Chaos in Brazil Surrounding World Cup
- rukket
- Apr 3, 2014
- 2 min read
The 2014 World Cup that kicks off just over 80 days from now is being staged in the developing nation of Brazil. The 2014 World Cup will be the 20th FIFA Cup, an international men’s “football” tournament including national teams of 32 different countries. The 31 teams have advanced through qualification competitions that began in June of 2011 to participate with the host nation of Brazil from June 12 through July 13. A total of 64 matches are to be played in 12 cities across Brazil in either new of redeveloped stadiums.
A reported $3.57 billion dollars has just been spent on these stadium projects. A grand total of $14 billion, makes this World cup the most expensive to date. Five of the chosen cities have brand new venues built specifically for World cup play, while the stadium in the capital, Brasilia, was demolished and rebuilt. The remaining stadiums have all faced extensive renovations. Reports from stadium operators in Brazil have revealed that the most expensive of the stadiums built for the cup has a leaking roof, less than eight months after it was finished. Besides the stadiums, infrastructure projects have taken over Brazil. The biggest problem the tournament committee is facing is the airports. An estimated 600,000 people will travel by plane to the tournament plus an additional 3 million Brazilians and international teams are expected to be using flights to travel between matches. Additional major projects across the country include improvements to road systems, light rail and bus transit lines connecting the airports and cities. Over $5 billion will be invested to build new hotels to be used for both the World Cup as well as the 2016 Summer Olympics that will be staged in Rio de Janeiro. There has been much commotion surrounding all these projects with much worry about estimated completion times.
Prior to the opening ceremony at Brasilia National Stadium, demonstrations took place outside the stadium, organized by people unhappy about the amount of money being spent to enable the hosting of the FIFA World cup. These protests were initially organized to protest against the increases in bus, train and metro ticket prices in some Brazilian cities. But these protests have grown to include other issues such as the high corruption in the government and the police brutality used against the demonstrators. Police initially used tear gas and pepper spray to quell the protestors.
Besides all the commotion currently in Brazil including the protests and struggles to complete the needed infrastructure, we need to keep in mind that there is still soccer to be played. Despite the crime, protests and delayed building work, officials insist this summer’s tournament will be fine.
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Written by: Michael Gilmartin
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