With the June 12 kickoff looming, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff defended her government’s preparations for the World Cup on Wednesday amid criticism over chronic delays and soaring costs.
Brazil has been racing to finish stadiums and deal with a wave of protests against the cost of the event — more than $11 billion.
Overnight, as the Iranian and Croatian teams arrived, joining Australia as the first of the 31 teams seeking to prevent Brazil winning a sixth trophy, Rousseff partly blamed FIFA for the spiralling bill but said the money spent would leave a positive legacy.
The leftist leader, who plans to seek reelection in October, said FIFA, the sport’s global governing body, had assured Brazil that host stadiums would be built with private money.
But the government eventually realized private-sector investment would not even cover “half a stadium,” and provided most of the financing itself, Rousseff told journalists at a dinner Tuesday at the presidential residence in Brasilia.
She said she would advise future host countries to “be very careful about the ‘responsibility matrix'” they sign with FIFA.
But she insisted that the vast majority of public spending related to the tournament was “for Brazil” over the long-term and not limited to the World Cup.
She said hosting the tournament had spurred many cities to undertake badly needed public transport projects — though she acknowledged many of them would not be completed before the World Cup.
The Brazilian government has faced a wave of protests over the money it is spending on the tournament, which critics say should have been used to address urgent needs in education, health care and transport.
A year ago, a million protesters flooded the streets during the Confederations Cup, a World Cup dress rehearsal.
The protests turned violent at times, casting a shadow over the tournament and raising fears of a repeat this year.
More recent protests have been on a smaller scale, though still occasionally violent.
Rousseff said protests would be allowed during the World Cup as long as they were peaceful and did not interfere with the event.
“We fully guarantee people’s security,” she said.
– President and football fan –
Brazil is still scrambling to finish five of the 12 host stadiums, including Sao Paulo’s Corinthians Arena, which will host the opening match but still has not had all its seats installed.
Organizers have shelved much of the other infrastructure they had originally promised, from roadworks to a high-speed train to subway and monorail lines.
Meanwhile, fans in Sao Paulo jostled for tickets after FIFA put a final 180,000 on sale online and at ticketing centers in the host cities.
Supporters turned up in the early hours at Sao Paulo but were disappointed to learn from officials that no tickets remained for matches either in Sao Paulo or Rio or for either semi-final.
Four previous sales windows had seen 2.57 million tickets sold.
On the pitch at least, Brazil showed their class by routing Panama 4-0 in a Tuesday friendly.
Rousseff, 66, was clearly pleased with the win, and — touching wood and vowing to keep her fingers crossed — said she was confident in Brazil’s chances at the World Cup.
Her government meanwhile appeared to have staved off the threat of a strike by federal police during the tournament.
Recent police strikes — and the threat of more during the World Cup — have been among the government’s biggest headaches.
But federal police announced Tuesday they had reached a deal for a 15.8-percent raise in exchange for a promise not to strike in the coming months.
Police in the capital Brasilia have accepted the offer, which will be put to a vote in each of Brazil’s 26 states in the coming days, the federal police union said.
Teachers in Sao Paulo also ended a 42-day strike after winning a 15.4-percent raise from May 2015, their unions said Tuesday evening.