostitution is rife, child trafficking is a major issue, poverty is at high levels and there are numerous governmental hurdles to contend with. It seems that when the 2014 World Cup will be hosted in the country, a lot of infrastructure development will take place and a lot of money will be spent on revamping the major cities, but that will also bring with it the issue of the problems of the country increasing many folds. It is hoped that all these factors can be sorted out and a brilliant World Cup takes place.
The last time the World Cup was hosted in a developing country was in Mexico in 1986 and that showed just how beneficial a major event can be to the economy and people of a country. This year’s World Cup in South Africa had a similar effect on the country and its people. The increased tourism and economic benefits that were felt will help the country for many years to come. It is hoped that the same sort of effects will be felt in Brazil in four year’s time. However, the issue is that problems that currently plague the country will have to be addressed and not swept under the rug as so it often happens. It usually occurs that tourists get to see the beauty and revamped exterior of a country hosting the Cup but they fail to look at its rotting core.
At the moment, Brazil faces the major issue of revamping its stadiums for the upcoming tournament. They will have to spend a serious amount of money on upgrading the facilities if they are to be ready in time. The issue with upgrading is the fact that at the moment FIFA is not putting up the security money for the changes to be made. This will have to be sorted out between the organisers of the tournament and FIFA.
The biggest problem facing Brazil at the moment is one of child trafficking and prostitution. Prostitutes, in and around the big cities of Brazil, feel that they will be pushed even deeper underground than they already are today. With rising poverty levels and high inflation in the country, for the poor women of the slums sometimes prostitution is the only means of earning enough money to feed themselves once a day. What inadvertently will happen is that to clean up the streets, the organisers of the tournament and the government of Brazil will try to make the cities nice to look at for tourists. This will lead to serious human rights issues with prostitutes being neglected and poverty stricken.
Prostitution and child trafficking will sadly increase with an influx of tourists coming into the country for a major football tournament. The way it works in Brazil is that young women come to the big cities escaping poverty and end up in large cities such as Rio. Once there, they try to solicit or date foreign tourists who wine and dine them and if they are lucky, a marriage proposal follows and leads to a chance to leave Brazil for greener pastures in Europe. The problem with a large scale tournament taking place in the country is the fact that with an increased number of tourists, many who will be young men, prostitution will increase by a huge amount. Child trafficking to meet this extra demand of sex workers will also increase along with it because many people who like younger women will fuel the supply. It is a sad situation that the organisers and government will have to address, if they want to see a successful and prosperous tournament take place in four years time.
Hopefully, the next World Cup to take place will be just as interesting and successful as the one that happened this year in South Africa. If the issues that Brazil face can be worked out in time, people will be in for a real football treat.