World Cup: FIFA and Brazil Equally Responsible for Incomplete Preparations

FIFA and Brazil are equally responsible for the incomplete preparations for the World Cup. Brazil, one of the most football-crazy countries in the world, has an abundance of fans, some of the best players, and all the space one would need to hold a World Cup. Despite this, we’re only two days away from the kick off of the most illustrious footballing event and the hosts are still not ready. What’s the hold up? Why the delays? The general consensus is that the CONMEBOL, the ruling football body of South America, took the wrong approach. Even the Mayor of Sao Paolo stated that so many cities shouldn’t have been used. Maybe Brazil shouldn’t have been used at all. There is logic in that statement, however the new Continental System which FIFA has employed left the governing body with their hands tied. This is because under this process the World Cup host nation had to be from South America. Argentina and Chile withdrew because joint bids were not accepted, and the only other bidder, Columbia, withdrew after agreeing to host the U-20 World Cup. This left Brazil the host nation by default, a fact that FIFA may now regret. In retrospect, even though the governing body wouldn’t want to rescind their word, a Brazil World Cup might just not have been possible at this time.

If Brazil was considered not ready when the vote was taken, they definitely aren’t ready now. The lack of a finished product has caused questions to be once again asked about Brazil hosting the World Cup. The construction process has been a train wreck and on June 8 the death of a monorail worker, as well as two injuries to co-workers, added to the list of mishaps the country has amassed so far. These deaths are tragic accidents from what we can only assume was a rush to complete the behind-schedule work. As of today eight workers have passed away while trying to complete the stadiums, which even now are woefully far away from the final product. Brazil has failed to pass several of FIFA’s tests, the final one being December 31, 2013 when all venues should have been officially handed over. The Arena da Baixade in Curitaba to name just one is scheduled for a June 16 kick-off, and is still “weeks away from being ready” according to reports. It is clear that FIFA and Brazil are equally responsible for the incomplete preparations for the World Cup.

Unfortunately, an event which grosses approximately 700 million watchers (of the finals alone) and millions of dollars in revenue cannot simply be “put off.” The most likely solution to the problem is to have some of the matches relocated to finished stadiums, even though that would waste the building of the excluded stadium, and also cost huge losses in ticket sales. While this method is not compulsory because all the stadiums are at least inhabitable, if an incident like Hillsbury is to be avoided it would be best.

Having observed all of this unfinished work it is too easy to condemn Brazil for not being ready for the World Cup. However, it can be said that FIFA has just as large a part in this shamble. For one, FIFA has numerous “deadlines” in place to “ensure” that everything is running smoothly. Realistically speaking though, they really should be called guidelines. The governing body has no punishment in place for breaking these “deadlines,” and they also have no emergency measures in place to aid the building process. In other words, if the “deadlines” aren’t met then nothing happens. If FIFA had an emergency plan where they could, for example, offer assistance in the construction for a cut of the profits, then maybe we would be finished. Unfortunately there are no such methods in place, and the negligence of both footballing bodies has been costly. FIFA and Brazil are equally responsible for the incomplete preparations for the World Cup. Hopefully FIFA will learn from their mistakes and ensure that World Cup 2018 in Russia won’t be such a rugged affair.