Maurício Murad, sociologist and professor from UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro),
shows that in the past 10 years, 42 football fans were killed in Brazil in fights around or inside
stadiums. The source of his ranking are media and police reports made between 1999 and 2008. In the
past 5 years, death rates increased to 5.
The newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported that the Brazilian cities that will host the 2014 World
Cup missed their first deadline. The nine cities that will use tax payers' money to build stadiums
failed to publish the invitation to the bidding process by the final date set by the local
organizing committee.
Months ago, I mentioned the danger of the 2014 World Cup turn into drain for public money. The
final destination: the pockets of corrupt Brazilian politicians. It seems the party just got
started.
Blog do Jose Cruz, which investigates the politics of sports, showed yesterday that the city of
Cuiaba, capital of Mato Grosso and one of the 12 hosts, already broke the rules to avoid the waste
of tax payers' money.
Time is short today, so the weekly stadium spotlight series takes a brief look at a stadium
that has a considerable transformation planned for it.
In May, the twelve host cities for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil were announced. One of
the winning bids was Fortaleza, the state capital of Ceará in Northeastern Brazil.
Since Friday, the list was known, but FIFA made it official this Sunday. The cities are:
Belo Horizonte (MG),
Brasília (DF),
Cuiabá (MT),
Curitiba (PR),
Fortaleza (CE),
Manaus (AM),
Natal (RN),
Porto Alegre (RS),
Recife (PE),
Rio de Janeiro (RJ),
Salvador (BA),
São Paulo (SP).
The 2014 World Cup is 5 years ahead of us. Long time? Not for the politics going on in the
background. Before I even go ahead, bare in mind a few things:
Brazil hosted the 2007 Pan-american games in Rio. The proposed budget for the hosting the games:
R$ 400 million ( at a rate of US$ 1 = R$ 2.
CBF announced today that Brazil will play a friendly match against England on November 14th.
Where? Doha, Qatar. Why? The organization sold the right of all friendlies of the national team.
And the people who bought it can organize the matches wherever they please.
In the meantime, While CBF pockets money and Brazilian fans do not get to see their national
squad, Brazilian clubs struggle financially.
1) The 2010 seeding formula. Using the previous formula (from 2006), it appears that Portugal's
resurgence may see them get seeded after all at the expense of France. They were always in good
shape as long as they managed to qualify, and that looks very likely now. The same eight teams have
been in the running ever since July 2006, so one good team is going to get let out no matter what.
Fábio Simão, Arruda and Ricardo Teixeira (photo: P.Gualberto-09/17/08)
No one seems to be talking about this outside Brazil, so here we go.
The first scandal involving people working in the 2014 World Cup is already upon us. Fábio
Simão, who heads the works of Brasilia for the World Cup, had to step down as one of the advisers
of José Roberto Arruda, governor of the Federal District.
