World Cup Brazil 2014

Maracanã was built to host the most important matches of the 1950 World Cup; unfortunately, the stadium also staged Maracanazo, the winning of Uruguay against Brazil in the final match.

Below, an image of Maracanã in 1950; as shown, the Brazilians attended matches in the stadium even before it was completely ready. Original capacity of Maracanã was 166,369, and current is 114,145.

Maracanã is a name of Indigenous origin. Maraca is a rustic musical instrument (basically, small stones in empty coconut shelves, which produce sounds when shaken) used by the indigenous. Maracanã means “sounds like maraca”, which was given by the Indigenous to a small river which runs across the area, from there to the neighbourhood, and from the neighbourhood to the stadium.

The official name of Maracanã is Mário Filho, a journalist who was very vocal in supporting the  building of the stadium.

Maracanazo is just one of the reasons why Maracanã will be the stage of the the final match of the 2014 World Cup; other cities – namely Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte – are disputing the right to stage the opening match, but nobody in Brazil dares to consider a place other than Maracanã for the final.

Other reasons for the uncontested supremacy of Maracanã are: gathered the biggest crowd ever for a football match (nearly 200,000 people in the final of the 1950 Cup); gathered the largest audience for an artistic show (Paul McCartney, 1991, 184,368 people – not to be confused with the largest rock concert of all times, performed by the Rolling Stones in the nearby Copacabana beach to 2,000,000 people in 2006); historical performances by Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner, Madonna, Prince, the Stones; historical meetings called by Pope John Paul II; several of the most memorable matches of Brazilian football (including Pele’s 1000th goal).

Below, an image of Maracanã today. The arena is Maracanãzinho (little Maracanã), used for indoor sports. The swimming pool is Aquatic Park Julio Delamare, which used to be the most important venue for aquatic sports, but no longer  - a new complex called Maria Lenk replaced it (there are discussions about whether or not Julio Delamare should be demolished for the expansion of Maracanã).

The new Maracanã will have the capacity reduced to 90,000 people. Below, an artistic image of new Maracanã, produced by the architects hired by the government of Rio to prepare to project to be presented to FIFA.

Below, an image of the neighbourhood of new Maracanã. The stadium is situated in a populated area of Rio, and building the  infrastructure of access to and dispersion from the stadium will be a major challenge.

In the project below, catwalks (in orange) will be built linking the stadium to a large train station to be built; besides, the stretch of railway near the stadium will be roofed, and parking spaces will be built on those roofs.

Despite all challenges, it is certain that CBF, FIFA and Rio will do all they can to prepare Maracanã to justify the status of main temple of football in 2014.

There are few doubts that Maracanã will be the stage of the final match of the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. São Paulo, the most powerful Brazilian State (both in economic and sports terms) is claiming to have the right to stage the opening match of the Cup (in a fierce competition with Brasilia and Belo Horizonte), but nobody dares to claim the final match from Rio and Maracanã.

Yesterday, Flamengo (the most popular team in the World, measured by number of fans) and Goias had a match; Flamengo had a chance to take the leadership of the Brazilian League 2009 (the match ended 0 x 0, Flamengo missed this chance, but is just one point behind leader Sao Paulo FC).

The match was in Maracanã, the largest stadium in Brazil, the largest football stadium in the World. The match was attended by (official numbers, lower than real numbers, as many people get in unregistered) 83,489 people.

This figure is far from the record attendance of nearly 200,000 people in the final of the 1950 World Cup; however, as security measures oblige stadium to decrease capacity, it is unlikely that any other stadium in the World will see such big crowd in the near future.

The biggest attraction of the match were not the players or the goals; it was the crowd. Flamengo is not only the biggest, but also the most passionate supporting crowd in Brazil. After several years (last time was in 1992), Flamengo has strong chances to become the Brazilian champion.

To mark the event, Flamengo’s fans created the largest human mosaic of all times. See below.

The human mosaic reads, against a background with the colors of Flamengo, the message: “A Maior Torcida do Mundo Faz a Diferença” (The Biggest Supporting Crowd in the World Makes the Difference).

Flamengo will play again in Maracanã on December 6th, against Grêmio (another ex-Brazilian and World champion), and the match may be deciding the Brazilian championship. Another big party is expected.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the host cities of the World Cup 2014; the schedule of matches wasn’t announced yet, but it is very likely that Maracanã, the largest stadium in Rio, be chosen as the stage for the final match of the Cup.

Rio de Janeiro, or Rio (the name means River of January), is the city in Brazil most known abroad (São Paulo receives more foreign visitors than any other city in Brazil, but most visitors come for business purposes, rather than tourism).

There a few reasons to explain this fame of Rio. First off, Rio was capital of Brazil from 1763 until 1960 (before Rio, Salvador was the capital; after Rio, Brasilia became capital); over nearly two centuries, Rio was the economic, cultural, administrative and diplomatic center of Brazil, attracting most of the international visitors who came to the country.

And going back home, these visitors had a lot to say about the wonders of Rio. The city has a natural scenery which few, if any, other cities in the world can match: tepid beaches with white sand (Copacabana and Ipanema being the most famous), a tranquil bay (Guanabara Bay), a placid lagoon (Rodrigo de Freitas), rocky peaks (Corcovado and Pão de Açúcar being the most known), preserved forests (Tijuca).

And all of this is framed by tropical weather, with sun and mild temperatures all year round, and a constant breeze blowing from the sea. Very few cities in the world can afford a view as beautiful as seen below, from behind the Christ statue, at the top of Corcovado (photo by the Brazilian Travel Authority):

On top of the natural wonders, there are the  wonderful people. Of course, in Rio there is poverty, violence, pollution. The cariocas (as people from the city of Rio are called) were considered the friendliest people in the world a few years ago; and more recently the city was elected the top Gay destination in the world – not a surprise for all who visited Rio and knew the high tolerance of cariocas towards any diversity: sexual, religious, ethnic, etc.

People in Rio enjoy life. The teams in the State are not the ones with most  winnings, but the fans in Rio are the most passionate in Brazil. No other city in Brazil has beaches as lively as those in Rio. New Year Celebration in Rio is probably one of the best in the world; why would somebody wait four hours in New York, under a freezing cold, to watch a ball coming down, when they can have a party like this?

And we didn’t even start to talk about the Carnival in Rio, which is simply dubbed as the Greatest Show on Earth.

Of course, this combination of cultural heritage, nice environment and friendly people created, over the years, a touristic infrastructure which ranks among the best in Brazil: hotels, restaurants, museums, city tours, theatres, travel agencies, and anything else a visitor may need, are always at hand. A good source of information is Rio official site.

On June 1st 2009, FIFA announced the twelve host cities of the World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

There was a big expectation about those host cities. These cities will benefit in several aspects from the World Cup, such as investments in infrastructure and massive international marketing.

Some of the cities knew that they would be a host. Rio de Janeiro is the best known city in Brazil (Maracanã is already defined as stage of the final match); Sao Paulo is the richest city in Brazil; Brasilia, the capital of the country (Sao Paulo and Brasilia are still fighting to host the opening match of the Cup); Salvador, Recife, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Porto Alegre are important economic and cultural regional hubs of Brazil.

So, this makes eight cities with a guaranteed spot. It was of interest of the Brazilian Government and CBF that cities representatives of all regions in Brazil were chosen, so as to show to the world the rich variety of Brazilian culture and scenarios. The other four cities were chosen according to these criterium.

So, in the Northeast of Brazil, the region where the sun shines all year long, the cities of Natal and Fortaleza were chosen. These cities are rather small, but are popular destinations for Brazilian tourists; the well developed tourist infrastructure (hotels, airports, etc) was a big advantage of these cities.

There had to be a host in the Amazon, a region of Brazil which attracts world attention. Rio Branco was a candidate, but, too far into the jungle and with poor infrastructure, had no chances; Manaus and Belém were the stronger candidates. Belém had the advantage of being nearer the rest of Brazil and the rest of the world. Manaus won, thanks to a stronger political influence and probably because it is located deeper into the Amazon (an eco-tourism network, albeit incipient, is better developed in Manaus than in Belém).

Likewise, there should be a host in Pantanal, the Brazilian wetlands, one of the richest ecosystems in the World; Cuiaba and Campo Grande were the candidates.  Campo Grande is located right in the middle of Pantanal, and was favorite to win; however, thanks to a better project, Cuiabá was chosen.

Besides Belém and Campo Grande, other Brazilian cities were candidates to host but were not chosen: Goiânia (despite having one of the most modern stadiums in Brazil, the Serra Dourada) was too close to Brasília, and CBF wanted to spread the hosts; Florianópolis is a mid sized city in the South, with a strong European heritage, and was surprisingly not chosen (Natal took the place of Florianópolis).

So, these cities were candidates to host, but didn’t make it: Campo Grande, Goiânia, Florianópolis, Rio Branco and Belém.

On May 31st 2009, FIFA announced the 12 host cities of the World cup 2014 in Brazil.

The cities are:

1) Rio de Janeiro. Stadium: Maracana. Rio Travel Guide.

2) São Paulo. Stadium: Morumbi. Biggest Brazilian city.

3) Belo Horizonte. Beautiful Horizon.

4) Salvador. Party everyday.

5) Curitiba. Stadium: Arena da Baixada.

6) Porto Alegre. Stadium: Beira-Rio. The coldest of the host cities.

7) Brasília. The capital of Brazil.
Cuiaba. World Cup in the Pantanal.

9) Recife. World Cup by the beach.

10) Fortaleza. Stadium: Castelão. World Cup by the beach.

11) Natal. Stadium: Arena das Dunas. World Cup by the beach.

12) Manaus. World Cup in the Amazon.