World Cup Brazil 2014

On March 3rd 2010, FIFA was informed that the works in all stadiums for the World Cup 2014 were behind schedule; at that occasion, CBF and FIFA determined a new deadline: by May 3rd, every stadium should have at least started works – building or refurbishing – to catch up with FIFA’s schedule.

Today, May 3rd, exactly two months later, barely anything changed.

According to international news sources,  FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke declared: “I got a report on the status quo of the Brazilian stadiums. I have to say it is not very nice. There are a number (of stadiums) with red lights already, which is amazing. It is amazing how Brazil is already late. And I am not just talking about Morumbi or Maracana stadiums, I am talking about a number of stadiums.”

Much more bombastic, though, was an interview to Brazilian newspaper O Globo (click here); according to the newspaper, Volcke said:

I asked Ricardo Teixeira (president of CBF): how come you signed all those documents and don’t comply with them? We don’t want a rushed World Cup, organized at the last minute.

This year, you have Presidential election, nothing is going to happen. Next year, there is carnival. Are you going to start working only after carnival?

See also repercussions at Yahoo and Reuters.

Asked whether FIFA would consider to cut down the number of host cities from twelve to eight, Vakcke said that “for the time being, we have 12 host cities and we are not in a period where we have to make decisions”.

Last year, FIFA appointed the 12 Brazilian cities which should host matches of the World Cup 2014.

Last week, the Minister of Sports in Brazil, when talking about the delays in the works of the stadia, said that some cities could be excluded from the list of hosts; a few hours later, the Minister withdrew, and said that there are no plans of excluding any city.

FIFA demands a minimum of eight host cities. South Africa will have nine host cities and Germany had twelve. Does Brazil need to have twelve host cities? Can Brazil afford it?

The decision to approve the final host cities is up to FIFA; FIFA will certainly listen to CBF before taking a decision. FIFA and CBF see the World Cup as a business, which must return a profit.

It was by a request of the Brazilian Government that 12 cities were appointed as hosts (and there were still other candidates). The Government hopes to gain world exposition to as many cities as possible, during the World Cup. That would be good.

However, what’s the cost of such diversification?

The first stage of the Cup has eight groups, with four countries each; each group will have six matches. It’s only in this first stage that any host city may claim to host matches; past that, when come the rounds of 16, 8, quarter finals, semi finals and final, matches become more and more important, and FIFA will direct them to the bigger cities and stadia.

So, it is likely that smaller cities such as Manaus, Cuiabá and Natal, will end up building a stadium to host only three matches of the World Cup. These cities don’t have strong local teams to occupy the stadia once the Cup is finished. Past experiences have shown that a World Cup can drain host city’s coffers.

Besides, distances in Brazil are much longer than in South Africa or Europe. Transportation infrastructure in Brazil is poor. By lack of money or of competence, the works in all stadia are delayed. FIFA was concerned with the dealys in South Africa, and will try to avoid the same mistakes in Brazil.

It will be no surprise if FIFA decides to reduce the number of host cities in Brazil.

Today, April 21st 2010, Brasilia is celebrating its 50th anniversary; Brasilia was designed and built to be the Federal capital of Brazil.

Brasilia is one of the host cities of the World Cup 2014, and not an ordinary one. Given that the final match of the Cup will be in Maracanã, Brasilia is disputing with other major cities (like Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte) the privilege to host the opening match, or, at least, one of the semifinals.

And that was not very difficult to happen. The Government of Brasilia is planning to build the second largest stadium for 2014, the National Stadium, with a capacity of 71,000 people; meanwhile, Morumbi, the stadium in Sao Paulo, is having trouble to adapt to FIFA’s demands (last week, FIFA, instead of ruling out final matches in Morumbi,  euphemistically said that the stadium is ready to host Group Games of the Cup). Besides, there is a strong political interest to put Brasilia under the spotlights during the Cup.

What  can a traveler do in Brasilia?

Firstly, it is worth noticing that, thanks to the central position, the airport of Brasilia is one of the main hubs in Brazil; many flights connecting the South, North and Northeast of Brazil stop over in Brasilia. This means that will be rather easy to go to Brasilia and from there to any other host city.

Most Seats of Power in Brasilia are open to visitation. Within a mile walk around Three Powers Square, one can visit the Brazilian Congress, the Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court; several Ministries (such as the Foreign Relations and the Justice) are also open. Oscar Niemeyer, the architect who designed most buildings in Brasilia, scattered monuments all over the city, most of which are in open air or open to visitation (the National Theater, the Cathedral, the National Museum, JK Memorial).

Brasilia was designed with quality of life in mind. Residences and services are laid out orderly, to make transit and daily life easier. Being the city with the highest average income in Brazil, Brasilia has certainly sereral shopping centers and a busy nightlife. There are several environment friendly areas (the Parque da Cidade and the Lago Paranoá are the most outstanding examples). Climbing the TV Tower is the best way to have an overview of Brasilia landscape.

Brasilia has a very strong spiritual side (not to be confused with religious side). Many believe that Brasilia is the realization of a prophecy by Italian priest Dom Bosco, who dreamt of a new Canaan in the Tropics; Dom Bosco followers have several sanctuaries in Brasilia. Good Will Legion, one the largest philantropic institutions in Brazil, has headquarters in Brasilia, with several worshiping places; the Good Will Temple was built under a pyramid which is said be mystic. Visiting Brasilia is a good way to recharge one’s spiritual forces.

And then there are places to see in the neighbourhood. Brasilia is entirely surrounded by the State of Goiás, which maintains traditions of the old country side cities. The old city of Goiás is a World Heritage Site. Pirenopolis is well known for the waterfalls, colonial architecture and traditional feasts with roots in Colonial times. And several cities around Brasilia offer trips to know the Cerrado, one of the Brazilian biomas.

Brasilia doesn’t have the beaches of the Northeast of Brazil, the grandness of Sao Paulo, the cultural diversity of the South; however, there are attractions to keep a visitor busy for several days.

Castelão could well mean “big castle” in Portuguese; however, this arena of Fortaleza which will stage matches of the World Cup 2014 was named after Plácido Aderaldo Castelo, the Governor of Ceará who, in 1968, started building the stadium.

Castelão belongs to the Government of Ceará. The opening match, in 1973, between the teams of Ceará and Fortaleza, was attended by about 70,000 people. Today, the official capacity is 60,326 people.

Castelão is the largest stadium in the Northeast of Brazil; the other World Cup 2014 host cities in the Northeast are Natal, Recife and Salvador. This means that, if FIFA and CBF decide to bring an important match of the semifinals to the Northeast (which is a likely fact, since the Northeast is the area with the most beautiful beaches in Brazil), that match will be in Fortaleza.

Below, aerial photos of Castelão showing a match in 2005 (photos by O Povo) and the location of the stadium, in a suburban area, away from the beaches of Fortaleza.

Until 2014, the New Castelão  project should add to the stadium complex a shopping center and a hotel. A parking lot for 4,200 cars will be built underground. The roof of the stadium will be prolongued, and will cover all chairs.

Below, photos of the new Castelão presented to FIFA, designed by Vigglieca Architects.

The past two days, storms in Rio de Janeiro caused floods, landslidings, deaths, (toll is at 100 and counting) and chaos;  see reports and photos by the New York Times, Washington Post and the BBC.

The arena Maracazinho was seriously damaged. Maracanã, the stadium which should stage the final match of the World Cup 2014, was also flooded – an international match had to be postponed.

FIFA already learned about the news. FIFA’s concern is, obviously, how the World Cup could be affected by the rain.

The graph below, made by the Official Weather Institution in Brazil, shows the average precipitation levels (blue bars) and temperature (orange line) for the city of Rio de Janeiro.

The graph shows that the rainy season starts with the summer, in December, and lasts through April. However, the graph shows also that even in the drier months of June and July (when the World Cup 2014 should happen), there is still a considerable probability of raining.

But raining would not be a big problem, if the city were prepared to face it. Most of the  host cities have a bad draining/sewage system, combined with a bad rubish collection system; as a consequence, the rubish blocks the draining holes, and the water floods the cities.

Besides, several host cities are surrounded by hills and mountains, and many people live near the  top, coast and foot of them. This unordered occupation combined with heavy rains result, year after year, in landslidings and deaths.

On October 30th 2007 (nearly two and a half years ago), FIFA named Brazil as the host country of the World Cup 2014; and on June 1st 2009 (nine months ago), FIFA and CBF announced the twelve host cities of the Cup.

FIFA set March 1st 2010 as the deadline for all hosts to have started the works to build or refurbish the stadiums; today, March 3rd 2010, only three of the hosts have started some works (but not one brick has been laid – see report further below).

A few weeks ago, FIFA expressed preoccupation with the delays in South Africa;  “if the World Cup started tomorrow, we wouldn’t be ready”, said Secretary General Jerome Valcke. Yesterday, when celebrating the 100 days countdown to the 2010 World Cup, Valcke declared that “FIFA won’t have with Brazil the same patience they did with South Africa“.

CBF sent a message to all host cities, demanding explanations for the delays. A new deadline was set to start works: May 3rd. CBF said that cities which don’t comply with deadlines may loose their rights to host matches. The deadline for all stadia to be finished continues to be December 31st 2012, six months before the kick off of the Confederations Cup 2013.

Current situation of the stadiums:

Belo Horizonte: works scheduled to start on June 12nd; the Government is still looking for private partners to finance the works.

Brasília: works were scheduled to start in April; however, a case of corruption came out, and the ex-Governor was impeached and is under arrest. Political indefinition will probably cause delays.

Cuiabá: works scheduled to start on March 23rd.

Curitiba: Atlético Paranaense, owner of the stadium Arena da Baixada, estimates that they will need R$ 80 million to adapt the stadium to FIFA demands; now, they are looking for the money.

Fortaleza: works scheduled to April. The bidding process was started in December 2009, contractor to be known late March.

Manaus: Prosecutors required changes in the bidding process; works are scheduled to start in April.

Natal: bidding process to start in April; works to start in June.

Porto Alegre: Internacional, owner of Beira-Rio, claims that some internal refurbishments were already started; however, nothing in the structure was changed. Internacional is claiming tax exemptions to buy construction material to refurbish the stadium.

Recife: works to start in May. According to the local committee, delays were caused by late changes in the project to adapt it to environmental laws.

Rio de Janeiro: the local committee says that sub-soil studies have started on March 1st; clearly, a cosmetic measure to pretend to comply with FIFA deadlines. The bidding for the major works will be launched in April.

Salvador: the bidding process is finished, the contractor is defined, but the Goverment still need money and environment licenses to start the works.

São Paulo: probably (and suprisingly), Morumbi is the stadium with most problems. Neither Sao Paulo FC (owner of the stadium) nor the Governments want to spend money with the stadium. Some changes were made to the project which had been originally approved, but FIFA didn’t like the changes; FIFA President Joseph Blatter said that “Morumbi doesn’t meet the FIFA requirements to stage the opening match of the World Cup 2014“.

Beira-Rio is a stadium located in Porto Alegre, capital city of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost in Brazil.

It was well known that Porto Alegre would be chosen as one of the host cities of the World Cup 2014. However, it was also known that there would be a dispute between the two main teams of the State, Internacional and Grêmio, to decide whose stadium would stage the matches in the city (Porto Alegre is the only city in the world to have two teams World Champions of Football).

Grêmio has also a large and modern stadium, the Olímpico Monumental; however, following technical criteria, FIFA and CBF decided that Beira-Rio would be the stadium in Porto Alegre.

Beira-Rio means “by the river”. The stadium is also known as Gigante da Beira-Rio, which means “the Giant by the river”. The photo below (source) shows why: the stadium is big, and was built by the Guaíba, the river which washes Porto Alegre.

The more recent photo below shows the Beira-Rio and, besides it, the Gigantinho (Little Giant), the indoor arena which also belongs to Internacional.

The official name of Beira-Rio is Stadium José Pinheiro Borda. Mr. Borda was a Portuguese citizen who headed the building of the Stadium, between 1959 and 1969. Most of the bricks used in the building were donated by supporters of Internacional.

Interesting to notice that Internacional have today over 100,000 paying members, and Grêmio  has a similar number. In no other place in Brazil, do teams have such a high number of paying members (even popular teams like Flamengo or Sao Paulo have millions of supporters, but very few pay a monthly fee).

Beira-Rio was opened on April 6th 1969, with a match between Internacional and Benfica, from Portugal; inter won by 2×1. Record attendance was in 1972, in a match between Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul, with 106,554 attendants. Today, the capacity is for 56,000 attendants.

Beira-Rio is probably the Brazilian stadium closer to fully comply with the FIFA demands to host a World Cup match. All chairs have been recently replaced, the TV and telecommunication areas have been refurbished, the pitch has the best grass in Brazil, the access areas provide for easy arrival and clearance of visitors.

However, the stadium will gain some more improvements until 2014. The image below shows an artistic view of the New Beira-Rio, designed by Hype Architects.

New Beira-Rio will gain a shopping center and a hotel. The roof will be extended. More chairs will be added to the lower ring, bringing total capacity of Beira-Rio to 65,000 people.

With this capacity, Beira-Rio will compete shoulder to shoulder with Morumbi for the title of largest private stadium in Brazil (Beira-Rio, Morumbi and Arena da Baixada are the three only private stadia which will host matches of the World Cup 2014).

So, Beira-Rio is a strong candidate to host important matches of the World Cup, such as the opening match or one of the semi-final matches (the final will probably be in Maracanã).

Read also this blog about Beira Rio 2014.

Below, a brief description of all 12 stadia of the World Cup 2014.

Stadia are ordered by capacity, for this is a major criterium used by FIFA to decide where the most important matches (such as opening, quarter finals, semi finals and final matches) will be staged.

In 2014, it will be the second time that Brazil will host the FIFA World Cup; Brazil was also host of the 1950 World Cup (besides Brazil, only three other countries had the privilege of hosting twice the World Cup: Mexico in 1970 and 1986, France in 1938 and 1998 and Germany in 1974 and 2006).

In 2014, there will be 12 host cities; in 1950, there were only six: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte and Recife. Those were the six largest Brazilian cities in 1950 (Brasilia still didn’t exist; it was founded in 1960).

All these six cities will be host again in 2014. However, only one of the six stadiums used in 1950 will be used again in 2014: Maracanã; Maracanã was built for the 1950 World Cup, and staged both the opening and the final matches of that Cup.

Two of the 1950 are still in use and are regularly stage of important matches: Ilha do Retiro, in Recife, and Pacaembu, in Sao Paulo; both fit about 35,000 attendants, and with some refurbishment could reach 40,000, FIFA’s standard for a World Cup.

The other three stadia are still standing, but only stage occasional less important matches, and are too small to host a World Cup match: stadium Sete de Setembro (September 7th), in Belo Horizonte, will be replaced by Mineirão; stadium Durival de Brito, in Curitiba, will be replaced by Arena da Baixada; and stadium dos Eucaliptos, in Porto Alegre, will be replaced by Beira-Rio.

Above, a photo of the Sete de Setembro stadium  nowadays; it was in Sete de Setembro that United States beat England by 1 x 0.

The Americans would then go to Recife, where they lost to Chile by 5 x 2.  The English team played other two matches, both in Maracana. The Italians played only two matches, both in Pacaembu, São Paulo (the city outside Italy with the largest Italian community).

See details of all matches of the 1950 World Cup.

One of the main transportation projects for the World Cup 2014 is the building of a bullet train linking São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the two largest Brazilian cities. In Portuguese, the train is called Trem de Alta Velocidade (High Speed Train), or TAV; visit the official site of the High Speed Train.

The official TAV site still informs (wth endorsement of the Federal Government) that operations should start before 2014; however, there are strong doubts about that. There are several obstacles to the project, including technical, financial, political and environmental.

In 2007, it was estimated that the bidding process would be finished by 2008, and the trains would be running after seven years; today, it is growing stronger the opinion that the train won’t be ready before 2015.

The Government is looking for private partners to build the railway. On December 7th 2009, the federal Government announced the criteria to be used to select the partners; 70% of the scoring of bidders will be related to the necessity of official fundings (the smaller the necessity, the higher the score), and 30% will be related to the price of ticket to be charged from passengers (the cheaper the ticket, the higher the score).

Below, more information about the project.

The map above shows the route of the railways (click the map to enlarge). Stations in red are already confirmed in the project, stations in green are still under analysis.

One line would connect Campinas (one the largest cities in the State of São Paulo) and the airport of Viracopos (international airport) to the city of São Paulo. The other line would connect São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, with intermediary stations in the airport of Guarulhos, São José dos Campos and Volta Redonda.

Trains will be 200 meters long. Estimated maximum speed is 300 km/h. Estimated travel times, leaving from Rio, are: to Volta Redonda, 34min; to São José dos Campos, 1h17min; to São Paulo, 1h33min; to Campinas, 2h08min. Currently, flying from São Paulo Rio takes about 1h50min, and driving takes about 5 hours.

There will be two categories of services: Express (between Campinas, São Paulo and Rio) and Regional (intermediary cities). Express trains would fit 458 people, in two classes; regional trains will fit 600 people, in one class.

Estimated prices for a ticket São Paulo – Rio are: R$ 150, economic class, off peak trips; R$ 200, economic class, peak time trips; R$ 250, executive class, off peak; R$ 325, executive class, peak time. Currently, a flight costs between R$ 180 (off peak) and R$ 400 (peak). Current exchange rate is US$ 1 = R$ 1.70.

About 61% of railways will run on surface, 21% across bridges and 18% underground.

Estimated costs total R$ 34.6 billion (about US$ 20 billion). Most of the costs correspond to civil woks; indemnifications will take 11%; systems and equipments will take 10%, and the trains themselves will take 8%.