Several weeks ago, John Oliver went on his new HBO show Last Week Tonight and expressed his excitement for the World Cup, but his disgust for the organization of FIFA. The video went viral and currently has over 5 million views on YouTube. John Oliver brought the problems that Brazilians had been protesting about in the days leading up to the World Cup to light:
In typical fashion, Oliver's indictment of FIFA is simultaneouly hilarious and enraging. One doesn't know whether to laugh at the ridicuousness of it all or boycott the World Cup. (The horror!)
However, Oliver's assessment also begs the question: A week into the tournament, has the sentiment towards FIFA changed? After all, with the host nation leading its group in the standings - and with the reaction of crowds inside and outside of stadium walls alike during Brazil's first two matches - it stands to reason that as long as Brazil wins, much of the protest leading up to the Cup will get swept under the rug as the nation celebrates each successive victory. Or, could it be that the attention of the media has shifted as the World Cup has gotten under way so that, even as protests occur, those of us outside of the host nation simply won't see much coverage during the following weeks. Take, for instance, the June 19th protest that occurred during the England/Uruguay match. Outside the sphere of social media and "grassroots" reporting, this incident received scant coverage as the mainstream media focused instead on the stunning early exit of England from the tournament.
Here at The18, we have already taken a close look at who really profits from the FIFA World Cup. Now, more than a week into World Cup 2014, we thought it would be interesting to take a deeper look at the underlying causes of the unrest in Brazil and how this sentiment has played out.
Social Unrest
If history were any indicator, we all might have expected that Brazil would be ecstatic to have won the bid for World Cup 2014. This is, after all, the nation where "futbol is a religion" by all accounts.
Well, not really. The past months have seen constant clashes between residents and police in the various surrounding favelas (Brazilian slums) of major World Cup cities. You may ask why, given Brazilians' love of futbol. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the Brazilian government has spent more than $11 billion getting ready for the World Cup.
Or maybe it has to do with the fact that Brazil spent over $270 million to build a soccer stadium in the city of Manaus, which is an area so remote in the Amazon jungle that it is almost impossible to reach by car. So, how could Brazil possibly build a stadium there? Brazil spent even more money making sure the supplies reached Manaus by boat up the Amazon River. Yet, the funniest part has to be the fact that there will be only four games played in this stadium. That’s it, just four! And once the World Cup passes, as John Oliver states, “it becomes the world’s most expensive bird toilet.”
Because in reality it takes about $250,000 to maintain this stadium a month, so who will pay for this? If you said "Manaus’ citizens" you would be correct. Hamilton Leao, an environmentalist and activist, even remarked, “All the Brazilians are going to pay for this. Me, my friends, because this stadium is a white elephant.”
Brazil Gets No Money
Put simply, Brazil will see none of the money from World Cup 2014. Instead FIFA, the World Cup organizer, will earn all the revenue from the tournament.
FIFA also has incredible tax exemptions from prospective host countries during the World Cup. As Professor Han Kogels, from Erasmus University in The Netherlands, states, “There’s FIFA and its FIFA subsidiaries that are fully exempt from any tax at whatever level... [These include] all sorts of taxes: consumption taxes, income taxes, you name it, it’s all exempt” What does that mean? That means that all the revenue that Brazil could possibly attain in taxes are forgone. The estimation for this current World Cup has come out to around $250 million in taxes that Brazil will not receive.
“Bribery And FIFA Go Together like PB&J”
FIFA’s corruption has also been at the forefront of the news surrounding this year's World Cup. FIFA has encountered numerous scandals, but yet they remain strong as a non-profit organization. As president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, stated in an interview, “We are a non-profit and we have to remain a non-profit organization.” However, as the interviewer quickly remarks, “A non-profit with over $1 billion in the bank?” Blatter’s response is simply, “Yeah, but this is...eh ah uh eh...a reserve.” (We've made sure to emphasize the hesitation.)
A reserve of over $1 billion!? That may also stem from the fact that it is a nonprofit organization that receives even more tax breaks from the Swiss government. As Sports Illustrated states, if FIFA were based in the United States, it would be required to report all if its individual directors’ fees, just like any other nonprofit. Yet lucky for them, Switzerland does not.
Current Brazilian Feelings Towards The World Cup
As you might guess, much of the hostility towards FIFA and the Brazilian government seem to have been put on hold during the World Cup. For example, in a recent NPR (National Public Radio) segment, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro attended a viewing of the Brazil-Mexico game at a local restaurant in São Paulo, Brazil.
She interviewed several Brazilians and it seems that Brazilian National Team has a lot of pressure to win in order to make up for the amount of money and work Brazil has put in to host this tournament. One fan believed that, “I think now that the games have begun, people have understood that the World Cup is important.” And of course Brazilians love soccer and are ecstatic for Brazils games. However, other citizens such as Freddy Cabeza, an architect who was also interviewed by Garcia-Navarro, have other expectations. He remarked, “Our team [Brazil] has to win, they wasted all of our money on those stadiums after all.” He also went on to say, “If you see it [the World Cup] on TV it looks great, but outside of the stadiums it’s still chaotic.”
It seems that the sentiment of the nation really hangs in the balance with the performance of the Brazilian National Team as the deciding factor. One unexpected loss, and the whole uneasy "calm" of the nation could topple over into renewed public outrage. After all, imagine the feelings of the Brazilian public if their team is eliminated early from the tournament and the country plays host to a celebration of football for other nations. It would be a little bit like being asked to foot the bill for a massively expensive wedding between two individuals whom you don't like - or, even, loathe.
So, there is really only one acceptable outcome for Brazil and we have all known it from the beginning of the tournament. For the host nation, it's championship or bust – or, in this case, maybe a more apt description is "championship or revolt." Which makes even the most jingoistic among us hold out hope for a World Cup final that includes Brazil on July 13th.
