With the World Cup looming, a battle rages for the soul of Brazil

Brazil have one of the best football squads in the world right now, and the emotional wave that the entire nation has been riding is sure to give Brazil’s team an extra impetus, not that they need it anyway. But while there is obvious joy in the World Cup coming to what many feel is the home of football, there is an equal (if not greater) amount of rage that is steeped among the people of Brazil. During the Confederations Cup, news from Brazil carried daily reports on clashes between police forces and the civilian population who say that the money being invested in the stadia for next year’s showpiece would be better used constructing schools and hospitals and tackling some of Brazil’s most chronic problems which include poverty, crime and drug trafficking. [caption id=“attachment_1419133” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Romario, who won the 1994 World Cup with Brazil. Reuters[/caption] The tournament in its entirety will require more than R$30 billion, more than the amount invested in the three previous World Cups put together (around R$25 billion). But while Brazilian politicians say that this money will generate income for the government to spend on the people, that is, sadly, far from the truth. The majority of funds that will be poured into Brazil’s sporting events will be recouped by FIFA and the investors who will no doubt claim a handsome profit on their investments. That leaves the people with decidedly short rations once the month-long tournament ends next summer. To put this in some perspective, the draw for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which lasted 90 minutes, cost the government of Brazil £10 million. Those investors will be adding their profits to their already overflowing coffers. While Brazil’s super rich buy new private jets worth £10 million and regularly jet to Europe as they shop amongst the crème de la crème in St. Tropez, employ bodyguards for their sprawling estates and rent Lamborghinis and Ferraris for their significant others, statistics released in 2011 show that the South American nation has 11.5 million people living in poverty. That is up from 4.5 million in 1991. With the property boom hitting cities all across Brazil, executive salaries have risen tremendously and British newspaper The Guardian reports that the Brazilian economy has been creating an average of a whopping 19 millionaires a day since 2007. But the average Brazilian struggles to make a living. A Brazilian congressman makes about R$ 5000 a month plus benefits, while a schoolteacher makes a paltry R$ 800. Most of Brazil’s poor live in massive shantytowns called favelas, illegal slums where unemployment, poverty and crime thrive. One in five Brazilians live in a favela, which is seen as a symbol of Brazil’s unequal, corrupt society. Its top ten per cent of the population controls 50 percent of the nation’s assets, while the bottom 8.5 percent is entrenched beneath the poverty line. Brazil’s players are ambassadors for their country, and by extension, the communities they come from. While some have been raised up from Brazil’s favelas, there are those who have been born with more privileges. Ronaldinho, for example, was born in a wooden house in the heart of Sao Paulo’s favela. His father used to pull shifts at a car park to make ends meet. Kaka was born mere miles away, but he had a more secure upbringing. His father worked as a civil engineer, his mother a teacher. In a country where people follow football with a fervour that is at par with religion, second place is considered not good enough: the Brazil team which picked up a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics was not given any special treatment by the fans. In times like these, it only takes one misplaced pass, one wrong tackle, one mistimed run at the most inopportune of moments before players engage each other in heated arguments in the dressing room. At first, there will be people who move to separate such wars of words and prevent them from escalating to physical confrontations, but such an argument will surely play on people’s minds, especially when they are most vulnerable. From there, it’s not that far away to a training ground spat or a very public confrontation and because of this diversity, it may not be possible for someone like Kaka to understand where his teammate Marcelo is coming from. Recently, the corruption showcased by the government has only worsened. Brazil’s hospitals are in woefully short numbers and between 2005 and 2012, saw a reduction in 10 percent of beds for those who need them, which means a lack of treatment for 41,713 people who need it, reports Brazilian blogger Nicole Froio. According to her, the Brazilian education system is being poisoned by a venomous cocktail of corruption and a lack of quality education. The result is that more than 3.5 million Brazilian children do not go to school and the authorities do not take the necessary steps to put them there because of a lack of inspections in schools. Football is long considered to be the sport of the common man, the working class, but that does not seem to resonate with the Brazil government that recently introduced a 20 percent increase in bus fares, which was the spark that started the protests during the Confederations Cup last year. With good reason: a round trip commute on a bus costs the Brazilian worker R$ 120, which is a fifth of his salary of R$ 680, an amount that is exorbitant to say the least. That fee was later withdrawn. Melim Leitao, a prominent figure in certain Brazilian circles was quick to respond to the riots. “The movement is a diffuse feeling of dissatisfaction at the incapacity of the Brazilian State to meet the people’s aspirations,” he wrote “The list of grievances leaves next year’s World Cup in the firing line - as shown by the mass demonstrations taking place outside Confederations Cup matches.” The BBC’s Tim Vickery, long considered an expert on the South American game, is based in Brazil. “Of all the unimportant things in life, as the wise old saying puts it, football is the most important,” he says. “Which means, wonderful as it is, that the global game comes below education, health and public transport in any rational list of governmental priorities.” “Average crowds in the Brazilian Championship are below those of Major League Soccer in the US.” This, he says, is because of “a number of explanations [including] the appalling calendar of the Brazilian season, kick-off times to suit TV (9:50 pm, for example), inadequate public transport, fear of violence and supporter mentality (only turning up when the team is winning),” he says But the saddest part of all of this is that Brazil’s own sons have endorsed this world Cup. Ronaldo, in a press conference, ‘renounced his Brazilian heritage’ according to Froio, when he said that a World Cup isn’t made with hospitals, but with stadiums. Pele then tried to quell the protesters by trying to explain to them in a YouTube video that the billions that were being poured into the stadiums were not a misappropriation of Brazilian funds. Perhaps it is because the two are legends that they do not need to wait in line to see a doctor like the rest of their countrymen. But that does not mean they forget their roots and turn their backs on the people of Brazil, from whose ranks they have risen. Ninety-seven percent of funds for the World Cup were taken from the taxpayers’ pockets. “It is even sadder for a population like Brazil’s,” says Froio “who have been taught footballers are their only role models.” Romario is a player who agrees with her. Champion with Brazil in 1994, he is now a politician in his homeland and frequently takes to social media to voice his outrage. “FIFA got what it came for: money,” he said in an interview to the New York Times. “Things like transportation that affects the public after the tournament is over? They don’t care. They don’t care about what is going to be left behind. Either Ronaldo and Bebeto aren’t aware of what is going on, or they are pretending they aren’t aware of what is going on. Either way, it is ignorant. “You see hospitals with no beds,” he added. “You see hospitals with people on the floor. You see schools that don’t have lunch for the kids. You see schools with no air-conditioning, where kids are going to school in 45 degrees Celsius. “You see buildings and schools with no accessibility for people who are handicapped. If you spend 30 percent less on the stadiums, they’d be able to improve the other things that actually matter.”