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As Brazil Barrels Toward World Cup,Brazilians Aren't Feeling It
June 05, 2014 3:34 AM ET
by LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO
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The stadium where the opening game of the World Cup will be played
is a gleaming monument to the world's favorite sport, soccer. The
Corinthians Arena — named after one of Brazil's most famous teams,
which will take it over — has been built from scratch and boasts a
massive LCD screen and state-of-the-art facilities.
Last weekend, it was full of fans watching the last test match before
the World Cup begins. It was supposed to be a sort of final run-through
to make sure everything is ready and working.
Except it wasn't.
After the focus on the many problems Brazil has been facing in
advance of soccer's biggest tournament, the South American host
nation wants sport to be center stage right now. But to the many fans
who attended last weekend, it was obvious that there is still a lot left to
be done.
"It's completely not ready," said Stanio Silva, a soccer fan attending
the game. Only half the seating capacity was used, and only a quarter
of the temporary bleachers were tested because they had yet to clear
safety checks. The VIP areas were still under construction, too, Silva
pointed out. And there won't be a roof for the field. The cost of the
stadium? A whopping $450 million.
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"[I'm] ashamed, of course. We didn't deliver —
not just here, but if you go around the country,"
Silva said. "Let's pray ... it will be a nice World
Cup, but we didn't deliver."
It may be a nice party, but the World Cup comes
with a hefty price tag. This World Cup will be the most expensive ever
staged. Even with all the money spent, there are still several stadiums
that are unfinished. The infrastructure upgrades — roads, airports, bus
and train lines — are in even worse shape: Less than half of what was
promised will actually be delivered, and many of the projects are
incomplete.
Add to that a series of strikes and protests, and it's no wonder the
mood in Brazil is grim. A new poll by the Pew Research Center
showed that more than 70 percent of people are dissatisfied with the
direction the country is headed. Sixty percent now believe the World
Cup will be bad for Brazil.
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You can see that lack of enthusiasm reflected in
the dearth of decorations on the streets of many
cities. Maria Merces de Paula, who works in a
candy shop near one of Sao Paulo's major
arteries, said people are unmotivated this year.
"For me personally, in other years we would
decorate the street, people were more excited.
That is not the case this year," she said.
There have been many protests staged in this area, and very few
shops have any visible displays celebrating the World Cup. De Paula
points to a lower shelf that has a small mug with some football-shaped
chocolates inside. She says that is the only World Cup-related item
she carries.
Analysts say there are many reasons for Brazil's mood: The economy
is slowing down; the lack of preparation for the World Cup has been
obvious. People feel disappointed, and they say Brazil's standing in
the world has been hurt instead of helped by the World Cup.
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So far, the Brazilian government has taken the brunt of the blame.
President Dilma Rousseff's ratings have been going down. The
stakes for her are particularly high: There are elections in Brazil in
October, so there is a sense that if things don't go well, the electorate
could punish the incumbent.
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Brazil's ire, though, has not only been turned
inward. FIFA, soccer's world governing body, has
also been shouldering a lot of criticism.
Rafael Alcadipani, associate professor at Getulio
Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo, says many
people feel as though the soccer they loved has been taken away from
them because of the demands made by the global soccer
organization.
"It's not a World Cup for the people, for the regular Brazilians who are
crazy about football, who love the Brazilian team," Alcadipani said.
"What FIFA has made — especially with those arenas, which are very
expensive to maintain — is to create in Brazil a kind of apartheid
football, where the blacks will be playing and the whites will be
watching it, because the blacks and the poor people cannot access
these stadiums anymore."
The World Cup was a dream, he says, that has become a nightmare
for many Brazilians.
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