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About a month ago, we wrote about Brazil’s struggling preparation for the World Cup. Now, a little more than three weeks from the first match in Sao Paulo, the host country is fighting to complete everything in time.
Obviously Brazil's organization has left something to be desired, but is it really going to affect the tournament? In some ways, it seems like this kind of last minute scramble has become the norm for countries putting on large-scale, prestigious events. Costs always exceed expectations and the completion of infrastructure is always in question. For example, costs soared at the Beijing Summer Olympics, while safety and construction were issues in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup and Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Brazil now finds itself in the enviable or unenviable - depending how you look at it - position of hosting the World Cup this year and the Olympics in just two years.
There were even rumors from the London Evening Standard reporting that the Olympic Committee thinking about moving the 2016 Olympics to London from Brazil. Those reports were proved false.
As we sit less than a month from the start of soccer's (and, indeed, the world's) biggest event, the areas of most concern for Brazil are the stadiums, airports, security and sewage. However, despite the public outrage, it's worth taking a closer look to see if the games will really be affected by problems in any of these areas or, as with the Sochi Olympics, if all the media coverage will instead add up to a good story without a lot of impact on the World Cup itself. Let's take a look:
Stadiums:
At this point every stadium has gone through live testing. Another test will occur at the troubled Itaquerao, which will be the site of the World Cup opener between Brazil and Croatia on June 12th. The stadium held it’ first test this past Sunday, but “FIFA and the local organizing committee requested to stage another test event in order to ensure the entire infrastructure is tested at full capacity ahead of the opening match," football’s governing body told The Associated Press. 70,000 people are expected for the opener, but less than 40,000 people attended the test game because of safety concerns. 20,000 temporary seats were not installed in time, but are expected be ready by the second test on May 29th.
The leaky roof on the other hand will not be complete until after the World Cup because there was not enough time to add the glass covers that would help protect fans from rain. So, while the stadiums are all expected to be ready in time for the tournament, the comfort of spectators is in question.
One stadium, Arena Amazonia, which is located four miles from the Amazon river, will only be used during the Cup and will be untouched after the tournament. In our opinion, it is not only ridiculous that this stadium was built, but also unfortunate that there are talks of it being used as a detention center for prisoners after the World Cup to help relieve the area's overcrowded prisons.
Brazilian great Pele may have summed it up best when he said the lack of completion is "unacceptable" and "a disgrace." Arguably the best player ever to set foot on the World Cup stage went on to say that the political situation hurt the planning, and that there was too much money spent on stadiums. "Some of this money could have been invested in schools, in hospitals. ... Brazil needs it. That's clear. On that point, I agree (with the protests). But I lament what protesters are doing, which is breaking and burning everything. It's money that we will have to spend again.” The process of building these stadiums has been a complete disaster, including 8 deaths. Click here to see a video of the stadiums.
Airports:
From the outside, the situation with Brazil's airports seems almost as bad as with the stadiums.
Around 600,000 international fans, along with 3 million Brazilians, teams and trainers are expected to travel around South America's largest country during the Cup. However, several airports won’t even be finished until after the World Cup, including Sao Paulo’s 28 gate, $900 million terminal at Viracopos International Airport. Renovations at Rio, Brasilia, and Salvador airports won’t be ready and the Belo Horizonte airport plans to use a temporary terminal to handle the travelers.
Brazilian officials are scambling to reassure the public that, despite these delays, everything will be fine. According to Wellington Franco, Brazil’s civil aviation minister, all airports will be prepared to "adequately handle" the tourist traffic. He went on to say, “I would tell tourists not to worry.”
“Of course, we all wanted the work to be ready, but it's not," Franco continued. "But that doesn't mean that there will be problems. The work is not finished, there are some delays. But that's not keeping us from being prepared." Franco went on to assure that tourists "won't find anything different than they would normally find anywhere else. I assure everybody coming to Brazil that you will find the same level of comfort and security as you would find in other airports in the world. The problems here aren't better or worse than the problems you have at home." Okay Franco, we’ll take your word for it. Long delays were already bound to happen with this many people, so now it is likely to get worse with construction delays.
Protests:
This may be the biggest problem heading into the World Cup. Brazil's government has spent over $11 billion dollars of the public treasury in preparation for the World Cup. Protests have been frequent and ranging from higher pay and better working conditions, to using the World Cup money to fix the health care, education and public transportation systems. Last Thursday, 5,000 member of the Homeless Workers’ Movement blocked main streets in Sao Paulo with burning tires and then marched to Corinthians Arena. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters, who then set fire to piles of trash. Brazil will deploy about 150,000 troops and police in the 12 World Cup cities along with 20,000 security guards. There is also 10,000 extra riot patrol troops available. This CNN video will bring you up to speed of what is going on in Brazil:
In light of the current situation, it is fair to say the protests will definitely be present during the World Cup. What isn’t clear is if these protests will become violent, or how big they will be. Will the magic of the World Cup cure all these problems? The World Cup has always acted as a unifying force that throws political and social problems out the door - or, at least, sweeps them under the rug for a time. Brazilian star Neymar backed the political protests as long as they are peaceful. So, while an early exit for the host country could turn things sour, it will be exciting to see if sport can once again subside violence and domestic dispute. Even if just for a month.
