In 2007 Brazil was selected as hos country of the World Cup in 2014.
But until today the FIFA has forbidden all Brazilian actors (the Brazil Tourism board, the Brazilian Football Federation,…) to mention the Worldcup 2014 in their marketing activities. Understandably, it would have drawn all attention away from South Africa.
But now that the final match has ended, FIFA is airing the movies about the Worldcup in Brazil.
These movies were ùade Fernando Meirelles, a well known Brazilian producer. He shot amongst 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.
Status of the World Cup 2014:
1. The schedule of the World Cup 2014 hasn’t been released yet. But we know that the matches will happen between mid-June and mid-July 2014.
3. The winter in Brazil will mean much more moderate temperatures than in South Africa where it was freezing cold. The Brazilians will schedule the matches so that they can also be soon at comfortable times in Western North America and Eastern Europe. This means matches will be played at 10am, 1pm and 5pm.
3. The was presented last week. The mascot nor the other symbols were released yet. but neither the mascot nor other symbols were.
4. Tickets are not for sale yet. But FIFA already announced trhat they will make big changes to the system they had in South Africa.
FIFA made huge mistakes in South Africa, when the tickets went for sale they could only be purchased through a complicated registration process in the internet. Things went so bad that FIFA eased their rules last April and started selling tickets over the counter at dumping prices. But that didn’t solve things, sales fell 76% below original predictions. Only 11.300 African and 300.000 visitors came to the South African worldcup.
5. Brazil expects 600.000 foreigners coming in by plane and 3.000.000 plane movements from Brazilians during the worldcup. The prediction of 600.000 foreign visitors seems realistic.
6. Since May 2009 we know the host cities in Brazil. To meet the interests of FIFA, twelve host cities were defined. Nine of the 12 stadiums are publicly owned, three are private property. Only a few stadia will be built from scratch, most will be fully overhauled. A recent report by Brazilian auditors Crowe Horwath RCS said stadiums in Brasilia, Cuiabá, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, and Recife are overly expensive and have little chance of recouping their costs after the tournament. All those cities are cities North from Rio.
Stadiums in the larger and richer cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte,Curitiba, Porto Alegre, and Salvador are less of a concern.
Brazil would make a wise choice in scrapping the number of host cities down to 10 or even 8. But if such would happen, it would only happen after the elections next October.
7. Brazil will surely not go on a spending bonanza like in South Africa, not on stadia, but also not on infrastructure. The bullet train between Rio and Sao Paulo will not be ready for 2014, which is good, foreign contractors would otherwise squeeze hundred of millions of reais; see what happened with the Gautrain in South Africa. Airports are a priority. But also here, Brazil will not overspend; no gold and glitter, just increasing capacity flow.
All eyes will be on Brazil for 2014, especially with the subsequent Olympics in 2016.
After the South African spending spree, a lot of criticism will come on the more down-to earth bootstrapping approach of Brazil. But such approach is not necessary bad.
What counts is that all visitors fly into Brazil in an efficient way, stay safely and get back in time. The gold and glitter in transport and infrastructure is not needed; Brazil itself is the experience, not the glitter and glim in airports.
Miriam Leitao wrote an excellent piece on the matter: “lessons Brazil should learn from South Africa”
And Brazil knows their cards for 2014 and 2016: authenticity, humility and hospitality. Just look at every promotion video for the worldcup. No self-ego boosting, not a single use of “we”, the country reaches, in its authentic way, out to the visitors.
Tags: brazil 2014, brazil 2016
