Why We're Not Going to the World Cup

If you like football, what could be better than a World Cup in Brazil?  Being there...

Go back a year or so and Sheila and I had a plan, we would go to Brazil for as much of the world cup as possible, enjoy the atmosphere and go to one Brazil match and one England match.  I'd been told about the atmosphere in Brazil during any world cup and with them hosting, we were sure the atmosphere would be electric.  We would watch the games with friends in bars, surrounded by people passionate about the beautiful game, share the celebrations and collectively commiserate the losses (well, I do support England...)  Neither of us had seen our national team playing live and this is something that should surely be put right.  The only doubt in my mind was whether or not England would qualify!  It was not unlikely that they would be left at home.

We visited Brazil in September 2012 for a week or so.  We were surprised to see that Guarulhos (São Paulo's main international airport) was chaotic as ever, this close to the World Cup.  We imagined thousands of football fans flooding into the country through here and Rio de Janeiro and wondered how they would cope.  Finding the hire care office was a challenge and that was being accompanied by a Brazilian; the staff in the immigration line seemed clueless; the signs in the airport were confusing at best.  How would they cope with masses of foreigners, many of whom would not speak a word of Portuguese?  Don't worry, we thought, with all the investment in infrastructure - every major stadium in the country was being renovated, surely they had budget for infrastructure? - it must improve.  By this point, Fantastico was running features on what must improve if Brazil is to play host to the World.

We drove from São Paulo to Curitiba, which was a hair raising experience.  The road is nicknamed Rodovia do morte - motorway of death - for good reason.  The tight turns in the mountains and some psychotic lorry drivers made it a real edge-of-the-seat experience.  Next I'll take the easy option and fly, as I'm sure most fans would do anyway. 

Arriving in Curitiba is always a relief.  This is a city that has been very well organised and has been recognised as one of the world's best examples of urban planning.  The bus network is well thought out with dedicated bus lanes, bendy buses and covered bus shelters (to keep out the constant threat of rain) and a fare collector so that boarding and disembarking is a quick and efficient affair.  If you prefer to drive, you face that same problems as any other city in the world.  It's not the easiest of places to find your way around if you are first time visitor (three letters for you: GPS) but it's no more difficult than any other city I've driven in.  Indeed, I have experienced a lot worse in London, Brussels, San Francisco.... But if you're only visiting for a short time, there is no need to hire a car, the bus network will more than suffice.

Arena da Baixada before it was torn down

As supporters of Atlético Paranaense, Sheila and I were happy that the Arena da Baixada had been chosen as one of the venues.  Dare we hope that England or Brazil would play there?  (Turns out, no.)  The Arena was a great example of a modern stadium; good access in and out of the ground, good seating and a great atmosphere.  All it was lacking was a stand along the South side of the pitch.  Aparently the owner of a school there was Coxa fan and blocked the building of another stand.  I heard this story, but have no idea whether it's true.  With the world cup coming, the club announced plans to upgrade the stadium: finally, they would have that fourth stand.

To our surprise, the renovations went beyond simply building a fourth stand.  Instead, the stadium that was built in 1999 was torn to the ground and rebuilt from the ground up.  I feel I must reiterate this point; the Arena da Baixada which was considered among Brazils most modern and best appointed stadia was torn down to be rebuilt from scratch.  To add insult to injury, the construction project was plagued by delays to the point that it found itself in the spotlight of the world-wide media as an example of how poorly the preparations for the World Cup were being managed.  For the people of Curitiba who are rightly proud of their city's reputation for efficiency, this was a huge embarrassment; there was even suggestions that the games to be held in Curitiba would be moved to another venue.  Thankfully, this appeared to spur on the works and not long ago, the stadium hosted a test friendly with invitations to all the workers that rebuilt the stadium

The Arena da Baixada is by no means the only stadium to suffer setbacks, the story of the crane collapse in São Paulo that resulted in the death of two workers was well reported around the world.  But this pails into significance against the corruption that has overshadowed the preparations.  The country promised massive improvements to infrastructure in order to cope with the influx of visitors.  There was talk of a new high speed train line between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, improvements to public transport, Curitiba would get an underground train network.  None of this has happened, the money seems to evaporate somehow...

Then we come to schools and hospitals.  Or maybe we don't...  Instead of private investment, many of the stadia were upgraded with public money.  When these projects inevitably went over-budget, with whispers about contracts being offered to friends and family or being delayed until the last minute so that the costs increase or maybe even due to money being pocketed (who does it hurt?  what's the harm?) then more money is taken away from schools, roads and hospitals.  After all, the last thing anyone wants is for the stadia to not be ready in time, embarrassing the government. 

Finally, in June 2013, the Brazilian people had enough.  In the midst of the Confederations cup, millions of people went onto the streets to protest against corruption and the high cost of hosting the World Cup.  The protests started in reaction to an increase in bus fares but soon grew to include corruption and police violence.  Social media allowed news to spread faster than traditional media (in fact Rede Globo, the Brazilian telecoms giant, appeared to ignore the protests on the first weekend) with people sharing photos and video of protests (see below) and police reactions under twitter hashtags such as #changebrazil (as well as #mudabrasil) and #semviolência (without violence.)  One such video that I cannot forget shows a gathering of protestors chanting ' sem violência' then being attacking by police with pepper spray, rubber bullets and truncheons. The protests spread to every major city in Brazil with many expats abroad demonstrating and forcing the issues into the global consciousness.

So, in light of all this, how can we go to the World Cup?  I have no doubt that the games will go ahead and they will be as exciting as always.  Indeed, we will be watching every England and Brazil match on TV, as well as many more. I don't want the World Cup to be a fiasco; part of me feels that the best thing is in fact to go, to feed the economy that should be paying for these projects.  But to go would be to justify the excessive expenses that Brazil cannot afford; to justify rebuilding entire stadia to satisfy FIFAs demands and to divert funds away from needy projects; to justify massive diversions while kids in the country's poorer regions go to schools that have broken chairs, no toilets and no electricity - watch video.

Brazil has the potential to be a great country, indeed many people have been raised from poverty into a growing middle class, but the speed of change is hampered but these levels of corruption.  By not going to the World Cup, we are not really protesting, but after our initial enthusiasm we no longer have an appetite for it.