World Cup Brazil 2014

Today, June 11th 2010, we saw the opening match of the World Cup 2010 (South Africa 1 x 1 Mexico).

At the very moment that the ball started rolling (4 pm, local time), the temperature in Johannesburg was 18º C (64º F); the matches which happen at night experienced even lower temperatures. And, as the Southern Hemisphere moves into winter, the temperatures should fall even more.

Update: on June 15th, the day that Brazil played against North Korea, the temperature in Johannesburg was -4º C (-24º F).

Considering that Brazil is also in the Southern Hemisphere, what temperatures can be expected during the World Cup, which should take place between June and July of 2014?

The graphs below show the expected weather for today, June 6th 2010, in all Brazilian cities which will stage games of the Cup. The graphs show minimum temperature, maximum temperature, sunny/rainy weather and intensity of Ultra-Violet rays.

In the cities by the sea (namely: Natal, Recife, Fortaleza, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro), average temperatures are high, even during the winter. In Manaus and Cuiabá, which are located near the Equatorial Line, temperatures are also high during all year.

In the Southern cities of Porto Alegre and Curitiba, temperatures are expected to be low during the matches. Visitors should definitively bring their coats.

Belo Horizonte and São Paulo are located near the Tropic Line, and both are at a high altitude (around 800 m, 2,500 ft); this makes the weather of these cities more unpredictable.

The World Cup 2014 will be warmer than the World Cup 2010.

One of the most serious concerns of the organizers of the World Cup 2010 is with the violence in South Africa; and the preoccupation is not so much with episodic terrorist attacks (which can be more easily controlled), but with the day to day violence (assaults, stray bullets, gang fights), which may kill people anytime, anywhere – and whose solution takes years of concerted planning and work.

This problem afflicts the organizers of the World Cup 2014, as well. And no other city is more under scrutiny than Rio de Janeiro, the most important of the host cities of the Cup, and the host of the Olympic Games of 2016.

Rio is aware of the responsibility, and is taking measures to reduce violence.

For many years the Government treated violence combat as a war, where the enemies (mostly drug traffickers) should be killed; this is well portrayed in the movie City of God (which is voted as one of the 20 best movies of all times). The problem with this strategy is that many innocent civilians are also killed, and the survivors start to see the Police as an enemy as evil as the traffickers; and, whereas Police come and go, the traffickers are always around.

Recently, the strategy was changed. The Government is now creating UPP – Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora – Pacifying Police Units – in the most violent areas of Rio.

Every UPP has a physical structure, with a well sized staff. The Police officers  (as much as possible, only recently recruited people) are assigned to an specific UPP, hence creating links with the community.  In case the goals to reduce violence are met, the UPP staff gain a salary bonus.

Besides, along with every UPP (and the subsequent reduction in violence), the Government builds schools, health centers, leisure spaces; and trailing the Government, come the utilities companies (electricity, transportation, internet, etc).

The idea is to make the communities (whose vast majority is composed by honest, working people) believe that, rather than violence and traffic,  now the Law and Order should reign.

The graphic to the left shows that, even though there is still a long way to go, the levels of violence in Rio have been consistently decreasing.

Number of murderers is coming to 30 per 100,000 inhabitants; for comparison, in South Africa this figure is about 49.6 per 100,000 (source is here; figure quoted as of June 2010, and may change in the future).

The Brazilian coast is nearly 8,000 km (5,000 miles) long, the best part of which in the tropical zone; several Brazilian capitals are located by the sea. The country seems to have potential to be a popular destination of cruises.

However, by visiting the sites of the biggest and most popular cruise operators, such as Royal Caribbean, Carnival Lines,  Princess and Norwegian,  one notices that there are few options, if any at all, of cruises to Brazil.

There are a few explanations for such. The most important reason is that, until 1995, only national flag ships could sail between Brazilian ports. Until then, most international cruise operators stayed away from Brazil; the only company which registered ships in Brazil was Italian Costa Cruises, which dominated the Brazilian market for decades.

Since 1995, other cruisers have slowly started to come to Brazil, but they face two big problems: Brazilians (except for a small elite) are not used to cruises, and the ports are not prepared to receive big crowds.

This situation, however, is likely to change until 2014.

The main reason is that cruises will be used as accommodation. Hotels are being built, but not in enough numbers to accommodate all visitors during the peak moments of the World Cup. In big events such as Carnival and New Year in Rio, it is already common to see tourists staying in cruisers, instead of hotels.

Besides, it is expected that, with the massive exposition of Brazil in the media, tourists will be more interested in destinations such as Fernando de Noronha, Natal, Fortaleza and others, and the operators will start to offer more packages to Brazil.

A few weeks ago, FIFA manifested preoccupation with the delays in the works for the World Cup 2014. The Brazilian Local Committee started an auditing in all host cities, to check out how the works in the stadiums were going.

However, as the Minister of Tourism recently declared, even more than stadiums, the concern is with airports. Stadiums can be shut down during refurbishment, and more money can be pumped into them to speed up the works; however, in airports (most of which are already working above capacity), any move which impacts the existing flow of passengers must be carefully planned.

The Brazilian Government acknowledged the problem, and issue the Provisional Measure 489 – MP 489 – see ful text here (in Brazil, a MP must be confirmed by the Congress, but it is enforced as law since its publishing by the President of the Republic) allowing to Infraero more flexibility to hire contractors.

The MP also created the Olympic Public Authority (APO), a body whose goal is to guarantee tha Brazil and Rio will comply with the demands of the Olympic Committe regarding the Olympic Games of 2016. Article 11 of the MP determines that all biddings related to the APO and to the infrastructure of airports necessary to the realization of the World Cup 2014 shall be regulated by the MP.

The two main changes are: electronic auctions (bids are made over the internet) are now allowed; the bidded price will be ranked first, and only afterwards will the technical and financial qualifications of bidders be evaluated.

According to Infraero, the new legislation “will permit faster bidding process, will alllow fewer appeals to bidders, and will lead to faster conclusion of works”.

Some specialists, however, say that the MP is illegal. For them, the flexibilization of the bidding law is allowed only in cases of emergency or perils, and not in situations caused by the omission of the Government.

In 2007, Rio hosted the Pan American Games. The initial estimative was that the event would cost US$ 200 millions in infrastructure; a few months before the Games, the works were delayed, there were also changes in the bidding process; as a result, the final cost shot up to more than US$ 2 billion (see here and here).

Anyhow, despite the controversies, Infraero can now try to speed up the building and refurbishing of airports.

Brazilian websites published a few days ago what will supposedly be the Logo of the World Cup 2014.

According to those sites, the logo was chosen by seven people (including the President of CBF, the Secretary of FIFA and five Brazilian celebrities), after examining six other logo candidates.

However, nothing was informed by the sites (CBF and FIFA won’t say anything, as the logo will be officially presented only on July 10th 2010) about the bidding process: who were the participants, who were the final logo candidates, what were the criteria, etc.

The Logo was not well received in Brazil. Surveys among website users show that most didn’t approve the logo.

Designers are also criticizing, not only the ugliness of the Logo, but also the way that it was chosen.

Alexandre Wollner, one of the most famous Brazilian designers, expressed in an interview his impressions about the logo:

Regrettable. In colors, it looks like a face covered by hands as to hide a shame. It’s not a logo, it’s an illustration of an article called “The Shame of Brazil”. The notable people who chose the logo must have compared it with other low level designs.

But then, how was it chosen? Was there a bidding contest?

Since 2009, Brazilian professional designers (update: Brazilian designers criticize the Logo) had been in talks with CBF to plan the development of the visual identity of the World Cup 2014, which include the creation, among others, of the logo and of a mascot. There are still no news about the mascot.

IPEA is the Brazilian Institute for Applied Economics Research, an official body reknown for producing unbiased studies about the Economy of Brazil.

IPEA published recently a study called Perspectives of Air Transportation in Brazil and in the World; the study provides information to help the Brazilian Government better direct investments in infrastructure.

According to IPEA, Brazil has not invested enough in airports, which resulted in several bottlenecks; in 2009, the number of passengers was 40% higher than in 2008. Both passenger and cargo transportation have been affected. In 20 years, the number of passengers will be the triple of today.

Still according to the study, of the twelve host cities of the World Cup 2014, in eight the airports operated above nominal capacity in 2009: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia (these three cities concentrate 40% of total air traffic in Brazil), Natal, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Porto Alegre and Manaus. In all these airports, the number of landings and take offs requested by airline companies was superior to the nominal capacity of the airports.

Four host cities were not qualified as saturated by IPEA technical criteria: Recife, Fortaleza, Salvador and Cuiaba. However, as pointed by other reports (see here and here), even these airports may not offer the comfort and service levels expected by passengers.

FIFA, CBF and the Brazilian Government are rushing to prepare the airports for the World Cup 2014.

CBF, the Brazilian Football Confederation, will file lawsuits against several Brazilian corporations for the practice of  ambush marketing, “a marketing campaign that takes place around an event but does not involve payment of a sponsorship fee to the event”; the event, in this case, is the World Cup 2010.

On May 26th, it was announced that CBF would start action against Claro, TIM, Café Pelé, Banco Votorantim, GM, Mastercard,  Hyundai, MRV Engenharia, Samsung, Walmart, Ipiranga, ALE, Ponto Frio, Ricardo Eletro, Casas Bahia, Diário de S. Paulo, Magazine Luiza (all these companies are multi-million or multi-billion dollar companies),  Noova Produtos Promocionais, Ponto Inicial Brindes, The Leadership Group, Chevrolet Américas Barra, Prensa Popular, Definitive 1 and Perfumaria Ribeiro Box.

Today, June 2nd, the following companies, all big corporations, were added to the list: Caixa Econômica Federal, Aguardente Ypioca, Telefônica, Olympikus e Supermercado Guanabara.

These companies, in their marketing campaigns, made references to the expression “World Cup”, and/or exhibited someone wearing the Brazilian uniform. Below, a movie in which Robinho advertises a Volkswagen car:

Several of the above companies are direct competitors of the official sponsors of the Brazilian team; FIFA and CBF claim they have to take strong measures to protect the interests of such sponsors.

This kind of action is unheard of in Brazil until recently. In November of 2009, FIFA lawyers started sending warning letters to companies using the trademark World Cup (by then, FIFA had already registered nearly 30 expressions, marks and logos with INPI, the Brazilian Institute for Intellectual Property).

The outcome of such suits is still hard to predict – but they will certainly establish a jurisprudence for the World Cup 2014.

Update: more info about the authors of the logo.

Update: on July 8th, in Johannesburg, the Presidents of CBF, FIFA and Brazil made the official presentation of the official emblem of the World Cup 2014, which is the same logo below.

Yesterday (May 31st 2010), Brazilian site IG obtained a image of the FIFA World Cup 2014 Logo in black and white; today, another Brazilian site, Globoesporte, released a colorful image of the Logo.

FIFA Logo was inspired in the Cup itself, which was artistically recreated by a set of hands; the colors, yellow and green, mimic the Brazilian flag.

The logo was registered by FIFA with OHIM (Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market), entity which protects trademarks in Europe, on March 29th 2010; the official presentation of the logo will be on July 8th, a few days before the end of the World Cup 2010.

NOTICE: FIFA seems to be very rigorous in defending theirs and their partner’s intellectual property (see here and here). However, Brazilian law says that there is no infringement to intellectual property when such property (in this case, the logo) is the subject of a news channel (such as this blog).

The logo was result of a contest with seven bidders (FIFA didn’t inform the designer which created the logo). The voters who defined the winners were Ricardo Teixeira (President of CBF), Jerome Valcke (Secretary of FIFA), Oscar Niemeyer (Brazilian architect, designer of Brasilia), Paulo Coelho (international bestselling Brazilian writer), Gisele Bundchen (Brazilian model), Hans Donner (Brazilian, head visual designer of TV Globo) and Ivete Sangalo (Brazilian pop singer).

Update, July 8th: except foor mr. Valcke, it was officially confirmed that all the Brazilian personalities mentioned above were the voters to choose the emblem; the author of the emblem was not revealed.

This FIFA logo is not to be confused with the CBF logo (image to the left), created during the campaign which eventually led FIFA to choose Brazil as host country of the Cup 2014.

Update: repercussion of the Logo.

Update: Brazilian designers talk about the Logo.