“Rotting, crumbling, covered in graffiti, overrun by weeds, the hulking wreck of a building known as the Aldeia Maracanã would make an unsightly addition to any neighborhood. But it happens to stand next to Rio’s Maracanã Stadium, the soccer cathedral that will host some of the World Cup’s most important matches, including the final. To get to the stadium, tens of thousands of fans will have to pass the Aldeia Maracanã’s ruined walls, now unattractively shielded by a 10-foot mesh fence. If the Maracanã is the celebrated face of Brazilian soccer, the Aldeia Maracanã is the scab on its nose.” NY Times

“The 2014 World Cup is finally underway. Soccer-loving host nation Brazil plays Croatia inside São Paulo’s Arena Corinthians Thursday afternoon. Like so many tournament story lines formed around excessive government spending on the event ($11.3 billion total), the $525 million stadium has been a source of embarrassment for Brazilian politicians and World Cup organizers. Three workers were killed building the facility. Completed six months past deadline and $150 million over budget, today’s game will be the first it hosts at full capacity.” City Lab

“Brazil’s heroic midfielder from the 1980s had a political conscience that’s needed today. You have to wonder what Socrates, the legendary socially-conscious Brazilian midfielder, would have made of what is happening in Brazil. Soccer and socioeconomic issues defined his personality and his career. Were he still alive, he would no doubt be helping us contextualize the craziness of this World Cup. They don’t make Brazilian players, or athletes in general, like Socrates these days. This Seleçao team follows the lead of coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who, when the team bus was surrounded by striking school teachers last month, dismissed the issue and said the problems of his country are not his concern. Not yet, anyway.” Fusionn

“The metro strike has ended in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, for now. Jerome Valcke, FIFA’s Secretary General in town for the FIFA Congress, says there is no Plan B to get 61,000 fans to the nearly finished Itaquerão stadium. Of course, there might be a general strike across the country on Thursday, but it’s maybe, probably just a rumor. Panic has ensued. Calm Down! Hurry up! Slow down! How do I get to the stadium?” Fusion

“The Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro has a special, rueful place in the Brazilian psyche. It is beloved by all who have seen it, even at its rundown worst. When it came to be renovated for the first time, it was feared it was an impossible task. So much human urine had been expelled over its concrete foundations that it had made the stadium structurally unsound. It was also the venue of an event that Brazilians had never forgotten, from the last time the country hosted the tournament: the 1950 World Cup final. Those who weren’t born then have never been allowed to forget it either.” CNN – James Montague

A protester argues with police during the Sao Paulo demonstration on June 12. Two CNN journalists sustained minor injuries at the scene.
“A Brazilian policeman stands behind shields during clashes with protesters in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday, June 12. The buildup to the World Cup has been plagued by mass demonstrations over the estimated $11 billion cost of staging the soccer tournament. Many protesters, angered by the state of Brazil’s public services, believe the money would be better spent elsewhere.” CNN

“Just days before Brazil kicks off the World Cup against Croatia, warm-up matches and training sessions around the country reveal the two sides of Felipe Scolari and regional feelings about the team. June 3, 2014; Brazil v Panama; Goiânia, Brazil. Luiz Felipe Scolari is answering a question about Neymar. Scolari answers a lot of questions about Neymar. And about David Luiz, and Hulk, and all the other members of the Seleção. He also answers a lot of questions about pressure, and preparation, and a thousand other subjects connected with the most important, and least answerable, question: Will Brazil win its sixth World Cup this summer.” Fusion

“Brazil’s list of feats since ending authoritarian rule in the 1980s is as long as it is varied, including antipoverty programs pulling millions into the middle class, the democratic election of presidents who suffered indignities under the dictatorship and the surging growth of tropical agriculture to help feed the world. But instead of coming together to extol such triumphs on the global stage as the host of the World Cup, the soccer tournament starting on Thursday with teams from 32 countries, Brazil is marked by rifts, with some people genuinely excited about the event while others are simmering with resentment over its ballooning costs and a sluggish post-boom economy.” NY Times

“As the world focuses on the World Cup, which opens in Brazil in less than a fortnight, many Brazilians are wrestling with painful discoveries about the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. The BBC has found evidence that the UK actively collaborated with the generals – and trained them in sophisticated interrogation techniques.” BBC (Video)

“Metro workers in Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, have suspended a strike over pay to allow for negotiations. The five-day stoppage had caused traffic chaos in one of the world’s most congested cities just days ahead of the football World Cup. The union warned that the strike would resume on Thursday – when Sao Paulo hosts the opening match – if its demands are not matched. A strike would make it hard for fans to reach the stadium on Thursday.” BBC

“Brazilian riot police have used tear gas against protesters in Sao Paulo, three days before the World Cup opening game in the city’s main stadium. The BBC’s Katy Watson at the scene said about 300 demonstrators were there and helicopters circled overhead. The protest was called by Sao Paulo metro workers who are striking in support of a 12.2% salary increase. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has said she would not allow violent demonstrations to mar the World Cup. Sao Paulo metro workers have been on strike since Thursday, creating traffic chaos in one of the world’s most congested cities.” BBC (Video)

“RIO DE JANEIRO — Close to the geographical heart of Brazil, in the little-known state of Tocantins, soccer players remonstrated with a referee over a decision. Tensions ran high at the state championship match in the small town of Peixe, and in the midst of the ruckus, an official observer called an Afro-Brazilian player a ‘monkey.’  The incident barely made a ripple outside the town of 9,000, and police ignored the victim, a middle school teacher. But as Brazil pulled behind its defender Daniel Alves after a banana was thrown in his direction while he was playing for Barcelona, the episode in Tocantins revealed the country’s complicated relationship with racial identity.” Al Jazeera

“The volume rattles the bones. The gyrations evoke scenes of lustful abandon. In some of funk’s most explicit forms, tracks sprinkled with the prerecorded sounds of machine-gun fire exalt the drug gangs still in control of some of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. On certain nights, the bass from the amps resonates from the hillside slums into the bastions of the privileged classes, as if to remind them: Rio doesn’t belong just to you.” NY Times

“Since 1994, World Cups and presidential elections have taken place in the same years, creating an unintended but poetic synchronicity between football and politics. In 1994 the Tetra [the fourth time Brazil won the World Cup] was followed by the election of the centrist Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a cosmopolitan former sociology professor, who served for eight years. In 2002 the Penta was followed by the election of the left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former shoeshine boy and lathe operator, who also served two terms.” Guardian

“It must be strange for people who are used to see Brazilians as a smiley and youthful nation, proud of its country’s sporting exploits, to learn that most of them are hating to host the Olympics and the World Cup. While the costs are astronomical and no one knows for sure who actually benefits from these soulless mega-events centred on big business, very few countries get the privilege of hosting them and doing so usually is a matter of big national pride. Brazil seems to be an exception, and the question that comes to mind is why. Ask the average Brazilian and he will give you the standard answer: The anger is because the government decided to throw money on these useless events instead of investing in hospitals, schools and infrastructure.” Lost Sambista

Beyond samba, sex and soccer: The World Cup riots in Brazil
“Only 22 years old, the footballer known simply as ‘Neymar’ is far more than the ‘face of Brazilian soccer’. Since donning the iconic, canary yellow and blue kit for the first time, Neymar has sidestepped defenders as if dancing the samba, and raced up and down the pitch with the cavalier and carnival spirit definitive of Brazilian football. As Neymar sprints into his prime, Brazil is primed to host its first World Cup in 64 years. This year’s tournament, furnishes the Brazilian government with a rare opportunity to showcase its greatest export on its home soil. Brazil and football are synonymous: A conflation the state has engineered to carry forward its policies inside and outside of the country. Its iconic lineage of soccer stars, starting with Pele and ending with Neymar, provide the state with single-named ambassadors known and loved all over the world.” Aljazeera

Brazil’s evicted ‘won’t celebrate World Cup’
“Every four years, Brazilians decorate their streets in green and yellow, celebrating the arrival of the most anticipated sports tournament in the country. With the kick-off for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil less than one month away, the country’s passion for football should be pulsating more than ever. But there are some signs to the contrary. ‘World Cup for whom?’ read the words painted on a wall on a street in Sao Paulo. Many in Brazil’s middle class are unhappy with the effects the World Cup has already had on their lives. The cost of living has risen in the cities hosting the games, traffic jams have worsened, and a construction boom aimed at improving urban mobility has only compounded problems, they say.” Aljazeera

Eric Cantona: Fifa’s corruption divides Brazilian football from its roots
“It will surprise precisely no one who has taken even a passing interest in his life and career, but Eric Cantona is no great fan of football’s governing bodies. Having recently returned from Rio de Janeiro, where he has been making a documentary about Brazilian football and politics that will receive its UK premiere at Amnesty International’s Sidelines film festival next month, he has a jaundiced view of Fifa’s modus operandi.” Guardian (Video)

Police Repression of Indigenous Protest Against Brasil’s World Cup
“Hundreds of indigenous people and thousands of supporters peacefully marched towards the National Mane Garrincha Stadium in protest of the upcoming World Cup in an effort to block the roads. They were met by riot police and Military Cavalry Police of the Federal District on the afternoon of Tuesday the 27th. The demonstration, which had the support of hundreds of Indians left the Pilot Road, but was surrounded by police personnel about 100 meters from the arena to receive seven games of the World Cup 2014. Police blocked the march and soon were using tear gas, sound grenades and rubber bullets on people to violently disperse the protest march.” Revolution News!

Brazil Is Tired of Being Scolded
“By now, Brazil should probably have been grounded for life, without video games or dessert. Last month, a vice president of the International Olympic Committee, John Coates, said that Rio de Janeiro’s preparations for the 2016 Summer Olympics were the worst he had ever seen. Before that, Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA — the International Federation of Association Football — claimed that Brazil was further behind in its preparations for this summer’s World Cup than any previous host nation, even though it had had seven full years to prepare. Then, in March, FIFA’s secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, declared we could risk being ‘the worst organizers’ of the ‘worst event.’ He had previously said that Brazil needed “a kick up the backside.” Well, that was harsh.” NYT: The Opinion Pages

“The economists at Goldman Sachs apparently can’t wait for the beginning of the World Cup next month. They issued a 60-page report — billed as ‘an unnatural mix of football and economics’ — with detailed analyses of each team and a forecast for outcome of the tournament. Now we know what they’ll be doing once the matches begin in Brazil. Brazil, the host country, is strongly favored to win the championship, according to Goldman’s predictions. These predictions are derived from a formula that estimates the number of goals a team is likely to score in a game based on its past performance as well as on a few other factors, such as whether the team is playing at home. Brazil’s home-field advantage is a major reason why Goldman expects it to do so well.” Washington Post

[PDF] The World Cup and Economics 2014

“Žilina, Slovakia, September 2013. Slovakia’s third largest city is close to the Low Tatras Mountains, the natural border with Poland. The cold wind and rain hint at snow and winter’s early arrival. On the pitch, the Bosnia national football team is training in silence ahead of their next World Cup qualifier against Slovakia in 24 hours’ time. Their coach, Safet Sušić, buried deep in a thermal jacket and hood, is being soaked by a nagging drizzle. The 50 or so Bosnian journalists watching in the stands shuffle their feet and chain-smoke to keep warm. But they, too, watch in silence. No one – not the players, the coach or the journalists – looks as if they want to be here. Which is strange. Bosnia are currently top of Group G in World Cup qualification.” CNN – James Montague

“Beginning in 1938, when Brazil sent its first integrated team to the World Cup, the players chosen to represent the Seleçao have also represented the country in terms of its ethnic, social, and religious makeup. The current crop of stars still mirror changes to Brazilian society, but in certain ways they have also come to represent the country’s upper class—the very target of Brazilian protestors.” Fusion

“Before Brazil and Croatia play the first game of the 2014 World Cup on June 12, a paralyzed person will stand and walk on the pitch, then kick a ball. This is the story of the Brazilian neuroscientists who developed the mind-controlled exoskeleton that will make it possible.” Grantland

“Brazil’s national team has started its World Cup preparations amid protests in Rio de Janeiro. A bus bus carrying the players to its hilltop training camp was surrounded by striking teachers chanting slogans against the tournament. Later, upon arriving at Granja Comary, players were greeted by fans – and more protesters. Thousands of people have protested against the cost of staging the tournament beginning next month.” BBC

“To describe the World Cup as a ‘poisoned chalice’ for the host nations is to ignore the fact that its value goes beyond the economic—it brings people and nations together. It’s also a fantastic platform from which to spread the message that racism and homophobia in sport are wrong. I’m not denying that it costs a huge amount of money to host the World Cup but Brazil currently has the seventh largest economy in the world, is rich in natural resources and has a population of over 198m people. It is a nation that loves football and has a strong tradition of excellence in the game; this event has forced them to upgrade their stadiums and ensure they maintain a world-class standard. It has also made it essential for the Brazilian government to improve the nation’s infrastructure. Brazil is supposed to be this new country coming out and showing the world how powerful they are. I believe that hosting the World Cup will, in the long term, be a huge benefit to Brazil’s economy and global status.” Prospect: Sol Campbell and Simon Kuper

“This summer, 32 countries will compete in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Although each country has distinct histories, customs, and cultures, soccer ties these countries together and bridges their differences. Thus, soccer acts as a mode of universal language or, perhaps, even transcends language, due to its simplicity and global appeal. As a ubiquitous sport, soccer appeals not only to players, but also to millions of fans—some of who play soccer and others of who have never played. For four years, these fans wait anxiously for the quadrennial World Cup, which attracts more fans than any other sporting event in existence. This blog page is a background and travel guide for all of those fans who plan to travel to Brazil to witness the spectacle firsthand. It is also a useful resource for those fans that will witness the event on television and might want additional insight into the Brazilian culture and history that make this summer’s World Cup so meaningful. We hope you enjoy our guide and find it useful in answering any questions you may have. Enjoy Brazil, savor the exhilarating soccer matches that are sure to take place and, for those of you making the journey, safe travels!” Soccer Politics

Gondola lift, Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro, July 7, 2011.
“FOR THIS ISSUE’S Dispatch, Artforum goes south, to Rio de Janeiro—a city as defined by myths of sensualist extravagance as it is by horror stories of yesterday’s military dictatorship and today’s slum violence. Yet one does not have to subscribe to cliché to recognize that Rio is somehow singular; that, in the past half century alone, it has been a place of extraordinary innovation and devastation alike, from the decadent inventions of bossa nova and Tropicália to the human-rights abuses of the postwar period and the unsettling rise of the modern favela in the 1970s. Such paradoxical histories are still with us: This year, as Rio prepares to host the World Cup in June and gears up for the Summer Olympics in 2016, spending astronomical amounts on infrastructural changes and in many instances attempting to eradicate portions of the favelas, it also observes (without celebrating) the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 coup that brought the military to power.”
ARTFORUM, GUILHERME WISNIK, IRENE V. SMALL, DANIEL STEEGMANN MANGRANÉ

“Riot police in Brazil have fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro who marched against the cost of hosting the football World Cup. Some demonstrators hurled stones while other burned tyres and blocked roads. They say they are angry that billions of dollars are being spent on next month’s football tournament, rather than social projects and housing. Protests also took place in many other cities, including the capital Brasilia.” BBC

“World Cup police in Rio de Janeiro will be kitted out in a ‘RoboCop’ style suit of armour to protect officers in the event of violent protests during the tournament. Members of a special unit set up for the World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio received 200 sets of the special 22lbs (10kg) protective equipment, which is flame resistant to up to 427C.” Telegraph

“In 1958 a Brazilian team starring the black teenager Pelé and several other dark-skinned players won the country’s first World Cup. After the victory, wrote the playwright Nelson Rodrigues, ‘I saw a small black woman. She was the typical slum dweller. But the Brazilian triumph transformed her. She walked down the sidewalk with the charm of Joan of Arc. The same was true for black men, who – attractive, brilliant, luxurious – seemed like fabulous Ethiopian princes.’ Brazil, said Rodrigues, ‘was no longer a mongrel among nations’. Football has helped Brazil construct its national identity. The game also functions as a lens on to this poorly understood country. Football helps us see Brazil’s beauty, its ugliness and the usually ignored lives of the Brazilian poor. Admittedly, most accounts of Brazilian football omit women but so, for much of history, did Brazil’s public sphere. So what does football reveal about Brazil?” FT – Simon Kuper.

“The press conference at which Luiz Felipe Scolari announced his World Cup squad was arguably the easiest 45 minutes the veteran Brazilian coach has ever faced. The 23-man list named was largely devoid of controversy as the assembled media patted friendly questions in his direction. Scolari himself recalled that by contrast in 2002 he had to change hotel at the last minute to free himself from media intent on pursuing the issue of the non-selection of Romário, one the heroes of the 1994 World Cup win.” WSC

Rio de Janeiro Sec. XIX
“Eighty days before the start of the World Cup, the Brazilian government has deployed the army to occupy one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest groups of favelas. On Monday it was announced that, following a recent escalation in violence across the city, the army will soon be present in the Complexo da Maré for an ‘indefinite’ period. Rio’s favelas are, unfortunately, well known for their violence. Yet, a strategy launched by the government in 2008 to combat the entrenched power of drug traffickers by using community police units (UPPs), designed to bring security alongside investment and social services, has yielded some impressive results. For example, one formerly violent favela has not had a murder for more than five years.” Guardian

History of Rio de Janeiro’s Military Police Part I: 19th Century Beginnings
“To fully understand the nature of the Brazilian police force today, it is necessary to know about the context in which it was originally created. In 1808, threatened by the impending invasion of Napoleon, the Portuguese royal family took the decision to move to Rio de Janeiro, taking its Court of nearly 15,000 people with it. Rio´s law enforcement until that point had consisted in unarmed watchmen (guardas) chosen by the town council working alongside neighbourhood inspectors (known as quadrilheiros) employed by local judges. However, the arrival of the monarchy clearly necessitated a more organized force.” Rio On Watch – Part I: 19th Century Beginnings, Part 2: From Dictatorship to Drug War, Part 3: Community Policing

Rio Looks Like A War Zone As Troops Raid Slums Only Months Before The World Cup
“Brazil has deployed federal troops to Rio de Janeiro in an effort to rid slums of violent crime, drug traffickers, and gangs ahead of the FIFA World Cup in June. The drug lords are fighting back against the authorities, trying to recapture their territory after years of police occupations. This violent battle has raised concerns about safety and security at the upcoming World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, which hundreds of thousands of foreigners are expected to attend. The final game in the tournament will take place at the Maracaná stadium, a few miles from the Manguinhos slums.” Business Insider (PHOTO)

Protesters in Brazil: ‘There Will Not Be a World Cup!’
“An Agência Pública reporter searched out the activists that mounted the first protest of the year against the World Cup due to be hosted in Brazil this year; what he found was a mixed group determined to stop the sporting event throughout protest and without ‘violent acts’.” Global Voices Online

“As if Brazil needed any further irritants, beyond the World Cup preparations fiasco, it has found itself exposed over ‘hidden’ racism. For the eurocentric international media, racism in football had become an issue in which eastern and southern Europe and England, to a lesser extent, were easy to kick around. No-one in Europe ever gave a thought to the uneasy truth which lies below the tip of the iceberg perception of Brazil as a land in which blacks (Pele etc) and whites (Zagallo etc) were happy world champions together.” World Soccer

“September 5th, 1993 is more or less regarded as major event in Colombian history, a sort of soccer version of Independence Day. That is the date that the Colombian and Argentinian national football teams met in Buenos Aires for the last of their qualifying matches for the 1994 USA World Cup. Whichever team won would go straight to the World Cup. The loser would face Australia in a playoff. A tie would have sufficed for Colombia, but instead they won the match 5-0. It remains the biggest win in Colombia’s history. A player known simply as “El Tino” scored the second of Colombia’s goals—skilfully evading two defenders and the goalkeeper, and then scoring as he fell to the ground—and the fourth, a clever chip, before assisting teammate Freddy Rincón for the fifth. The day cemented Faustino Asprilla’s place in Colombian history.” ROADS & KINGDOMS

“The Brazilians are pissed off and their protests are increasingly directed against the World Cup, and rightly so. Romário explained why: I supported Brazil’s World Cup bid, but even I am against it now. Their main complaint is that a lot of public money is poured into stadiums that many will turn into expensive white elephants. It happened in South Africa, which hosted the World Cup in 2010 and it will happen in Brazil as well. I’m also pretty sure that will happen in Russia and Qatar.” Soccer Issue (Video)

“I had been in Teresópolis, Rio de Janeiro state, for two days and already I was running out of things to do. School children ambled between shops whose wares they must have known by heart. In the sleepy town square, old men gathered to play dominos and chat, whiling away the hours under a winter sun rendered impotent by altitude. There is a mountain trail that weaves through a jungle before coming up for air above the canopy, eventually scrambling up one of the mountains that flank the town. You can almost see Rio itself from the summit; almost feel its sands between your freezing toes. The youth of Teresópolis migrates to the city during the school holidays to escape their parents and the cold. Eventually, even the tasty steaks, breads and fine local beers lose their charm. With little to do, I soon found myself wishing I could play soccer with someone.” Road and Kingdoms

“In a rare question-and-answer huddle with Brazilian journalists this week, President Dilma Rousseff pronounced with confidence that the beleaguered new football stadium in the southern city of Curitiba would ‘definitely’ be ready for the World Cup. Mrs Rousseff was speaking on the pitch at the Arena das Dunas in the northern coastal city of Natal, which she had just officially opened with a rather nervous kick of a ball from the centre-spot. It was a rare high-point for Brazil – and its World Cup organisers – after a disastrous week during which a high-level Fifa delegation had seen, warts and all, the state of the country’s readiness for the tournament that begins in mid-June.” BBC