How the 2014 Samba World Cup could miss a beat

Brazil's national stadium, the Maracana, is currently being remodelled

Hosting the World Cup is most certainly an honour for any country, but when Brazil was chosen to pick up the check in 2014 the excitement was tangible in almost every nation. Brazil has always been known for its passion for football and its talented footballers – unfortunately there is more than reputation involved in hosting an event of such a scale.

A cultural complex called City of Music in Rio de Janeiro was all set to be a place to celebrate music; it would be the new home of the national orchestra and the largest concert hall in South America. Its inauguration was scheduled for 2004 but after much controversy over the money spent in the project, the complex is still sitting unfinished. The first estimated price for the project was R$ 80 million (£29 million); so far, the government has spent over R$ 500 million (£181 million) and the inauguration has been moved to 2012. Considered overtly expensive and unnecessary, and with many suspicions that chunks of the money did not even reach the project, City of Music is an example of the misuse of public money in Brazil.

Faulty sidewalks and streets, old historical buildings that are falling apart, exploding manholes and substandard public transport are only a few of the problems in Brazilian cities that should be fixed before the World Cup. The famous football stadium Maracanã will have to be completely rebuilt – more on this later – but as of mid-September, a thousand days away for the actual event, 42 of the 51 projects designed to put the country in shape haven’t even been initiated. The public transport is only being rehabilitated in five of the 12 host cities, whilst only eight of 13 host city airports have ongoing improvement works; the plans for the rest are still being revised.

When the Pan-American games came to the country, Copacabana beach got a facelift; the kiosks were renovated but that was the only visible improvement in the city. The Maracanã stadium also got some work done but it is still miles away from qualifying to be used during the World Cup – and the process to drive it there has been nothing but problematic. Registered as one of Brazil’s national treasures, the stadium couldn’t be imploded for renovation so the plans have been revised over and over again and a ridiculous amount of money has been wasted on not imploding the place – a much cheaper alternative. Strikes have also delayed the works, setting the renovation back two whole months; the workers have been unhappy about safety conditions in the construction site.

Slow-paced and uncertain as things are going in the football nation, there is still time on the clock to get these projects on track. This is obviously not the first time a developing country is hosting the World Cup – a glowing example of a host was South Africa; a small, underprivileged country that was given a very big shot to impress the world and actually pulled through. There will always be mistakes and things that go wrong in these events and there is a margin of things that can be forgiven (I am obviously referring to the famous vuvuzelas and their infernal noise).

The economic boost and general incentive the World Cup gives third world countries like Brazil is astonishing. Once the projects actually start going on schedule, stadiums are finally built and public transport is at last fixed– and this will all have to be done by 2014, otherwise it will be complete chaos – Brazil will be one of the top destinations in the world. But it seems to me extremely shameful that a country should fix their problems because of an international event; these should be fixed for the people who live there and pay their taxes every year. I doubt many Brazilians really care about the international reputation their country has, not in comparison with the issues they have to deal with everyday; and this is the problem with most third world countries today. They want to be big when no attention is paid to the local issues when it should be the other way around; because that is when a country really becomes great.

Currently, Brazil’s road to the World Cup seems very bumpy; if projects are not taken up soon, there might not be a way to pull off the 2014 event. There is still time – but tabs must be properly kept on the authorities when most of the projects haven’t even taken off.

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