GETTING schools and hospitals built to the same standard as World Cup stadiums was one of the main demands made by protesters on the streets of Brazil last month. But just days after FIFA, football’s governing body, handed the national stadium in Brasilia back to its owners following the Confederations Cup, a warm-up tournament ahead of next year’s World Cup, it appears that the problem is not just overspending and late delivery. It’s also management.
The 52,825 people who watched Flamengo play Coritiba on July 6th were treated rather differently to the elites who paid top prices to attend the inaugural Confederations Cup match three weeks earlier. Gone were the neat concession stands, the hundreds of volunteers and the top-class facilities for media. Instead, fans and press had the kind of experience that is depressingly familiar at Brazil’s football grounds.
The internet didn’t work, the radio reporters were forced to narrate the game from the stands, and fans were tossed drinks from a big fridge rather than served from behind counters. Even getting to the stadium was difficult: whereas busy avenues were closed to traffic during the Confederations Cup to improve access to the venue, fans now have to run a gauntlet of cars in order to reach the turnstiles. The promised tramlines have yet to materialise.
Complaints are not aimed at FIFA, which during the Confederations Cup provided a level of service to match the ticket prices. Rather, it is aimed at the Brazilian stadium managers who seem to be incapable of providing the same treatment. “The problem is that FIFA’s organisation is extremely professional,” says Ricardo Araujo, a stadium management consultant and author of Novas Arenas, a stadium blog. “They are experienced and have run events the world over for a long time while the people that are taking over the arenas in Brazil have very few competent people on board.”
