World Cup Brazil 2014

A note published in Brazilian portal Terra informs that FIFA and the Brazilian Government are having a dispute about tax exemptions.

One of the requirements of FIFA to choose a country to host the World Cup is that the Association be exempt of all taxes; according to the Ministry of Sports, this condition was accepted by the Brazilian Government.

However, now  Receita Federal (the powerful Brazilian Tax Service) affirms that the exemption would not be extented to FIFA’s contractors. The note says that Receita is studying limits to the tax rebates that the contractors will be allowed to claim; FIFA, however, wants the contractors to be fully exempted.

This brings to mind an infamous incident between Receita and the Brazilian Federation which happened in 1994, right after the Brazilian team returned from the winning campaign in the United States.

The Brazilian team was led by Ricardo Teixeira, President of CBF. Teixeira used the “clamor of Brazilian people to meet the heroes of the World Cup” as an excuse to not pass through customs; the customs staff felt the pressure and let them pass. The episode became known as “voo da muamba” (smuggle flight).

Later on, it was verified that many of the heroes illegaly imported stuf without paying taxes; Teixeira himself brought an equipment to produce beer, probably the most expensive product in the lot.

Teixeira and the Government have been fighting in courts since. Brazilian public opinion sided eventually with the Government, rather than with “the heroes”. Receita Federal seems to have very few reasons to be complacent with FIFA.

Update, April 24th 2010: the Minister of Sports informed that a law draft will be sent to Congress this month. Every tax exemption must be approved by the Congress. If the law is approved before December 31st 2010, FIFA and all contractors related to the World Cup 2014 will be tax exempted starting on January 1st 2011.

Update, May 26th 2010: the law was approved, as per FIFA requests.

Morumbi is a private stadium, owned by Sao Paulo Futebol Clube, situated in the city of São Paulo (Saint Paul). Sao Paulo FC is the Brazilian team with most titles in the national league (six times, last one in 2008) and most world team championship titles (1992, 1993 and 2005).

The official name of Morumbi is Estádio Cícero Pompeu de Toledo; mr. Toledo was ex-President of Sao Paulo FC, the one who purchased the land where the stadium would be built – the land was acquired in 1951, and the first match in Morumbi occurred in 1960, Sao Paulo 1 x 0 Sporting Lisboa. In 1950, the matches of World Cup Brazil in Sao Paulo were staged at the  Pacaembu stadium; Pacaembu, owned by the city of São Paulo, is still active, but won’t stage any matches in 2014.

The word Morumbi is of indigenous origin and means Colina Verde (Green Hill); Morumbi is also the name of a neighbourhood of Sao Paulo, one of the poshest (‘to live in Morumbi’ is a slang for being a rich person).

Morumbi is the largest private stadium in Brazil; currently, Maracanã (in Rio de Janeiro) and Mineirão (in Belo Horizonte), both State owned, are bigger than Morumbi. The original capacity was 120,000 attendants; in early 1990s, for security reasons, it was decreased to 85,000; in mid 1990s, further refurbishments caused an additional reduction to current 75,000 attendants. The largest attendance for a football match was in November of 1977, when Corinthians became champion after 24 years, with an audience of 146,082 people.

Morumbi will be remodeled again for the 2014 Cup. The estimated new capacity is 65,000 people. The  project presented to FIFA was signed by Ruy Othake, one of the best Brazilian (of Japanese origin) architects.

Like all stadia which are being remodeled, Morumbi would provide more security, more technology, better integration with the transportation network, more environment oriented use of resources.

Several problems, however, hang over the new project. The owner of Morumbi, Sao Paulo FC, expects some funding from State budgets to rebuild the stadium. Governor of Sao Paulo, José Serra, known for being tight to spend money, has declared that it is up to Sao Paulo FC to bring Morumbi to FIFA standards. In 2007, powerful President of CBF Ricardo Teixeira had declared that no public money would be used to build or refurbish stadia for the World Cup 2014. In August 2009, Teixeira declared that the public stadia could receive public financing, but the private stadia (Morumbi, Beira-Rio and Arena da Baixada) wouldn’t. And in September, the official Brazilian Bank of Development announced the opening of financing lines for all the stadia, public and private.

This doesn’t resolve all the problems, though. Sao Paulo FC is hesitant to take loans to expand Morumbi, because it is uncertain whether the financial return after the Cup would pay the debts. President of FIFA Joseph Blatter declared in a recent interview that Morumbi is not up to standards, and matches in Sao Paulo can be moved to Pacaembu.

Despite all problems, it is very likely that Morumbi, given the importance of São Paulo, will be the stadium of the opening match of the World Cup 2014.

World Cup in South Africa will be the 19th of all times. Only Brazil attended all 18 Cups so far, only Brazil will have attended all 19 Cups when the South Africa event is over, and only Brazil can say for sure that will have participated in all 20 Cups until 2014.

Recently, Brazil qualified for the World Cup 2010; as Brazil is host of the 2014 World Cup, the Brazilian team has a secured presence in that tournament.

Brazil will have hosted the Cup in two occasions (1950 and 2014); Brazil was champion five times, but in only three of these occasions (1958, 1962, 1970) was the champion automatically qualified for the next Cup; in 1930, the teams were chosen by invitation. In the other 14 times that Brazil attended a World Cup, the team had to earn it in the field.

Italy (four times World Champion) was out of the 1930 Cup, but one may say that the Italians prudently didn’t want to take a long trip to play a then non-important tournament in distant Uruguay (only four European countries attended the Cup in Uruguay: Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia);  however, Italy failed to qualify for the 1958 World Cup.

Germany also declined from going to Uruguay in 1930, and were banned from the 1950 Cup, the first one after the World War II (hard to say whether the German team would qualify to the 1950 Cup, as the country was wrecked by the War; however, it must be noticed that the Germans won the next Cup, in 1954).

No other country comes close to Brazil, Italy and Germany in terms of World Cup participations.

Argentina withdrew from playing the qualifyings in 1938, 1950 and 1954; in 1970, Argentina failed to qualify to the Cup in Mexico. France did not qualify for the tournament in 1950, 1962, 1970, 1974, 1990 and 1994.

While most countries see the qualification for a World Cup as an achievement to be celebrated, Brazilians see it as an obligation of the football team.