With the 2014 World Cup only one year away, how ready is Brazil?
Above: The Joao Havelange stadium, now closed indefinitely over structural issues By Duncan Graham, Editor
he Summer Olympics and World cup are two of the largest international sports events. Every few years, countries battle valiantly to win the chance to host one of these competitions. Hosting an international event like one of these is a high honour for a county, but a country hosting both the Summer Olympics and World Cup consecutively is something that has only ever happened four times. Four times until Brazil, that is. For Brazil is now host to both the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Many see this as a good thing, a way for the country that now has the 7th largest economy, to show that it can be a real player on the international stage. But many others see a storm brewing.
When the International Olympic Committee chose Brazil to host the 2016 Olympics, they were the first to express concerns about the challenge of hosting such large scale events so closely together. Indeed,
while four other countries have also had such a task, they had it back when events like these were on a much smaller scale and therefore required less resources.
It seems that the IOC’ s fears have been realised, as a whole string of scandals have brought doubt over Brazil’ s preparations. The most pressing of examples being the Maracana stadium, which was originally built for the 1950 World Cup. The stadium has recently undergone a costly and lengthy restoration which has left the site in a state of disrepair, all attributed to a rush to have it finished in time. But this stadium’ s problems are nothing compared to that of the Joao Havelange stadium. Built only six years ago, the stadium was originally intended to hold the athletics in 2016; now it has been closed indefinitely over fears of its structural integrity.
The difficulties don’ t just surround venues. Crime in Brazil has been a focus of much attention. Rio de Janeiro is home to a number of criminal factions that have a hold on the city’ s security. In 2010 a large scale offensive was undertaken by local police forces along with the Brazilian army to rid the city of drug traffickers. Despite the operation being considered a success, freeing many areas of gang violence, it highlighted some of Rio’ s security weaknesses that must be addressed.
T h e r e h a v e a l r e a d y b e e n comparisons between Brazil and India’ s much criticized handling of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which was labelled as a disaster. But many officials in Brazil feel that the criticisms they face are overstated, much like the anxiety felt before the London Olympics and South African World Cup. It is only fair, then, to save our criticism until these events are over.
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