Brazil & Southern Cone - October 2011 (ISSN 1741-4431)

The Brazilian government is very publically at loggerheads with the World Football Federation (FIFA) over the 2014 World Cup, which will be hosted by 12 Brazilian cities.

On 11 October a special congressional commission began to examine the so-called Lei General da Copa, a bill sent down in September by President Dilma Rousseff to regulate the organisation of the World Cup. FIFA wants the law amended to reflect its commercial demands which, apparently, are clearly stipulated in its contract with Brazil. Rousseff is having none of it. She has reportedly decided that Brazil will not bow down to “absurd” FIFA demands the way South Africa had to in 2010. One notable aspect of that tournament was that the vast majority of the enthusiastic South African locals that helped deliver such a successful tournament were unable to afford to attend the matches.

The bill asserts pre-existing Brazilian laws on ticketing, such as the regulation that students and pensioners get a 50% discount on tickets. FIFA argues that this would compromise its forecast revenues. The bill also contradicts FIFA’s demands on the sale of alcohol inside the stadiums, which is prohibited in Brazil. Moreover, under Brazilian law, states, and not the federal government, regulate alcohol sales, and so FIFA would have to negotiate individually with each host state. The tournament sponsor, Budweiser, expects exclusive rights to all the stadiums. TV rights are also an issue, with local Brazilian companies demanding some access to the games. Another FIFA demand is that Brazil alters its existing laws so as to levy harsher sentences on people caught selling fake merchandise. Under the current law, the maximum sentence is three months; FIFA wants that increased to a year.

Rousseff has the full support of the public. Local football stars like Pelé and Romario (now a socialist party deputy) have criticised FIFA “excesses”. “Our president needs …to put FIFA in its place,” Romario stated, arguing that Rousseff should not bow down to its demands. He suggested that FIFA could easily bear the estimated US$100m cost of half price tickets for students and pensioners. “FIFA will come down here for a month and we all know the profit it will make. FIFA could earn a little bit less so that the Brazilians can take part,” he asserted. Others, including former president Lula da Silva, who oversaw Brazil’s winning World Cup and (2016) Olympic bids, intimated that a sovereign state like Brazil should not be “subservient” to an “entity” like FIFA.

FIFA’s secretary general, Jerome Valcke, reportedly had a tense meeting with President Rousseff in Brussels on 3 October. “We never compromise on the protection of our commercial partners,” Valcke said. “The FIFA World Cup is a partnership and as much as we do respect Brazilian law, the host country respects the commitment made”. “Either we work together and we arrive at a situation where everyone is a winner or we don’t work together and we’re all losers”, he added. On paper, FIFA has until 1 June 2012 to rescind its contract with Brazil and move the tournament to an alternative country.

Brazil could have been emboldened to challenge FIFA because of the Zurich-based organisation’s severe image problems, mostly centred on governance issues and allegations of corruption in the senior ranks. Equally however, FIFA, led by its French president, Seb Blatter, has also loudly raised concerns about Brazil’s preparedness for the tournament, citing delays in delivering new stadiums and transport infrastructure. In Moscow on 18 October Jerome Valcke pointedly said that Russia’s “early start “in its preparations to host the 2018 World Cup “would help avoid the kinds of organisational problems afflicting Brazil”. Brazil is dismissive of the concerns.

• Rio crime continues to fall

According to the Institute of Public Security (ISP) in Rio de Janeiro, homicides in the state fell 13.2% year-on-year in the first half of 2011, led by a 27.4% drop in the number of fatal victims of police shootings. The ISP reports 3,088 violent deaths in January-June 2011, the lowest result for the period since 2000. There were 2,587 deaths linked to criminal violence (typically robberies, assaults or inter gang rivalries), with a further 409 attributed to clashes between “delinquents” and the police. A further 347 unresolved fatalities were omitted from the total. Some local NGOs question the ISP’s methodology, suggesting that the true homicide figure is under-reported. The state government run by the government-allied Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, touts the falling crime indices as evidence of its successful efforts to clean up Rio before it hosts the World Cup and the Olympics.