Brazil has promised it can meet the huge costs of staging the 2014 World Cup and that the legacy of improved public services and foreign investment will justify the expenses involved. But, amid the jubilation which followed Fifa's decision to award the tournament to the country yesterday, there were also worries that public spending could spiral out of control.
Brazil does not have a stadium which meets the requirements for a World Cup finals match and at least 10 to 12 arenas would have to be completely reformed or built from scratch. Eighteen stadiums have been put forward on a preliminary basis of which 14 exist and four would be new.
The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has estimated the stadiums alone would require investments of $1.1 billion (€763 million), which it says would come from the private sector. "The model (of investment) gives priority for private investment in the construction and reform of the stadiums," said CBF president Ricardo Teixeira in his presentation to Fifa in Zurich yesterday.
In an interview with O Globo newspaper two days earlier, Teixeira said the CBF had already been in contact with foreign investors over stadium reforms.
Away from the stadiums, spending on infrastructure will be provided by federal, state and city governments. "It will leave an important inheritance for the future," said Teixeira. "There will be improvements in transport infrastructure, hospitals and a significant improvement in public security."
However, no budget has been publicly announced for non-sporting infrastructure, increasing concerns of uncontrolled government spending. Those concerns have been heightened because the Pan American Games, which took place in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year, were reported to have over-run original cost estimates by 900 percent. The event also failed to leave long-term improvements in transport, environment and public safety after original projects were abandoned.
"The discourse that nearly all the expenses will be funded by private enterprise is hot air," said former Brazil forward Tostao, now one of the country's most respected newspaper columnists.
"The biggest suspicion is that in Brazil it appears almost impossible to hold a World Cup without wasting public money.
Socrates, who played for Brazil in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, said: "It will come out of our pockets once again." Former Finance Minister Luiz Gonzaga Belluzo warned against underestimating the size of the job in hand.
"Today, Brazil is very unprepared if you compare it to other countries, although in seven years' time it could be better," he said. "In an event such as the Formula One Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, it is evident that the city does not have infrastructure."