World Cup Brazil 2014

Several people have been coming to this website looking for information about volunteer work in the World Cup 2014; unfortunately, there is little to be said (when applications will start, what criteria will be used, which skills will be demanded, etc), because neither FIFA nor the Brazilian Local Committee have published any information about the topic yet.

However, it may be of interest for potential volunteer to read this post about the experiences of Lilian Oliveria, a Brazilian architect who worked as a volunteer in the FIFA World Cup 2010. According to her, there was a lack organization in planning and executing the work of volunteers.

Lilian starts by informing that FIFA sends a Letter to International Volunteers, which would be a kind of contract between FIFA, the volunteers and the Local Committee. The image below shows a piece of such Letter.

According to this part of the Letter, all international volunteers would receive an uniform. “The Programme request you to please adherence to the uniform policy as it is imperative. The Policy will be available in the Volunteer Training Manual.”

According to the Brazilian volunteer, because of the lack of organization of the World Cup 2010, some volunteers didn’t receive a complete set of uniforms; besides, none of the volunteers received gloves, despite the intense cold.

Matters were even worse when it comes to the payment of the compensation. The Letter stated that international volunteers would receive an stipend of RSA 100 per day on duty, to be paid at the end of the event; that amount converts to about US$ 15 or € 11.

However, until September 24th, more than two months after the end of the World Cup 2010, Lilian had not received her payment.

Some volunteers were paid still in South Africa, but the payment method varied according to the location (some were paid by debit card, some had direct deposits, some were paid in cash). Those who were paid in Johannesburg complained that they were deducted income tax (even though the law determines events related to the World Cup should not be taxed). Some people also complained that even the food was charged.

Lilian informs that not even the Certificate of Participation had been sent; according to the Organization, “certificates had already been posted”.

FIFA officials are visiting Brazil this week; Secretary General Jerome Valcke has met with members of the Local Organising Committee and Government officials to get updates on the World Cup 2014.

CBF has announced that the draw which will define the qualifying groups for the World Cup 2014 will be held in July of 2011 in the city of Rio de Janeiro (which was the only candidate city to host the event). This is one of the most visited events of the World Cup, as it is attended by representatives and journalists from more than 202 countries which participate in the Qualifying.

Rio’s Mayor wanted to host the draw at the yet to be finished Cidade da Música (City of Music), but FIFA vetoed the place; a new place is yet to be defined.

According to sources, FIFA would be considering to establish the International Broadcasting Center of the World Cup 2014 also in Rio, more specifically at the Centro de Convenções Sul America (South America Convention Center), which is located just 2 km from Maracanã.

Still according to sources, FIFA and the Government of Rio would have decided to setup one of the bigger TV centers of the Cup in the Aterro do Flamengo, so that the images of Pão de Açúcar and the Guanabara Bay would appear in the background images of the reports.

However, other cities also have interested in hosting the IBC and the TV Center, as these centers attract a lot of professionals involved with the Cup (hence, generating a lot of business in infrastructure and in services, such as hotels). The main rival of Rio is São Paulo, but Brasilia, Salvador and Belo Horizonte are also interested.

And it is to Sao Paulo that Valcke and staff are heading next. Among several other business decisions, FIFA has yet to confirm whether the new Corinthians Itaquera Arena will host the opening of the Cup (or even if Sao Paulo will continue a host city at all).

Lancenet, one of the most influential sports website in Brazil, published yesterday a report about the Local Organising Committee of the World Cup 2014.

The members of the LOC were all chosen by the President of CBF, Ricardo Teixeira: Joana Havelange, Teixeira’s daughter (Teixeira is son in law of Joao Havelange, who was President of FIFA from 1974 to 1998); Francisco Mussnich, Teixeira’s lawyer; Mario Rosa, Teixeira’s advisor in Brasilia, helped Teixeira while he was responding to a Probing Comission before the Brazilian Senate, in 2001); Rodrigo Paiva, spokesman of CBF; and economist Carlos Langoni, former President of the Central Bank of Brazil.

The report informs that, due to attrition, Rosa and Langoni have quit, and were not replaced; still according to the report, other partners of Mussnich report to the LOC, including an architect, who would be consultant on stadiums matters.

In the World Cup 2010, the LOC was composed by the members of the South Africa Government and of National and Regional Football Federations; in Germany 2006, the LOC was composed primarily by members of the German Government (Franz Backenbauer was appointed by the Government to head the German LOC), with some participation of the Federations; in 2002 Japan and Korea, the LOC had members from the Governments, the Federations and some big corporations (LG and Hyundai) – the Japanese LOC confronted FIFA over ticket prices and accommodation matters.

Lancenet conducted a survey asking Brazilians whether they agreed with this method of managing the World Cup 2014; 33% said that they would prefer a 3-parties (Government, Federations and the Civil Society); most didn’t know or didn’t care.

Fact is that few Brazilians know who is going to pay for the Cup, and who is going to profit. Most Brazilians only care about the result of the matches of the Brazilian team.

CBF is a private entity and, as such, is not obliged to open its financial records to the public. According to this Federal Representative, CBF will receive US$ 420 million from FIFA (let alone the proceedings it will collect from marketing partnres), and nobody knows what is going to happen with that money. On the other hand, it is well known that the Brazilian Government will spend lots of cash to fund the World Cup.

For the World Cup 2010, FIFA partnered with some travel agencies to offer travel packages to South Africa; by buying packages with these agencies, visitors could rest assured that they would have accommodation and tickets to watch matches.

However, Brazilian visitors have reported that these FIFA travel packages lack flexibility.

All visitors who bough packages in Brazilian agencies were accommodated in only two cities: Durban and Cape Town; according to the managers of the travel agencies, these cities were chosen because they offer the better infrastructure, and also have other attractions to entertain tourists in between the games.

The problem, however, is that  to attend the games in Johannesburg, the tourists had to take a 24 hour trip.

This problem could be repeated in Brazil in 2014. Tour operators will probably try to accommodate visitors in cities with a good supply of hotels and with easy connectivity to the other host cities.

So, it is likely that most customers of these packages will stay in the cities of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro (these two cities are by far the ones with most hotel rooms) and Brasilia (not so many rooms, but plenty of air flights connections).

For those who are planning to travel around Brazil during the Cup, or just want to stay closer to their teams, it is recommended to shop around; buying air tickets and booking hotels directly with tour operators (rather than buying a closed package) will probably be cheaper and will allow a more flexible schedule.

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.

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.

In 2007, Brazil was officially appointed as host country of the World Cup 2014.

However, as FIFA – understandably – doesn’t want to draw attention away from the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, little has been said about the event in Brazil.

For example, both the Brazil Tourism Board and the Brazilian Football Confederation are forbidden from mentioning the World Cup in their marketing campaigns; Brazil will certainly call for volunteer work during the Cup, but can’t talk about it right now; FIFA is learning from the mistakes in South Africa (for example, the ticket selling system) and will announce changes to the Cup in Brazil, but nothing is being detailed right now.

This situation will change right after the final match of the World Cup 2010, on July 11th 2010.

After the final match, FIFA will put on air a 90 second movie about the World Cup in Brazil; such movie will be seen by billions of viewers from all over the World.

The movie is being shot by Fernando Meirelles, a well known Brazilian film maker who produced, among others, the movie Cidade de Deus (which, according to the users of IMDB, ranks among the 20 best movies of all times) and also several movies which helped Rio become the host of the Olympics in 2016 (one such movie is below).

After July 11th, not only Brazil, but the entire World will know that the World Cup 2014 will be in Brazil.

Source: Google and France Press.

According to Jerome Valcke, Secretary Genral, FIFA has learned its lesson from problems with Internet ticket sales in South Africa and will overhaul its pricing and ticketing ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

FIFA made two major mistakes in the World Cup 2010: when initially made available, tickets could only be purchased after a complicated registration process in the internet; and prices of tickets sold for South African citizens only were considered expensive (see prices of tickets in 2010).

Last April, FIFA eased the rules, and started selling tickets over the counter and also increased the number of the least expensive tickets reserved for South Africans.

The measures were not enough to remedy the situation. In the rest of Africa, sales fell 76 percent below original predictions, with only 11,300 African visitors expected for the tournament, said South Africa’s Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk; the Minister vehemently blamed ”unaffordable pricing” and the exclusive use of the Internet sales channel, which he called “a huge mistake”.

South Africa is now expecting 300,000 foreign visitors for the tournament, 150,000 less than originally predicted

“We will start all ticketing policies from scratch for 2014. It could be that we would be facing some similar problems in Brazil”, Volcke added.

Yesterday, FIFA General Secretary asked in an interview if the works for the World Cup would start only after carnival.

Today, newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, one of the most important in Brazil, published a report today about the FIFA concerns with the delays in Brazil.

Translation:

“FIFA is starting to plan for changes in the list of cities and stadiums which should host matches of the World Cup 2014. Decisions shall be made after the visit of the Local Organising Committee, between May 5th and 20th, to the 12 host cities. Among the decisions, one is probably to rule out Morumbi as one of the stadiums; another, very likely as well, is to replace the host cities which are not complying with the deadlines.

Cities which were not chosen as hosts, such as Goiânia and Belém, may be recalled now. In Johannesburg, FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke abandoned diplomacy, criticized the delay in the works of the stadium, and warned: Brazil must work hard to earn the rights to host the World Cup 2014 and the Olympic Games 2016.

These visits to check out the stadiums and to assess the schedules of the works in each of the cities (first visit to Sao Paulo and last one to Salvador), will provide FIFA with information to, after September, make the necessary changes to avoid a fiasco in 2014.

FIFA want all stadia ready by December 2012, one year and a half before the World Cup and six months before the Confederations Cup, and do not consider to cut down the number of host cities.

The problem is that less than half of the cities has any works started. FIFA is regreting to have allowed Brazil to be the only candidate to host the Cup. These strong declarations by FIFA staff are complaints which were already being heard in the backstages; behind closed doors, FIFA had alread lost patience with Brazil.

At FIFA, still nobody talks about the possibility of replacing Brazil as host country of 2014. Valcke assured that such possibility doesn’t exist right now, even with FIFA admitting that there countries which could get ready for the event in a very short notice.

FIFA changed their proceedings to accept the Brazilian requests, but Brazil assured that everything would be made within time, which is not happening.”