Brazil succumbs to football fantasy as 2014 World Cup host

Sao Paulo Letter:Who wouldn't want a World Cup in their own country? Surely it's a no-brainer. The world comes to your place to party for a month as you host the greatest sporting gig on earth.

So Brazil is feeling pretty pleased with itself since Tuesday, when it beat nobody else to win the right to host the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

In Zurich, the high and mighty from Brazilian politics and football promised to overcome the huge challenges that must be faced to host a successful tournament, while back home there were the usual celebrations that greet this sort of announcement.

Some foreign journalists at the announcement in Switzerland tried to spoil the mood by raising questions about security in Brazil's cities. But this was not actually the concern of the few high-profile Brazilian voices who questioned the manner in which Brazil's bid had convinced Fifa.

Should Brazil's stratospheric levels of violence still be a problem in 2014, the authorities will saturate host cities with extra troops and police, as they do for all high-profile international events. This ensures that visitors go home with nothing to report except the undoubted vibrancy and hospitality of these places.

Earlier this year Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's beautiful but violent postcard city, hosted the Pan American Games, a sort of Olympics for the Americas.

Just before and after the event, Rio was gripped by day-long gun battles between gangs and police. Dozens died. But during the games themselves, the city was calmness personified. It was a rather unreal and temporary peace, but visitors are unlikely to care much about that.

What had the local dissenters unhappy about Tuesday's announcement was not concern that European fans would be caught up in gunfights, but rather the fact that the financing plan Brazil outlined to Fifa to secure the event is, to put it politely, pure fiction.

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) says fitting out 14 stadiums alone will cost €750 million and that it expects to raise this money from the private sector.

Of that there is little to no chance. Where is the return? Brazilian football is permanently broke. Why would private investors rebuild ramshackle grounds whose owners or tenants are clubs that are known for their lack or transparency, mismanagement and corruption?

Under the Cartolas (top hats) that run Brazilian football clubs, finances are so opaque that it is hard to know if they are run by incompetents or crooks.

Attempts to reform this reactionary corner of Brazilian life have failed, most notoriously when Pelé was appointed minister of sport.

Long-time CBF president Ricardo Teixeira himself has survived various scandals and investigations because he bankrolls a lobby in Brazil's congress to provide protection and see off attempts from the government to clean up the sport's act.

Lamentably for Teixeira's critics, politicians - including president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva - have gone along with the CBF's 2014 campaign rather than use its reliance on government support as a stick with which to prod the cartolas into cleaning up their act.

When the private funds almost certainly fail to materialise, Brazilian taxpayers will be forced to step in to salvage national honour and pick up what will be a grossly inflated tab.

The Pan games ran eight times over-budget in a corruption free-for-all and few of the promised infrastructure projects were actually built.

One can argue that developing countries like Brazil and South Africa should not be denied the right to stage global events just because they are less equipped than other states to host tournaments like the World Cup.

But what leaves a bad taste in the mouth for a well-informed minority of Brazilians - including former greats turned respected football - commentators Tostão and Socrates, as well as the country's football daily, Lance! - is that Brazil has won the right to host the 2014 event using a proposal that the government, CBF and Fifa know is fantasy. This has denied Brazilians a debate on the merits of spending money on football grounds rather than schools.

It is no surprise that CBF and Fifa have connived in this - Teixeira is the son-in-law of João Havelange, Fifa president Sepp Blatter's predecessor and the man responsible for getting him football's top job, and the 2014 event is part of a strategy for one to succeed the other. However, it is sad to see a supposed progressive like Lula going along with the scam, passionate football fan that he is.