O melhor em campo na partida em que a França atropelou a Suíça, Karim Benzema perdeu um pênalti, fez dois gols (o segundo não valeu por que o juiz caprichosamente havia apitado o fim da partida), deu duas assistências — e não cantou o hino.
Não é um detalhe. Ele não estava nervoso e atrapalhado. Benzema não entoa a gloriosa “Marselhesa” jamais. “Não é porque eu canto que eu vou marcar três gols. Se eu não cantar a ‘Marselhesa’ e marcar três gols, não acho que no final do jogo alguém vai reclamar. Zidane, por exemplo, não cantava. E há outros. Eu não vejo isso como um problema”, disse ele.
Benzema, como Zidane, seu ídolo e amigo, é filho de imigrantes argelinos e é muçulmano. O silêncio é um protesto a uma letra que fala: “Às armas, cidadãos/ formai vossos batalhões/ marchemos, marchemos! / Que um sangue impuro / banhe o nosso solo”. É duramente criticado por essa atitude. A Frente Nacional, de extrema direita, fundada por Jean Marie Le Pen, o chamou de mercenário desleal e pediu seu banimento. “Ele não vê problema nisso. Bem, o povo francês não veria nenhum problema se ele não estivesse mais no time”.
É uma falácia. Benzema, que também cravou dois contra Honduras na estreia, faz toda a diferença para a França, uma equipe majoritariamente de filhos de imigrantes. Além dele, o time tem Valbuena (descendente de espanhois), Cabaye (de vietnamitas), Matuidi (angolanos), Sagna (senegaleses), Varane (os pais são da Martinica).
Há três anos, o ex-técnico da seleção, Laurent Blanc, chegou a sugerir que se limitasse o número de atletas não-brancos. Blanc queria uma cota de 30% de descendentes de africanos na federação. Para sorte dos franceses, a ideia não foi adiante.
Na Espanha, Benzema costuma ser chamado de “vendedor de kebabs”. “Se marco gol, sou francês. Se não marco, sou árabe”, afirma. Karim Benzema e seus colegas são um problema, sem dúvida, mas para os adversários. E uma lembrança perigosa para o Brasil, cujos jogadores estufam o peito para cantar a capella o ouvirundum.
MANAUS, Brazil — The PP Maués would not set sail for an hour, but its long and narrow decks were already crisscrossed with hammocks for an overnight trip down the Amazon.
By the time it was to dock early last Monday at the regional port for which it was named, the Maués would have traveled 15 hours from the nearest World Cup stadium.
A second boat would be needed to reach an even more remote indigenous village that planned to watch Brazil play Mexico last Tuesday. The village did not have electricity or cellphone signals and would rely on a diesel generator to indulge its secluded passion for soccer.
While Rio de Janeiro and its famous beaches provide the touristic backdrop of the World Cup, the fevered grip of the world’s most popular sporting event can be felt even in some of the most isolated areas of the rain forest, where outsiders seldom visit.
“Football is in our blood,” said Andre Pereira da Silva, 32, the chief of a small community of Sateré-Mawé Indians in Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon, who served as a guide. The intended destination was his home village, Monte Salém, one of an estimated 150 Sateré-Mawé (pronounced sah-teh-RAY mah-WAY) communities of about 11,000 residents along the lower Amazon.
The decks of the PP Maués were crisscrossed with hammocks for an overnight trip down the Amazon.CreditMauricio Lima for The New York Times
“Wait until you see it,” Pereira da Silva said. “You will feel you are in the middle of the stars.”
As a boy in Monte Salém, he made soccer balls with the sap of rubber trees, using a stick to shape the latex into an improvised if sometimes uncontrollable sphere.
“Ten trees for one ball,” he said, sitting in the boat’s tiny dining room Sunday with his young son, his own thick hair tied in a ponytail. “The problem was, it bounced too much.”
On the passenger boat’s upper deck, the sentimental romance of Brega music played from two huge speakers. More than 300 customers were aboard a ship half the length of a football field. Children played among the hammocks and the luggage or peered over the rails. Some passengers transported used televisions or flat screens still in their boxes. In the aft of the boat, a new washing machine and refrigerator were lashed together, as if exposed as stowaways.
The game was also showing on a small, staticky television in the boat’s galley. Two men sat on backless chairs. Two more peered in the doorway as a cook made gelatinous soup from orzo, meat and carrots.
“Messi’s slow tonight,” Rodrigo Xavier, 26, said. “He’s not playing well.
Xavier, a Brazil fan, drew great pleasure from this.
Minutes later, Messi passed the ball and retrieved it on a give-and-go. He skimmed the top of the penalty area, dribbling past two defenders who collided and fell behind him. Given wide space, he ricocheted a shot off the left goal post and into the net. Xavier smiled. This was why Messi was widely considered the best player in the world. Even a Brazilian had to admit his appreciation.
Abruptly, the kitchen cleared. The boat had no satellite dish, and the TV’s antennas lost contact with the signal from Manaus. Paulo José, the ship’s owner, was left to eat in silence. He did not seem to mind.
“I don’t like football at all,” José said. “I’m different from most of the men.”
A nearly full moon appeared, sending a column of light rippling toward the boat. A man pointed his flashlight at the water’s edge, searching for caimans and their cigarette eyes. The stars seemed as white and near as the blossoms that hung from trees like scoops of ice cream.
MONDAY DAWNED COOL and overcast. Lightning flashed on the horizon. The rain came, and rolls of blue plastic were unfurled along the sides of the decks to keep passengers dry.
“It’s raining because the English are here” at the World Cup, Pereira da Silva said with a laugh.
Passengers disembarked the Maués after a 15-hour overnight trip down the Amazon.Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
By 8 a.m., only a drizzle remained as the boat reached Maués, a small regional port where a caffeine-rich plant called guaraná is manufactured for use in sodas, energy drinks and herbal teas. Firecrackers greeted the ship’s arrival. Fishermen paddled canoes toward market, their foam coolers full of prized fish with striped tails.
On streets above the docks, Brazil flags fluttered from an armada of motorcycles. The most deft or careless of the bikers steered with one hand and held an open umbrella in the other. Shops sold soccer balls, hats, plastic trumpets and jerseys of Neymar, the young Brazilian star forward. Even a kitten wore a necklace in Brazil’s colors, yellow and green.
Some men wore jerseys of the big Brazilian club teams — Flamengo and Vasco da Gama — allegiances built in the 1950s and 1960s, when the only radio signal that reached Maués came from Rio, more than 1,600 miles away.
A few teenagers were spotted wearing their own versions of Neymar’s distinct Mohawk mullet, which he sometimes dyes blond.
Neymar scored twice in Brazil’s opener against Croatia, but Pereira da Silva was not certain that Neymar was ready for the World Cup.
“He needs more experience; he needs to fight a little more,” he said. “He’s only interested in his gold hair. That’s the story of footballers today. They want to be good-looking.”
He carried a large sack of clothes to give to the chief of Monte Salém or trade for seeds to make necklaces and bracelets. He was to meet his mother and father in Maués and then travel together to the family’s ancestral village. At least that was the plan. Now there was a problem. The generator in Monte Salém was broken.
“Argentina,” Pereira da Silva said wryly, finding a convenient scapegoat. “Argentina breaks everything.”
After a breakfast of soup and hot sauce, he found another village with a working generator. It was called Nova Belo Horizonte. The trip would take 75 minutes by power boat from Maués. In midafternoon Monday, the equatorial heat was stifling, but Pereira da Silva’s parents yelled, “Waku sese” as the boat reached the village. Everything is really good.
Nova Belo Horizonte is home to 22 families, most of them living in wooden houses with thatched roofs. A rudimentary soccer field, with wood goal posts and no nets, has been cleared of stones and tamped flat amid the surrounding groves of guaraná, pineapples, oranges, bananas, peppers and the staple root called manioc.
For the first time, men’s and women’s teams from the village are participating in an area tournament of Brazil’s Indigenous Games. An important men’s match is scheduled for Sunday. The winner of the tournament will receive $1,500, which could readily be used in a village that, like other indigenous communities, has tried to protect traditional lands from encroaching development and perceived government indifference.
Health care is distant and inadequate, village elders said. There is no radio contact with the hub Maués, four or five hours away on the most common type of boat. Cellphones do not work.
The front steps of the school have crumbled, and the ceiling leaks. Classes for older students in Nova Belo Horizonte cannot be held at night during the World Cup, villagers said, because area government officials seem to be on holiday. Only a portion of the diesel needed to fuel the community generator had been provided.
“They only want our votes,” said Pereira da Silva’s father, Luiz Sateré, 56, a community coordinator for the Sateré-Mawé. “It’s the only thing that matters.
Sateré-Mawé Indians playing soccer in the Nova Belo Horizonte village. Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Yet even if spending on World Cup stadiums seemed wasteful in a country with so many needs, it was important that the tournament returned to Brazil for the first time since 1950, said Reginaldo da Silva Andrade, 27, the chief of Nova Belo Horizonte.
“Brazilian people are the ones who love and watch the game the most in the world,” da Silva Andrade said.
IN NOVA BELO HORIZONTE, soccer serves many purposes: fun, fitness, conflict avoidance and a diversion from alcohol and drugs. It also provides a chance to socialize with other river villages. Teams travel by boat, and tournaments are often accompanied by festivals.
More important than the money available in the Indigenous Games, da Silva Andrade said, is a chance to “show people on the outside that we are capable of doing this.” He added: “We are realizing our dreams. People think we can’t play. We’ve got to show them.”
On Tuesday, when Brazil played Mexico, all classes were canceled in Nova Belo Horizonte. It will be the same every time Brazil plays. At sunrise, women in the village began hauling water from the well, carrying buckets on their heads. Soon, children kicked around a soccer ball. Some stood in the goal wearing flip-flops on their hands to cushion the heaviness of the shots.
Two small boys played with a ball made from plastic bags, paper and a sleeveless T-shirt. One kicked the ball past the other and yelled, “Goooooooal!” The generator rumbled on to test the television at the chief’s home. The TV kept going on and off.
It is a widely repeated story that soccer came to Brazil in the late 1890s when a man named Charles Miller returned from schooling in England with two balls in his suitcase.
But Pareci Indians earlier made balls from the latex of rubber trees and played a game called zicunati, which permitted only heading, according to “Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life,” a book by the British writer Alex Bellos.
An Indian nicknamed Indio helped Brazil qualify for the 1958 World Cup, the tournament that introduced Pelé to the world, Bellos wrote. In the late 1990s, José Sátiro do Nascimento, a defender who sometimes used coconuts for balls as a boy, became the first Indian to make one of Brazil’s top club teams, Corinthians of São Paulo. In 2009, a professional team of indigenous players was formed in the state of Pará.
Among the Sateré-Mawé, female players are welcomed, which is not always the case in the broader macho culture of Latin American soccer. One women’s team in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, carries the name of the initiation ritual in which boys in the tribe become men after being repeatedly stung by venomous ants.
When Brazil played Croatia in the World Cup opener, Janildzes Michiles, 28, said, she took written notes, concentrating on the defensive work of the mop-haired star David Luiz.
“It is a way to show women can do the same as men,” Michiles said.
On Monday night, while the generator in Nova Belo Horizonte ran for a couple of hours, Michiles watched the United States defeat Ghana, 2-1. Ghana seemed to play better, applying more consistent pressure, she said.
“The Americans ran hard for the ball, but they have to get faster,” she said. “They looked slow.”
Sateré-Mawé Indians in the Nova Belo Horizonte village watch the Brazil-Mexico match.Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
EARLY TUESDAY AFTERNOON, Nova Belo Horizonte hosted men and women from a nearby village, Brasileia, for two pickup matches. The visitors traveled in boats decorated with green and yellow streamers and announced their arrival by blowing whistles.
Both the women and the men from Brasileia prevailed by 3-1 scores in wilting heat. After Rariani da Silva Andrade finished the women’s game for the visitors, she lent her right shoe to her husband, Isaías Oliveira Gomes, whose left foot remained bare.
“He has an injured toe,” she explained.
Friendly defeat for Nova Belo Horizonte did not dampen enthusiasm for Brazil’s World Cup match against Mexico. Some villagers watched from their own homes. About 20 spectators gathered in the outdoor kitchen of the community chief. A few wore festive crowns made from palm fronds. Chicken stew and a crunchy flour called farinha were prepared. Eleven minutes into the match, the television clicked on.
“We will watch and learn,” said da Silva Andrade, the village chief.
Neymar soon threatened with a header, but Guillermo Ochoa, Mexico’s goalkeeper, dived and pushed the shot wide. At halftime, the match remained scoreless.
“I’ll be playing for Brazil in the second half,” da Silva Andrade joked.
When the game started again, Ochoa remained impenetrable. He deflected the ball with his hands and his thigh. His positioning and anticipation and reaction were impeccable. The villagers in Nova Belo Horizonte grew nervous, frustrated.
A pet parrot began to squawk at the anxious voices. One woman held tightly to her lucky beads. Michiles, the women’s player, hid her face behind three palm fronds. In the final minute of regulation, the score remained 0-0. Then the television went out.
It came back on briefly, then failed again as the game extended into three minutes of added time.
“The TV is angry with Brazil,” joked Pereira da Silva, the village chief and guide from Manaus.
Again and again, the screen flickered on, then went blank.
“The TV is scared,” said another villager, Geovani Miranda, laughing.
The screen went dark another time. When the picture returned, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazil’s coach, was giving a postgame interview. For a few seconds, there was confusion in Nova Belo Horizonte. Then came confirmation. The final score was 0-0 on an afternoon of intrigue and missed opportunity.
When Pelé appeared on the screen to give his analysis, the TV again went off. It was just as well.
“I don’t want to hear any apologies; I don’t want to hear how it would be different if Pelé was playing,” Pereira da Silva said, the humor gone from his voice. “Even the TV doesn’t want to hear him.”
It could have been worse. At least Brazil had not lost. In Nova Belo Horizonte, the home team remained favored to win the World Cup.
“Brazil is a fighter,” said Luiz Sateré, Pereira da Silva’s father, who wore a Neymar jersey. “Brazil is a warrior.”
It’s the moment every soccer fan’s been waiting for. The teams are out on the field and the match is about to begin. Then comes the rain. And then the thunder. And then the lightning. Enough of it that the match is delayed.
With the World Cup taking place in a country comprising several different ecosystems — a rain forest among them — you’re going to be hearing a lot about the weather in Brazil over the next month.
But we don’t have to wait until the day of — or even five days before — any given match to get a sense of what the weather will be. We already know the broad outlines of the next month of weather in Brazil — June and July have happened before, after all, and somebody kept track of whether it rained.
I did something like this for the Super Bowl in New York, when I provided a climatological forecast based on years worth of historical data. This isn’t the most accurate way to predict the weather — seven days before a match there will be far better forecasts — but it is a solid way to do it many weeks in advance.
I collected past weather data for the World Cup’s timespan (mid-June through mid-July) from WeatherSpark and Weather Underground for the observation stations closest to the 12 different World Cup sites. Keep in mind, the data for the different areas of Brazil hasn’t been collected for as long as it has in the United States. In some cases, we only have records since the late 1990s, which is about half as many years as I’d like to make the best climatological assessment. Still, history can give us an idea of the variability of the weather in Brazil.
You can see what high temperatures have looked like for the 12 World Cup sites in the table below. I’ve taken the average, as well as the 10th, 25th, 75th and 90th percentile for past high temperatures. This gives us a better idea of the range of what could occur than just the average. Remember, 20 percent of high temperatures have fallen out of this range. (For games starting in the early evening, knock off a few degrees to get the expected average.)
What we see is that the weather can be quite comfortable or hot, depending on the site. In the southern coastal region, we see high temperatures that average below 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the cities of Curitiba and Porto Alegre. (I’ve presented all temperatures in Fahrenheit.) It may seem odd to you that southern areas are actually coolest, but remember that this is the southern hemisphere, so everything’s topsy-turvy for a Northerner. It’s winter in Brazil, and climatology suggests that we shouldn’t be surprised if the high temperature is below 60 degrees at one of these sites.
Wikimedia CommonsHost sites for the 2014 World Cup.
But most of the country is not like these two sites. Belo Horizonte and Brasilia reach the mid- to high 70s usually, but don’t go too much higher because of their elevation (2,720 feet for the former and 3,500 feet for the latter). From Rio de Janeiro northward, temperatures average 80 degrees or greater, but winds from the ocean will often keep them from getting out of hand.
The site tied for the highest median temperature is Manaus, which is also surrounded by the Amazonian rainforest, making it the most interesting site climatologically. There’s a 15 percent chance that it will rain in Manaus on any given day during the tournament. In small quantities, rain can help a passing game by making the grass slick, but if there’s too much precipitation, it can slow the ball significantly as the pitch gets waterlogged. And that doesn’t even get to the threat of lightning, which can halt a game completely.
But Manaus isn’t the site with the highest chance of rain. (Just the highest chance of thunderstorms.) To figure out what is, I looked at the average rainfall and thunderstorm tallies during the 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. hours during June and July in past years. From there I estimated the chance of rain during two-hour stretches in the afternoon and early evening, rather than for the entire day.
So here are approximations for each site on rain and thunderstorms during the games:
It probably won’t rain during any given match, but if it does it’s likely to be in the sites closest to the tropics in the north and thehumid subtropical climate in the south. Recife, for example, has the best chance of rain of any site in the country, in part because it’s right where a lot of different air masses combine, which makes the weather there somewhat more unpredictable.
Thunderstorms, on the other hand, rarely occur anywhere besides Manaus, where the chance of a thunderstorm in a given afternoon hour is in the double digits. Manaus is also where the United States will be playing against Portugal in its second match; climatology suggests it should be a muggy game.
The Americans’ other games are likely to be hot but dry. The United States’ first match, against Ghana, is in Natal on Monday, a city that normally is expected to offer a high temperature around 84 degrees, with a slightly cooler temperature by the evening game time. The current forecasts (based on meteorological data, rather than climatology) are calling for something around normal with around a 15 percent chance of rain, as we’d expect. The weather for the U.S. team’s third match, on the coast in Recife, should be about the same. Thunderstorms probably won’t interrupt the game, but rain is possible.
Most likely, though, the weather will hold up just fine. The optimistic U.S. fan can safely engage in blue-sky thinking — for the team’s chances, and for the skies above it, even if our coach is finding another way to rain on the parade.
Harry Enten is a senior political writer and analyst for FiveThirtyEight.
FAMOUS FAN: A natural poster boy for the campaign was one of Sport Recife’s most famous fans, 69-year-old Ivaldo Firmino dos Santos, who received a heart transplant 12 years ago.
Published — Monday 2 June 2014
Last update 2 June 2014 12:07 am
RIO DE JANEIRO: An organ donation campaign by one of Brazil’s biggest football clubs targeting its fans has led to a massive rise in the number of life-changing transplants and reduced waiting lists for organs in the area almost to zero.
“Every Brazilian is born with football in the soul,” says Jorge Peixoto, of Sport Club Recife, one of the top teams in the north-east of the country.
For the last two years though, he has been more concerned about what happens to fans’ bodies when they die.
The club decided it “must look beyond the 11 players on the field and use its power for bigger things,” says Peixoto, the club’s vice-president for social programs.
It asked them to become “immortal fans” donating their organs after they die so that their love for the club will live on in someone else’s body, the BBC reported.
“I promise that your eyes will keep on watching Sport Club Recife,” says one man waiting for a cornea transplant in the television ad made to publicize the campaign.
“I promise that your heart will keep on beating for Sport Club Recife,” says a potential recipient of a transplanted heart.
The video is screened at every match in the club’s Ilha do Retiro stadium, a venue that seats 35,000 but could be filled almost twice over with the number of people who have signed up for a donor card — 66,000 so far.
The waiting list for organ transplants in the city of Recife was reduced to zero in the first year, Peixoto says, and the impact has also been felt throughout the surrounding state of Pernambuco.
“We used to perform from five to seven heart transplants a year, but last year we achieved 28… it was an incredible increase,” says Fernando Figueira, director of heart transplants at Pernambuco’s Institute of Integrated Medicine.
“There is a very tight connection between the campaign and this rise.”
People can apply online for the Sport Donor card — it’s the size of a credit card, the words printed over the outline of a heart with a fiery red backdrop.
According to Brazilian law, it’s up to the family to decide whether the organs of their loved ones will be donated after their death. But making this decision is not easy in such painful moments.
The success of the campaign has been noticed around the world and Sport Recife has been contacted by Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona, both thinking about adopting similar campaigns, Peixoto says.
He hopes the forthcoming World Cup will help spread the idea further.
A New York Times investigation of match fixing ahead of the last World Cup gives an unusually detailed look at the ease with which professional gamblers can fix matches.
JOHANNESBURG — A soccer referee named Ibrahim Chaibou walked into a bank in a small South African city carrying a bag filled with as much as $100,000 in $100 bills, according to another referee traveling with him. The deposit was so large that a bank employee gave Mr. Chaibou a gift of commemorative coins bearing the likeness of Nelson Mandela.
Later that night in May 2010, Mr. Chaibou refereed an exhibition match between South Africa and Guatemala in preparation for the World Cup, the world’s most popular sporting event. Even to the casual fan, his calls were suspicious — he called two penalties for hand balls even though the ball went nowhere near the players’ hands.
Mr. Chaibou, a native of Niger, had been chosen to work the match by a company based in Singapore that was a front for a notorious match-rigging syndicate, according to an internal, confidential report by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.
FIFA’s investigative report and related documents, which were obtained by The New York Times and have not been publicly released, raise serious questions about the vulnerability of the World Cup to match fixing. The tournament opens June 12 in Brazil.
The report found that the match-rigging syndicate and its referees infiltrated the upper reaches of global soccer in order to fix exhibition matches and exploit them for betting purposes. It provides extensive details of the clever and brazen ways that fixers apparently manipulated “at least five matches and possibly more” in South Africa ahead of the last World Cup. As many as 15 matches were targets, including a game between the United States and Australia, according to interviews and emails printed in the FIFA report.
Although corruption has vexed soccer for years, the South Africa case gives an unusually detailed look at the ease with which professional gamblers can fix matches, as well as the governing body’s severe problems in policing itself and its member federations. The report, at 44 pages, includes an account of Mr. Chaibou’s trip to the bank, as well as many other scenes describing how matches were apparently rigged.
After one match, the syndicate even made a death threat against the official who tried to stop the fix, investigators found.
“Were the listed matches fixed?” the report said. “On the balance of probabilities, yes!”
The Times investigated the South African match-fixing scandal by interviewing dozens of soccer officials, referees, gamblers, investigators and experts in South Africa, Malaysia, England, Finland and Singapore. The Times also reviewed hundreds of pages of interview transcripts, emails, referee rosters and other confidential FIFA documents.
FIFA, which is expected to collect about $4 billion in revenue for this four-year World Cup cycle for broadcast fees, sponsorship deals and ticket sales, has relative autonomy at its headquarters in Zurich. But The Times found problems that could now shadow this month’s World Cup.
Photo
A letter from Football 4U International to the South African soccer federation offered to provide referees for South Africa’s exhibition matches before the World Cup.
■ FIFA’s investigators concluded that the fixers had probably been aided by South African soccer officials, yet FIFA did not officially accuse anyone of match fixing or bar anyone from the sport as a result of those disputed matches.
■ A FIFA spokeswoman said Friday that the investigation into South Africa was continuing, but no one interviewed for this article spoke of being contacted recently by FIFA officials. Critics have questioned FIFA’s determination and capability to curb match fixing.
■ Many national soccer federations with teams competing in Brazil are just as vulnerable to match-fixing as South Africa’s was: They are financially shaky, in administrative disarray and politically divided.
Ralf Mutschke, who has since become FIFA’s head of security, said in a May 21 interview with FIFA.com that “match fixing is an evil to all sports,” and he acknowledged that the World Cup was vulnerable.
“The fixers are trying to look for football matches which are generating a huge betting volume, and obviously, international football tournaments such as the World Cup are generating these kinds of huge volumes,” Mr. Mutschke said. “Therefore, the World Cup in general has a certain risk.”
Mr. Chaibou, the referee at the center of the South African case, said in a phone interview that he had never fixed a match, and he denied knowing or having ever spoken to Wilson Raj Perumal, a notorious gambler who calls himself the world’s most prolific match fixer and whom FIFA called one of the suspected masterminds of the South Africa scheme.
“I did not know this man,” Mr. Chaibou said. “I had no contact with him ever.”
Mr. Chaibou said FIFA had not contacted him since his retirement in 2011. He declined to answer any questions about money he may have received in South Africa.
The tainted South African matches were not the only suspect ones. Europol, the European Union’s police intelligence agency, said last year that there were 680 suspicious matches played globally from 2008 to 2011, including World Cup qualifying matches and games in some of Europe’s most prestigious leagues and tournaments.
“There are no checks and balances and no oversight,” Terry Steans, a former FIFA investigator who wrote the report on South Africa, said of the syndicate’s efforts there in 2010. “It’s so efficient and so under the radar.”
An exhibition match between Guatemala and host South Africa in May 2010 at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane was “manipulated for betting fraud purposes,” a 44-page FIFA report found.CreditAssociated Press
Referees for Sale
As players from South Africa and Guatemala gathered for their national anthems, Mr. Chaibou stood between the teams at midfield. He was flanked by two assistant referees who had also been selected by Football 4U International, the Singapore-based company that was the front for the match-rigging syndicate.
They were present because of a shrewd maneuver the fixers had begun weeks earlier to penetrate the highest levels of the South African soccer federation.
A man identifying himself as Mohammad entered the federation offices in Johannesburg carrying a letter dated April 29, 2010. The letter offered to provide referees for South Africa’s exhibition matches before the World Cup and pay for their travel expenses, lodging, meals and match fees, taking the burden off the financially troubled federation. “We are extremely keen to work closely with your good office,” the letter read.
It was signed by Mr. Perumal, the match fixer, who was also an executive with Football 4U.
Penalty kicks in an exhibition match between Guatemala and host South Africa in May 2010 awarded by the referee Ibrahim Chaibou aided South Africa’s 5-0 victory. According to FIFA’s report, Mr. Chaibou received as much as $100,000 to fix the match. Mr. Chaibou said he had never fixed a match.CreditGianluigi Guercia/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The offer sounded strange to Steve Goddard, the acting head of refereeing for the South African Football Association at the time. An amiable, heavyset Englishman who sometimes used a table leg for a walking stick, Mr. Goddard had had an eclectic career in and out of soccer. He sang in Welsh choirs and worked as a sound engineer for an album made at Abbey Road Studios. He knew that FIFA rules allowed only national soccer federations to appoint referees. Outside companies, like Football 4U, had no such authority.
Several days later, Mr. Goddard said, Mohammad returned and offered him a bribe of about $3,500, saying he was holding up the deal. Mr. Goddard said he declined the offer.
Nevertheless, other South African executives moved forward with Football 4U. At least two contracts were drafted, giving Football 4U permission to appoint referees for five of the country’s exhibition matches. The FIFA report called the contracts “so very rudimentary as to be commercially laughable.”
One contract, unsigned, bore the name of Anthony Santia Raj, identified by FIFA as an associate of the Singapore syndicate. The other contract was signed by Leslie Sedibe, then the chief executive of the South African soccer federation.
In an interview, Mr. Sedibe said that someone from Football 4U had lied to him about the company’s intentions, and that the FIFA report belonged “in a toilet.”
“It is the biggest load of rubbish,” he said.
Mr. Santia Raj could not be reached for comment.
Investigators found that South African soccer officials performed no background checks on “Mohammad” or Football 4U. The company was already infamous: It had attempted to fix a match in China about eight months earlier. Mohammad turned out to be Jason Jo Lourdes, another associate of the Singaporean match-fixing syndicate, according to the FIFA report. Mr. Lourdes could not be reached for comment.
The report said the South African soccer officials were “either easily duped or extremely foolish.”
But their behavior “inevitably leads to the conclusion” that several employees of the federation “were complicit in a criminal conspiracy to manipulate these matches,” the report said.
Fixers are attracted to soccer because of the action it generates on the vast and largely unregulated Asian betting markets. And if executed well, a fixed soccer match can be hard to detect. Players can deliberately miss shots; referees can eject players or award penalty kicks; team officials can outright tell players to lose a match.
Most fixed bets are placed on which team will win against the spread and on the total number of expected goals. Gamblers often place large bets in underground markets in Asia. By some estimates, the illegal betting market in Asia amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
The South African federation, troubled by financial difficulties and administrative dysfunction, was a ripe target. Once Football 4U had insinuated itself, the syndicate was able to switch referees at the last moment, and it had access to dressing areas and the sidelines.
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According to an email from Wilson Raj Perumal to Ace Kika, a South African federation official, the Singapore syndicate asked to provide referees for matches.
“The situation was ideal for the criminal organization using Football 4U to exploit these vulnerabilities and to offer money to SAFA staff, who were themselves suffering financial hardship,” the FIFA report said.
Mr. Perumal did not respond to requests for an interview. But he wrote a memoir, published in April, that captured his brazenness and provided details consistent with FIFA’s report. He wrote that his group offered $60,000 to $75,000 to Mr. Chaibou and his crew for each exhibition match they would fix.
“I can do the job,” Mr. Chaibou replied, according to Mr. Perumal’s memoir, “Kelong Kings.” (“Kelong” is Malay slang for match fixing.)
The memoir says Mr. Chaibou was paid $60,000 for manipulating the South Africa-Guatemala match.
The day of the match, Mr. Chaibou walked with Robert Sithole, a South African member of the officiating crew, to a Bidvest Bank in Polokwane, about three hours northeast of Johannesburg, Mr. Sithole said in the report.
Mr. Sithole told investigators that he watched as Mr. Chaibou deposited a “quite thick” wad of $100 bills, perhaps as much as $100,000, though Mr. Sithole could not be certain of the amount. Mr. Chaibou said he wired the money to his wife in Niger, according to the report.
A woman at the bank gave Mr. Chaibou a gift of coins bearing the likeness of Mandela, an apparent reward for “having deposited a huge amount of money on this account,” Mr. Sithole told FIFA investigators.
Hours later, Mr. Chaibou arrived at Peter Mokaba Stadium for the match. Another referee from Niger was scheduled to officiate.
Instead, Mr. Chaibou took the field.
Questionable Calls
That night, only seats in the lower bowl were full, but the crowd of about 25,000 was noisily expectant.
As the match began, FIFA’s Early Warning System, which monitors gambling on sanctioned matches, began to detect odd movements in betting. Gamblers kept increasing their expectations of how many goals would be scored, a possible sign of insider betting.
Before the match, the betting line had been 2.68 goals, an ordinary number, said Matthew Benham, a former financial trader who runs a legal gambling syndicate in England. By kickoff, the expected goals rose drastically, to 3.48, and then to more than 4 during the match, Mr. Benham said.
The questionable calls began early. In the 12th minute, South Africa scored on a penalty kick after a Guatemalan defender was called for a hand ball even though he was clearly outside the penalty area. At halftime, the two assistant referees from Tanzania “looked shivering, nervous,” Mr. Sithole said in the report. He was part of the officiating crew.
South Africa vs Guatemala (5-0) HighlightsVideo by Ecuatoriano122395
In the 50th minute, Guatemala was awarded a suspicious penalty kick for a hand ball, even though a South African defender stopped a shot in front of the goal with his chest, not his arm.
Mr. Goddard watched from the grandstands, where he noticed others seemed just as incredulous about the refereeing. A South African broadcaster kept looking in his direction in disbelief. A fellow South African soccer official repeatedly turned to Mr. Goddard with open arms, as if to say, “What about that?”
In the 56th minute, another debatable penalty kick was awarded to South Africa, which resulted in the team’s fourth goal in a 5-0 rout.
The FIFA report stated plainly that “we can conclude that this match was indeed manipulated for betting fraud purposes.”
‘We’re Going to Eliminate You’
South Africa had one more warm-up match, against Denmark on June 5, before it opened the World Cup. While expectations for the team soared, some officials in the South African soccer federation had grown concerned about the refereeing.
The night before the match with Denmark, several South African officials delivered a stern lecture to the appointed referees, who were from Tanzania and had been selected by Football 4U. Nothing inappropriate would be tolerated, they were told.
Ace Kika, one of three South African federation officials present, was vehement. He later complained to investigators that men connected to Football 4U had consistently tried to enter the referees’ dressing room at halftime of the exhibition matches.
The morning of the Denmark match, the scheduled chief referee withdrew, citing a stomach bug, although the report described him as “clearly alarmed.” A substitute referee was needed — fast.
Given the officiating in the Guatemala match, Mr. Goddard already had another referee on standby. “I was prepared for anything to happen that afternoon,” he said in an interview.
He persuaded Matthew Dyer, a respected South African referee, to officiate, even though it was unusual for a referee to work a match involving his home country.
But when Mr. Goddard arrived at the stadium, he found a familiar figure already there — Mr. Chaibou.
As the teams prepared to take the field, Mr. Dyer was hidden away in an unused room to perform his warm-up exercises. Mr. Chaibou received a massage and completed his own warm-ups, but that was as far as he got.
As Mr. Chaibou waited in a tunnel to lead the teams onto the field, Mr. Goddard said, he put his hand on Mr. Chaibou’s shoulder and told him: “I am kicking you out of the match. You are joining me in the grandstand.”
Another South African soccer official said he locked Mr. Chaibou in the referees’ dressing room while Mr. Dyer took the field instead.
Steve Goddard, the acting head of refereeing for the South African Football Association in 2010, said he had refused a bribe from Football 4U International, a front for a match-fixing syndicate, over the appointment of referees.CreditJoao Silva/The New York Times
South Africa won, 1-0. In Mr. Perumal’s memoir, he wrote that the fixers had wanted three goals in the match, and that $1 million “went up in smoke.” He also wrote that Mr. Goddard was “a big troublemaker.”
After the match, as Mr. Goddard drove away from the stadium, his cellphone rang. It was Mr. Perumal, who had once been convicted of assault for breaking the leg of a soccer player in an aborted match-fixing attempt.
“This time, you really have gone too far and, you know, we’re going to eliminate you,” he said, according to Mr. Goddard. Mr. Perumal later bragged about the episode, the report said. But in his memoir he said that he had threatened only to sue Mr. Goddard for breach of contract, not kill him.
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Goddard testified that Mr. Perumal threatened his life.
The South African officials made no written report of the threat and did not alert FIFA or the police at the time.
But Mr. Goddard said he took the threat so seriously that “to save my life,” his colleague, Mr. Kika, suggested that they allow the Singapore syndicate to pick the referee for the next day’s exhibition match between Nigeria and North Korea. Under duress, Mr. Goddard said, he agreed.
“That was basically to save my neck,” he said in an interview.
That night, at 8:26, Mr. Kika sent an email granting permission for Football 4U executives to appoint the referee. Mr. Kika declined a request for comment.
The referee in the Nigeria-North Korea match made several questionable calls. FIFA investigators could not confirm whether it was Mr. Chaibou, but they said the referee was definitely not the Portuguese official who had been assigned.
The referee took “a very harsh stance” in giving a red card for a seemingly lesser infraction, and he later took “a very liberal stance” in awarding a suspicious penalty kick, the report said. Nigeria won, 3-1.
If the Singapore syndicate was not shocked by the result, many bettors were. “We were absolutely trashed in that game,” said Mr. Benham, the professional gambler. “It made no sense at all in the betting market.”
As South Africa faced Denmark on June 5, the United States defeated Australia, 3-1, in another exhibition. According to an email from Mr. Perumal to Mr. Kika on May 24, the Singapore syndicate asked to provide referees for the match. In an interview, Mr. Goddard said that Football 4U proposed using three referees from Bosnia and Herzegovina who, according to the FIFA report, would later receive lifetime bans from soccer for their involvement in match fixing.
Mr. Goddard said he had warned American and Australian officials of Football 4U’s intentions. Ultimately, South African referees officiated the match.
United States soccer officials said they did not recall receiving any warnings about fixers or a change in referees. The FIFA report gives no indication that the game was manipulated.
“We’ve never heard anything about this before and have no reason to doubt the integrity of the match,” said Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation.
Even if it could not place referees in the United States match, Perumal wrote in his memoir that the Singapore syndicate walked away from the South African exhibitions “with a good four to five million dollars.”
Shrugging at the Evidence
Mr. Perumal remained in South Africa until June 30, 2010, deep into the World Cup, according to the FIFA report. Mr. Perumal wrote that he offered a referee $400,000 to manipulate a World Cup match, but that the referee declined because he thought Mr. Perumal had a “loose tongue.”
After the World Cup, a freelance journalist, Mark Gleason, reported suspicions among some African soccer officials that exhibition matches had been rigged. FIFA did nothing at the time.
In fact, FIFA did not investigate the suspicious games for nearly two years, until March 2012. By then, Mr. Chaibou had reached FIFA’s mandatory retirement age, 45. FIFA has said it investigates only active referees, so its investigation of Mr. Chaibou stopped. “It took a while to get around to it, longer than we would have liked,” Mr. Steans, the author of the report, said in an interview.
At the time, FIFA’s investigative staff amounted to five people responsible for examining dozens of international match-fixing cases, he said. The group has no subpoena power or law enforcement authority.
Investigators spent only three days in South Africa and never interviewed the referees or the teams involved, the report said. An unsuccessful attempt was made to interview Mr. Chaibou at the time, according to Mr. Steans.
FIFA officials in Zurich received the report in October 2012 and passed it to the soccer officials in South Africa; it had little meaningful effect there. A few South African officials were suspended but later reinstated. And no one was charged with a crime even though FIFA had found “compelling evidence” of fixed exhibitions and apparent collusion by some South African soccer officials.
“We never got to speak to the referees, which was sad,” said Mr. Steans, who operates his own sports security firm. “It would have tied up a lot of loose ends. I’m sure they would have given us some relevant information.”
Mr. Sedibe, then the chief executive of the South African soccer federation, shrugged off the report as a politically motivated witch hunt. “Why is it taking so long to get to the bottom of this?” he said. “Why not refer this matter to the police to investigate and bring closure to it?”
Three months after the suspicious South African matches, Mr. Perumal was linked to another daring scheme. In September 2010, he organized a match in Bahrain in which the opponent was a fake squad claiming to be the national team of Togo, in West Africa. The referee for that match? Mr. Chaibou.
The presence of Football 4U and Mr. Chaibou made soccer organizers uneasy. In 2011, a South African official, Adeel Carelse, said that after being misled by some in his national federation, he learned that Mr. Chaibou was about to referee an under-23 age-group match in Johannesburg. Mr. Carelse said he raced across the city with a car full of South African referees to replace Mr. Chaibou’s crew at the last minute.
Ibrahim Chaibou, second from left in Nigeria in 2011, the referee at the center of the South African case, was seen depositing a “quite thick” wad of $100 bills before a suspect exhibition match, according to FIFA.CreditSunday Alamba/Associated Press
Mr. Chaibou retired to Niger in 2011.
Mr. Perumal was arrested in Finland in 2011 and found guilty of corruption. He was given a two-year sentence, although he was released early. He was arrested again in Finland in late April for his continued role in match fixing.
Since the South African episode, Mr. Steans has left FIFA. He said the investigative staff in Zurich had a docket of about 90 match-fixing cases worldwide. along with other security duties. To seriously combat match fixing, Mr. Steans said, FIFA needs at least 10 investigators working full time on monitoring the manipulation of games, and two offices in each of its six international soccer confederations.
“You need the local intelligence and local knowledge on the ground,” Mr. Steans said. “You need to be talking to sources face to face to get live information that helps you counter match fixing before the fix happens.”
A FIFA spokeswoman said Friday that the Zurich staff now included six investigators and that FIFA worked with a broad network of law enforcement officials including Interpol. Delia Fischer, the spokeswoman, said that for the World Cup, 12 security officers would be assigned to each stadium, with the monitoring of potential match fixing among their duties.
In addition, Ms. Fischer said, a security staff of 18 will be on hand from FIFA headquarters in Zurich. Mr. Mutschke, FIFA’s security chief, said on the organization’s website that a primary concern about fixing is the third and final game of the group phase of the World Cup, when a particular team has been eliminated or has already qualified for the second round.
“Prevention is not something where you can see easy success stories the next day,” Mr. Mutschke said in the FIFA.com interview. “So we are investing in long-term solutions, and we certainly need the help of our member associations as well to be successful in the end.”
In late 2012, an elite anticorruption police unit, called the Hawks, said it was investigating potential corruption linked to the match-fixing scandal inside South Africa’s soccer federation, including a possible bribe of about $800,000. But in March, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa said he would not form a commission to examine charges of match fixing, leaving the matter to FIFA.
“I’m disappointed for South African football,” Mr. Steans said. “I’m disappointed for football in general because when these things happen to the game, they need to be investigated and the truth found. And two years, well, four years since this happened was way too long.”
Someone threw a banana at Dani Alves, who plays soccer for Barcelona, during a recent game.C reditAlejandro Garcia/European Pressphoto Agency
MADRID — Spain’s sports fans have given Europe a version of the Donald Sterling racism scandal roiling America.
While prejudice in sports is nothing new in Spain, a spate of racist and anti-Semitic abuses has set off a round of chagrin and soul-searching — and even a government clampdown — that has raised broad questions about why such behavior seems so hard to combat.
The latest example occurred this week when almost 18,000 people posted comments on Twitter with a profane and anti-Semitic hashtag after Real Madrid’s loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final of Europe’s main basketball tournament on Sunday.
The tide of comments prompted Jewish organizations to file a lawsuit in a Barcelona court on Tuesday that is expected to be handed to the office of Spain’s attorney general. On Wednesday, Maccabi Tel Aviv said that while it had dealt with a handful of disrespectful pro-Palestinian activists while playing in Spain in the past, “nothing like this has ever been experienced.”
The postings were condemned by the Anti-Defamation League, the New York-based advocacy group that last week released its first global survey on anti-Semitism, which showed that 29 percent of Spanish adults harbor prejudicial stereotypes about Jews. “The sheer number and intensity of anti-Semitic hatred unleashed via Twitter in Spain is alarming and outrageous,” Abraham H. Foxman, the organization’s national director, said Thursday.
The anti-Semitic outbursts came the same week the Barcelona soccer club dismissed an employee of its museum after she was caught on video making monkey gestures toward an African player during a game between Llagostera and Racing Santander on Sunday. Llagostera said the police would investigate the matter and banned the woman from its stadium. That episode followed one last month in which someone threw a banana at Dani Alves, a Brazilian member of the Barcelona soccer team, during a match against Villarreal.
Taken together, the outbursts lay bare an undercurrent of prejudice in Europe that has persisted through generations. Social media appears to have fueled the hostilities, while also serving to counter them.
Esteban Ibarra, the president of the Movement Against Intolerance, a Spanish advocacy group, said it had identified 1,500 websites, pages or blogs in Spain that promote racism or anti-Semitism, compared with 300 to 400 five years ago. He attributed the rise, in part, to the growing political success of extremists in countries like Hungary and Greece.
“The fact that Spain doesn’t have an extreme-right party with an institutional presence doesn’t mean that we don’t have extremists who have been encouraged and coordinate with others in Europe and make their presence most felt in sports,” Mr. Ibarra said. “What we’re seeing in cases like Maccabi and Dani Alves is that the groups of ultra sports fans are themselves infiltrated by neo-Nazis.”
After Mr. Alves responded to the taunt by eating the banana in front of Villareal fans, he inspired a wave of videos and messages from athletes and politicians who posed with peeled bananas or ate them in solidarity.
The anti-racism response inspired by Mr. Alves was widely repeated outside Spain, even in countries like Italy that have also witnessed significant racism in sports. Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, shared a banana in front of the cameras with Cesare Prandelli, the coach of Italy’s national soccer team.
Despite Mr. Renzi’s banana episode, however, the Italian police intervened on Wednesday at the training camp in Florence of the national team to stop racist chants against the striker Mario Balotelli. Mr. Balotelli was born to Ghanaian immigrants and was raised by an Italian foster family.
He has faced racist abuse in Italy, in England and during a 2012 match in the Portuguese city of Porto, for which the club there was fined 20,000 euros, more than $27,000.
In January this year, A. C. Milan abandoned a soccer match after one of its black players, Kevin-Prince Boateng, led a walkout because of racist abuses by opposing fans.
Xavier Torrens, a sociologist and professor of political science at the University of Barcelona, said anti-Semitism in Spain had been underestimated by sports officials, who see it as a collection of isolated, anecdotal episodes. By contrast, the National Basketball Association in the United States reacted firmly last month by imposing a lifetime ban on Mr. Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, for making racist comments.
“In Spain, club directors — whether in soccer or any other sport — are not black, Gypsy, Jewish or Arab,” Mr. Torrens said, “so they don’t belong to any group that could feel some empathy for minorities.” Racism or anti-Semitism, he added, is “never a problem in their daily life, so that explains why such officials don’t take adequate measures and are so far from what was done in the N.B.A.”
The old-boy network that dominates English sports also drew criticism this week when the chief executive of the Premier League, Richard Scudamore, escaped dismissal Monday despite having sent emails with sexual innuendos about women.
Pledges by governments and sports authorities to combat the problem appear to have done little, despite specific episodes resulting in fines or bans. FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, has promised zero tolerance toward racism at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which begins June 12, without detailing how it would penalize unacceptable behavior.
Steps against anti-Semitism have been even more tepid in Spain. “Anti-Semitism exists here,” Mr. Torrens, the sociologist, said, “but the problem is that Spanish society is much less aware of its anti-Semitism than in almost any other Western country.”
Even if such problems have become more prevalent in Spanish sports, he continued, it would be wrong to accuse Spanish society as a whole of racism and anti-Semitism. In the decade before 2008 and the bursting of Spain’s construction bubble, the country successfully integrated about five million migrants — more than 10 percent of its population. Even the subsequent economic crisis and the sharp increase in joblessness did not set off a wave of xenophobia.
But most surveys in Spain show that “21st-century prejudices are the same as those in medieval times,” said Mr. Torrens, adding that the prejudices were most often directed at Gypsies, Arabs and Jews. “That must say something about how little the authorities have done to respond to the problem,” he added.
After the recent basketball game that drew anti-Semitic comments on Twitter, the Spanish interior minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, warned that those who posted offensive messages could face arrest. The police must help “eradicate from the web all the comments that incite hatred and xenophobia,” he said.
Maria Royo, a spokeswoman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, said she could not recall an outburst of anti-Semitism like the one that came after Maccabi’s victory, but that the episode showed “the venom is here and comes out when you least expect it.”
The Israeli club’s general manager, Danny Federman, said in a statement, “It is very disappointing to see the rush of anti-Semitism following a well-fought competition.”
Several of the online comments included profanities about Jews, while others related to the Holocaust. One message, sent from the account of Guillermo de Alcázar, said, “Now I understand Hitler and his hatred for the Jews.”
In their court filing, the Jewish associations supplied a picture of Mr. de Alcázar and identified him among those who are suspected of violating a Spanish law that forbids the incitement of hatred. The associations said they had centered their inquiry on a profane hashtag that became a trending topic on Twitter after the basketball final and that was used by almost 18,000 people — most of them anonymous.
“Verona #2,” by Lyle Ashton Harris, 2001-2004. Courtesy of the Robert E. Holmes Collection
“Pieta,” by Generic Art Solutions, 2008. Courtesy of the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans
“Sir Bobby,” by Chris Beas, 2007. Courtesy of the Martha Otero Gallery
“Hondjie,” by Robin Rhode, 2001.
“VOLTA,” by Stephen Dean, 2002-2003. Courtesy of Baldwin Gallery, Aspen
“Samuel Eto’o,” by Kehinde WIley, 2010. Courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, Calif.
This Sunday might be the big game, but the Los Angeles County Museum of Art(LACMA) hasn’t forgotten about the other football — or soccer, as we refer to it in the United States. Opening the day of the Super Bowl, “Fútbol: The Beautiful Game” examines the sport through works of art ranging from video and photography to painting, sculpture and large-scale installation.
Timed in anticipation of this summer’s World Cup in Brazil, an event as beloved throughout the world as the Super Bowl is in America, the exhibition addresses issues of nationalism, identity, masculinity, hero worship and mass spectacle. “Zidane: A 21st-Century Portrait,” a room-size video installation by the artists Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon, is an intimate look at one of the greatest soccer players in history and celebrates the sheer beauty and elegance of the sport. Set to samba music, Stephen Dean’s video “Volta” directs its gaze at the audience, focusing on the pandemonium and organized ritual of the stadium crowds.
Not surprisingly, the curator, Franklin Sirmans, is passionate about the sport. “Growing up in New York in the ’70s, I was a big fan of the Cosmos,” he says. “I’ve played soccer since I was a kid and am always thinking about it. A show on soccer is a perfect platform to introduce complex ideas through a subject that is accessible to all viewers. I’m always looking for ways to introduce ideas of wider cultural significance like sport, spirituality and music into the museum.”
During the show, three of the video works in the exhibition will appear simultaneously on screens in the museum’s Stark Bar, where, beginning June 12, visitors will be able to kick back with a caipirinha and watch the World Cup.
“Fútbol: The Beautiful Game” is on view at LACMA through July 20, 2014; lacma.org.
The last time Brazil hosted the World Cup, in 1950, two hundred thousand people—a tenth of the population of Rio de Janeiro—streamed into the newly completed Maracanã Stadium to watch their beloved national team, the Seleção, compete for the title against Uruguay. A monumental concrete bowl, intended to rival the Christ statue atop Corcovado, the Maracanã resembled a spaceship and was meant to embody, as the British journalist Alex Bellos writes in “Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life,” not only Brazil’s athletic ambition but also “the country’s place in the modern world.” Its capacity was greater by several magnitudes than any other Brazilian stadium. Some ten thousand men had contributed to its construction, practicing goal celebrations while they worked. They’d even, somehow, finished ahead of schedule. (…)
“É a ditadura transitória da FIFA” diz presidente da Comissão de Direitos Humanos da OAB-SP, sobre PL que corre no Senado em paralelo à Lei Geral da Copa
Enquanto as atenções estão voltadas para o projeto de Lei Geral da Copa (2.330/11) que está sendo votado na Câmara nesta terça-feira (28), os senadores Marcelo Crivella (PRB-RJ), Ana Amélia (PP-RS) e Walter Pinheiro (PT-BA) correm com outro Projeto de Lei no Senado, conhecido pelos movimentos sociais como “AI-5 da Copa” por, dentre outras coisas, proibir greves durante o período dos jogos e incluir o “terrorismo” no rol de crimes com punições duras e penas altas para quem “provocar terror ou pânico generalizado”.
O PL 728/2011, apresentado no Senado em dezembro de 2011, ainda aguarda voto do relator Álvaro Dias (PSDB-PR) na Comissão de Educação, Cultura e Esporte do Senado. Se for aprovado, vai criar oito novos tipos penais que não constam do nosso Código Penal como “terrorismo”, “violação de sistema de informática” e “revenda ilegal de ingressos”, determinando penas específicas para eles. Essa lei – transitória – valeria apenas durante os jogos da FIFA.
Na justificativa da proposta, os senadores alegam que a Lei Geral da Copa deixa de fora a tipificação de uma série de delitos, necessária para “garantir a segurança durante os jogos”.
O projeto prevê ainda que quem “cometer crimes contra a integridade da delegação, árbitros, voluntários ou autoridades públicas esportivas com o fim de intimidar ou influenciar o resultado da partida de futebol poderá pegar entre dois e cinco anos de prisão”.
Para quem “violar, bloquear ou dificultar o acesso a páginas da internet, sistema de informática ou banco de dados utilizado pela organização dos eventos” a pena seria de um a quatro anos de prisão, além de multa. E para deixar a aplicação das penas ainda mais eficaz, o projeto prevê a instauração de um “incidente de celeridade processual” (art. 15), um regime de urgência em que a comunicação do delito poderia se dar por mensagem eletrônica ou ligação telefônica e funcionaria também nos finais de semana e feriados.
O presidente da Comissão de Direitos Humanos da OAB de São Paulo Martim Sampaio considera o projeto um “atentado contra o Estado Democrático de Direito”. “É um projeto de lei absurdo que quer sobrepor os interesses de mercado à soberania popular. Uma lei para proteger a FIFA e não os cidadãos e que, além de tudo, abre precedentes para injustiças por suas definições vagas”, diz o advogado.
Para Thiago Hoshino, assessor jurídico da organização de direitos humanos Terra de Direitos e integrante do Comitê Popular da Copa de Curitiba, a questão é ainda mais complicada. Ele acredita que a junção de tantos assuntos em um mesmo projeto é uma tentativa de aprovar leis antigas que endurecem principalmente a legislação penal: “É um bloco perigoso que viola garantias básicas da Constituição. E há sempre o risco de estas leis transitórias se tornarem permanentes. A legislação da Copa é, na verdade, um grande laboratório de inovações jurídicas. Depois o que for proveitoso pode permanecer. É mais fácil tornar uma lei transitória permanente do que criar e aprovar uma nova” explica.
Terrorismo
O que chama a atenção logo de cara no projeto de lei é a tipificação de “terrorismo”, que até hoje não existe no nosso código penal. No PL, ele é definido como “o ato de provocar terror ou pânico generalizado mediante ofensa à integridade física ou privação da liberdade de pessoa, por motivo ideológico, religioso, político ou de preconceito racial, étnico ou xenófobo” com pena de no mínimo 15 e no máximo 30 anos de reclusão. Martim Sampaio diz que este é o artigo mais perigoso por não dar definições exatas sobre o termo: “Da maneira como está na lei, qualquer manifestação, passeata, protesto, ato individual ou coletivo pode ser entendido como terrorismo. Isso é um cheque em branco na mão da FIFA e do Estado”.
Documentos revelados pelo WikiLeaks revelaram a pressão americana para que o Brasil criasse uma lei para o “terrorismo”, principalmente para assegurar os megaeventos. No relatório de Lisa Kubiske, conselheira da Embaixada americana em Brasília, enviado para os EUA em 24 de dezembro de 2010, a diplomata mostra-se preocupada com as declarações de Vera Alvarez, chefe da Coordenação-Geral de Intercâmbio e Cooperação Esportiva do Itamaraty porque a brasileira “admite que terroristas podem atacar o Brasil por conta das Olimpíadas, uma declaração pouco comum de um governo que acredita que não haja terrorismo no País”.
Os banqueiros também pressionam o Estado a criar uma lei antiterrorismo há algum tempo. Também em 2010, a falta de uma legislação específica sobre terrorismo foi o principal foco em um congresso sobre lavagem de dinheiro e financiamento de grupos extremistas organizado pela Federação Brasileira de Bancos (Febraban), em São Paulo. A questão poderia custar ao Brasil a exclusão do Grupo de Ação Financeira Internacional (Gafi), órgão multinacional que atua na prevenção desses crimes.
Greves
O projeto de lei também mira reduzir o direito à greve, prevendo a ampliação dos serviços essenciais à população durante a Copa – como a manutenção de portos e aeroportos, serviços de hotelaria e vigilância – e restringe a legalidade da greve de trabalhadores destes setores, incluindo os que trabalham nas obras da Copa, de três meses antes dos eventos até o fim dos jogos. Se aprovado, os sindicatos que decidirem fazer uma paralisação terão de avisar com 15 dias de antecedência e manter ao menos 70% dos trabalhadores em atividade. O governo ainda estará autorizado a contratar trabalhadores substitutos para manter o atendimento, o que é proibido pela lei 7.283/1989 em vigor no país, que estabelece 72 horas de antecedência para o aviso de greve e não determina um percentual mínimo de empregados em atividade durante as paralisações.
Eli Alves, presidente da Comissão de Direito Trabalhista da OAB-SP, lembra que o direito à greve também é garantido na Constituição Federal e diz que a sensação que fica é a de que “o Brasil está sendo alugado para a FIFA, flexibilizando suas próprias regras para fazer a Copa no país”. Martim Sampaio lembra que as greves foram proibidas durante a ditadura militar: “A gente conquistou este direito com o fim da ditadura, muitas vidas foram perdidas neste processo. Não é possível que agora criemos uma ditadura transitória da FIFA”. E convoca: “O único jeito de não deixar esta lei ser aprovada é por pressão popular. A gente tem bons exemplos de que isso funciona como a da lei da ficha limpa. É preciso conquistar a democracia todos os dias”.
Foto de abertura gentilmente cedida por Daniel Kfouri
Handhout picture released on December 13, 2013 by the Central Bank of Brazil showing a 10 Reals gold coin (4 US Dollars), reading “Copa do Mundo da FIFA – Brasil 2014” (FIFA World Cup – Brazil 2014) (Banco Central Do Brasil/AFP)
Brasília — Brazil’s Central Bank on Friday announced plans to issue a set of nine commemorative coins for the 2014 World Cup.
The set, to be released on January 24, will comprise one gold coin, two in silver and six in an alloy of copper and nickel.
The gold coin weighing 4.4. grams (0.155 ounce) will have a nominal value of 10 reais ($4.3) but will be sold for 1180 reais ($504).
It will represent the Cup trophy and a player scoring a goal. Some 5,000 will be minted, the bank said.
Those in silver will have a value of five reais ($2.2) and a weight of 27 grams.
One will represent Fuleco, the 2014 World Cup mascot, and the other the 12 host cities. They will be sold for 190 reais ($81) apiece and 20,000 of each will be sold.
The six cupronickel versions, each with a value of 2 reais ($0.86) and a weight of 10.17 grams, will cost 30 reais ($12.8).
They will represent a dribble, a header or a penalty kick and 20,000 copies of each will be minted.
A partir do mês de junho, quando acontecem os jogos da Copa das Confederações e Salvador abrigará algumas partidas, estão proibidas a realização de festas na cidade. A situação chegou ao conhecimento da Tribuna da Bahia por intermédio de dois moradores – um planejava realizar uma festa junina no bairro do Barbalho e o segundo em Periperi – as festas tiveram as licenças negadas pela Superintendência de Controle e Ordenamento do Uso do Solo, Sucom, por conta de uma ordem da Fifa.
A TB entrou em contato com a assessoria do órgão municipal que confirmou a suspensão de eventos na cidade no mês de junho. “A Prefeitura de Salvador irá publicar um decreto dando maiores detalhes, mas a orientação é não liberar eventos na cidade em junho”, alega.
A Tribuna entrou em contato com a Assessoria Geral de Comunicação, Agecom, e teve como informação que isso faz parte de um acordo firmado entre a Fifa, o governo federal e as cidades sedes dos jogos. “O governo brasileiro assinou o acordo com a entidade e tem que aceitar as regras. Foi assim nos Estados Unidos e na África do Sul. Nos circuitos oficiais como Avenida Paralela, Avenida Bonocô, Orla, Dique do Tororó, Vitória, Ribeira, dentre outros pontos da cidade terão que exibir toda a comunicação visual com os patrocinadores da Copa. A Sucom deverá apreender quem estiver desrespeitando as regras”, alerta a assessoria.
Celeuma – Não é a primeira vez que ocorre episódios emblemáticos envolvendo a Fifa. A entidade havia proibido a comercialização de acarajés no entorno do estádio. A regra da Fifa recomendava o afastamento desse tipo de comércio num perímetro de até dois quilômetros das praças de jogos.
A atitude foi tomada porque o acarajé não deveria ser concorrente aos hambúrgueres produzidos pela rede McDonald’s, patrocinadora oficial da Fifa. Aparentemente a entidade teria voltado atrás e liberado a comercialização do bolinho, que é tombado pelo Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, Iphan, como patrimônio imaterial.
Escritório da Copa se manifesta
A Tribuna da Bahia entrou em contato com o Escritório da Copa, Ecopa, que disse desconhecer a informação de restrição a eventos na cidade durante o mês de junho. “Cada evento é analisado individualmente pelos órgãos competentes e a sua aprovação leva em conta todas as condições necessárias, de acordo com a regulamentação vigente. Não há nenhum impedimento em relação à realização de eventos na cidade. Pelo contrario, tanto a Prefeitura, quanto o Governo de Estado estão elaborando uma ampla programação de eventos que oportunamente será divulgada, para que todo o cidadão soteropolitano possa ter lazer, cultura e entretenimento durante a realização dos jogos em nossa cidade”, informou a nota da assessoria da Ecopa.
Questionada se a Fifa teria “alugado” a cidade, a Ecopa se manifestou. “Salvador, bem como todas as cidades-sede, tem recebido investimentos em diversas áreas (infraestrutura, requalificação de espaços urbanos, mobilidade, segurança, capacitação de mão de obra, saúde, equipamentos públicos, cultura, turismo), o que tem dinamizado a sua economia, através da geração de emprego e renda para os mais variados setores, trazendo benefícios para toda a população. Tudo isso vem gerando oportunidades que impulsionam o desenvolvimento da cidade e elas estão acontecendo justamente por conta da realização dos jogos. Uma vez bem sucedidos, Salvador poderá se posicionar cada vez mais como uma cidade apta a receber novos eventos em inúmeras áreas”, sinaliza e acrescenta: “Salvador está cumprindo rigorosamente o que determina a Lei Geral da Copa (Lei Federal nº. 12.663/12), no sentido de garantir a realização de todas as atividades previstas com pleno êxito. Assim, estamos trabalhando intensamente para que a capital baiana se torne uma cidade cada vez melhor e seja ainda mais desfrutada por todos os soteropolitanos”.
Boys playing football in the Borel favela in Rio de Janeira, which will host seven World Cup games followed by the Olympics in 2016. Photograph: Buda Mendes/Getty
The World Cup and the Olympics are being used as a pretext for “social cleansing” as tens of thousands of Rio slum dwellers are driven out to the city periphery, favela residents say.
While millions of eyes turn to north-eastern Brazil for the World Cup draw on Friday, poor communities in Rio de Janeiro are still struggling to be heard as they fight against evictions they say are related to the city’s mega sporting events.
Next year, Rio will host seven games, including the final, followed in 2016 by the Olympics. The city’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, describes this as an opportunity for the city to modernise and create a legacy for future generations. But many of those on the frontline of change feel they are the victims of social cleansing.
At least 19,000 families have been moved to make way for roads, renovated stadiums, an athletes’ village, an ambitious redevelopment of the port area and other projects that have been launched or accelerated to prepare the city for the world’s two biggest sporting events.
“The authorities wouldn’t even enter our community in the past and there was no mention of moving us, but then Brazil won the right to host the World Cup and everything changed,” Maria do Socorro told a hearing in the city council building this week. Socorro’s home of 40 years in the Indiana favela has been marked for demolition.
Countless communities are affected. Among the best known are Vila Autódromo, which will be the site of the main Olympic stadium and athletes’ village; Providência, which is close to the port redevelopment and Indiana, which is about 10 minutes’ drive from the newly refurbished Maracanã stadium.
As was the case in Beijing, London and South Africa before their mega events, the government says such programmes are necessary to modernise the city. Numerous relocations have been carried out in the past as Rio has evolved, but politicians and campaigners say the forthcoming sporting events are driving the process forward at an unprecedented rate, and often in violation of the law. “The government is obliged to publicise preliminary studies, listen to the views of affected communities and offer alternative housing close to their old homes, but the Rio municipality has not complied with any of these laws,” said Renato Cinco, a council member for the leftwing PSOL party.
“People are being moved more than 40km [25 miles] from their homes with very little prior notice and no compensation.”
Civil society groups say the relocations are motivated by surging land values. As new infrastructure is put in place for the World Cup and Olympics, property prices rise in the surrounding areas.
The revamped Maracanã stadium, which is 10 minutes’ drive from the Indiana favela. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
“There is a process of gentrification taking place in the whole city that is connected to the sports events and how the government sees the city: it is no longer a place for residents, but as a business to sell to foreign investors. That’s what the World Cup is about,” said Renata Neder of Amnesty.
“There have been waves of evictions in the past, but this latest one that began after Rio was chosen to host the mega events may be the biggest one yet in terms of numbers.
“The authorities insist that due process has been followed and no residents have been forcibly relocated. The Rio 2016 chief operating officer, Leo Gryner, said the high-profile case of Vila Autódromo showed how far the government was willing to go to accommodate residents.
“In Vila Autódromo the mayor said he would move people to a new place and build nice housing projects for people to move to a new area. People started protesting, saying you couldn’t evict people because of the Olympics. So after some time, the city admitted they should not have forced them to go. They talked to each one of the people living in that area, roughly half said they wanted to move and the other half wanted to stay,” he said.
“Then when they started to see the project going up they realised it was very nice and so they came here to demonstrate and demand to be moved to the new housing! The city talked to everyone.” This is refuted by residents.
That is disputed by residents. And in less prominent cases, residents complain of being harassed by officials and engineers who tell them their homes are not safe. In some cases, this is true. Thousands have died over the years in the floods and landslides that affect many river and hillside favelas during the annual rainy season.
But a visit to the Indiana favela, which sits next to the river Maracanã, suggested the genuine threat to a handful of homes may be being used to justify the clearance of swaths of the community.
Several houses, including two wooden shacks, sat below the flood line and looked too poorly built to withstand a deluge. But the majority of homes marked for demolition – including several that had already been destroyed – were on seemingly firm concrete foundations several metres above the flood line.
“It is true that there are risks from the river, but only in certain places. The problem is that the government is arbitrarily trying to move everyone, even those who are not at risk,” said Ines Ferreira de Abril, a local health worker.”
Many people have already moved out under the relentless pressure from the government. They are going house by house and ultimately, they want to get rid of all of us because this land is very valuable now. They want us out of the way before the big events.”
• This article was amended on 6 December 2013 to clarify that Leo Gryner’s comments about Vila Autódromo are disputed by residents. This article was further amended on 11 December 2013 to correct Renato Cinco’s name, from Renata Silva as the original said.
Brazil’s Sao Paulo players react after losing their 2013 Copa Sudamericana semifinal first leg football match against Brazil’s Ponte Preta at Morumbi stadium on Nov. 20, 2013. Photographer: Nelson Almeida/AFP via Getty Images
By Raul Gallegos Nov 22, 2013 4:22 PM GMT-0200
To understand Brazil’s economic woes, one should consider how politics has ruined the country’s most venerated sport.
It’s no secret that the economics of the Brazilian soccer world are dysfunctional. For the most part, teams are poorly run, member-controlled organizations with histories of financial mismanagement, run by overpaid managers with little accountability. For years, soccer clubs stopped paying taxes and evaded social security obligations. And the government often rescued them from financial failure — as it may be about to do again.
According to an October piece in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Brazil’s soccer clubs have run up a 4.8 billion reais ($2.1 billion) tab with the federal government. Approximately 36 percent of the total debt owed by clubs is due in the short term, according to an Oct. 25 analysis by consulting firm Pluri Consultoria. Soccer teams are heavily leveraged, and their profitability (the average profitability of the top 25 teams is 0.7 percent of annual sales) is almost nonexistent. “It is possible to say, with no shadow of a doubt, that soccer clubs would not be standing” if they operated as companies, Pluri warned.
As Vilson Ribeiro de Andrade, president of the Coritiba Foot Ball Club — a debtor — said in the Folha article, the government’s bill is “virtually unrecoverable.” This is not flattering for a country that boasts five FIFA World Cup titles and is set to host the event next year.
And so, legislators are considering a controversial new proposal that would absolve the game’s worst tax cheats. The disarmingly named “Program for the Strengthening of Olympic Sports” law proposal would apparently wipe out about 90 percent of the clubs’ fiscal debts and allow teams as long as 20 years to pay off the remainder of what they owe. In exchange, soccer clubs would be obligated to help train Olympic athletes.
Letting clubs off so easily does not sit well with some. In an editorial Monday, Folha demanded that the teams should at least agree to adopt standard business-management practices and make officials accountable for mismanagement in exchange for debt forgiveness. “The debts are not responsible for causing the administrative negligence of the clubs — but the other way around,” the editorial said.
Henrique Alves, president of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, gave a rather weak excuse for the proposed bailout last week: “Soccer, especially, is a source of happiness, socialization and integration of the Brazilian family.” Alves’s transparent move to rescue the sector suggests that Brazil’s soccer teams have also mastered the game of politics.
In a soccer-obsessed nation, politicians fear losing voters if they push teams to own up to their fiscal mistakes. Squeezing clubs financially could hurt their ability to hire talent and weaken their performance. This could prove unpopular with Brazil’s poor, for whom soccer is not just entertainment, but also a means of upward social mobility for talented players from the slums. Teams understand this political reality and have long taken advantage of it.
This partly explains why having the state lend a hand to troubled teams is a Brazilian tradition. In 2008, Brazil’s government introduced Timemania (Team Mania), a lottery game that includes 80 teams and is meant to generate enough proceeds to help pay what clubs owe the government. In addition, Brazil has led three refinancing programs for financially strapped clubs over the past 15 years. The bill under consideration by legislators is the latest version of a recurring story.
Attempts to professionalize the sport have failed. Even legendary soccer star Pele went nowhere fast with the “Pele Law” he helped usher in when he became the country’s sports minister in the 1990s. The legislation was meant to push teams to become professional sports businesses and to regulate the relationship between players and employers. But interest groups managed to water down the law over time.
These days, even the richest teams have trouble with cash flow. When Rio de Janeiro’s Flamengo — Brazil’s fourth-largest club as ranked by 2012 revenue — struggled to pay soccer star Ronaldinho last year, the player’s agent and brother, Roberto de Assis Moreira, apparently attempted to take more than 40 items without paying, including shirts and hats, from the club’s store in protest. “Flamengo aren’t paying my brother, so I’m not paying, either,” he allegedly told the store’s staff.
Brazil’s soccer teams now feel empowered to make their own rules. The Confederacao Brasileira de Futebol, or CBF, a member organization controlled by soccer teams, suggested earlier this year that in exchange for longer repayment times, it would offer to penalize member teams that default on tax debt or delay wage payments to players. CBF suggested it could go so far as to bar noncompliant teams from games. That’s about as realistic as expecting a World Cup final to run smoothly without referees present.
Romario, the World Cup player turned lawmaker, took a shot at the absurdity of that proposal: “Do you really think that the CBF has the moral courage and the ability to make Vasco, Flamengo or Corinthians fall because they did not pay debts?” His answer: “That’s a lie. This won’t happen. This is a utopia and will not exist.”
An amendment to the Pele Law that President Dilma Rousseff signed in October, intended to increase sports teams’ financial transparency and limit the tenure of executives running sports institutions, is a good call. But rewarding clubs for their notorious incompetence is not. Brazilian politicians managed to botch the country’s economic resurgence by not getting out of the way. But on the soccer field, Brazil’s role as a strong referee is not just desirable, but also necessary.
(Raul Gallegos is the Latin American correspondent for the World View blog. Follow him on Twitter. E-mail him at rgallegos5@bloomberg.net.)
Through the collusive practice of bid rigging and excessive overpricing, construction companies extract huge financial gains for themselves at the expense of workers and the taxpayers of host countries. This means that the development goals that governments set themselves when hosting the World Cup are offset in part by massive transfers of wealth to private companies at the expense of job creation and income redistribution, thus stifling the economic multiplier that is intended. It is in this context that the nationwide discontent emerged in Brazil involving over one million people.
By early June this year, demonstrators across major cities in Brazil had expressed their legitimate anger against rising transport costs, the poor quality of health and education provision, and the soaring costs of hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It is important to note that this social discontent was preceded by a national wildcat strike wave that had occurred between February 2011 and April 2013. Of the 25 recorded strikes at World Cup stadiums, 17 were wildcat in nature involving some 30,000 workers. Despite these favorable circumstances, however, the national “day of action” organized by eight national trade union confederations, including CUT, on 11 July failed to articulate both worker and demonstrator grievances concerning the World Cup.
Lessons from South Africa
South Africa’s 2010 FIFA World Cup cost escalation was significant. Former South African Finance Minister Trevor Manual initially attributed the cost increases to the country’s vulnerability to the 2008-09 world economic crisis. The minister failed to observe that in October 2007 the Competition Commission of South Africa had set up a team to review the construction materials and services sector.
The initial cost estimate was calculated at R2.3 billion (US$286 million) and was to be paid by the South African government, largely to fund the stadia and related infrastructure. However, the 2010 estimated total cost (likely very much underestimated) for the South Africa government was already R39.3 billion (US$5.1 billion) — “an enormous 1,709% increase from the original estimate.” The stadium costs increased from the initial estimate of R1.5 billion (US$187 million) to the latest cost estimate of over R17.4 billion (US$2.5 billion), representing a 1,008% increase.
Five major construction companies in South Africa — Aveng, Murray & Roberts, Group Five, Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO), and Basil Read — were principal contractors in the building of the main stadiums for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and various related infrastructure projects, from which they have made substantial profits. In 2007 they were already all under investigation by the Competition Commission of South Africa for suspected collusion and uncompetitive practices with regard to these projects. Unfortunately, the commission did not investigate the actions of international companies.
On 17 July 2013, at the tribunal of the Competition Commission of South Africa it was conservatively estimated that some R4.7 billion (US$476 million) of “unfair profits” were made by construction companies for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and other projects. They were consequently fined a total of R1.5-billion (US$152 million). Construction companies that did not agree to the settlement now face possible prosecution.
The Brazilian Construction Sector
According to the Brazilian 2014 Portal, construction companies contracted for the World Cup and related infrastructure are Odebrecht, Andrade Gutierrez, Galvão Engenharia, OAS Empreendimentos, Mendes Júnior, Via Engineering, Andrade Mendonça, Construcap, Egesa, Hap, and Engevix. The two largest Brazilian construction companies involved in the World Cup are Andrade Gutierrez and Odebrecht.
As the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics draw closer, Brazil’s construction sector is set to move out of its unexpected slump demonstrated by its poor performance in achieving growth of 4.2% in 2011 and 2.2% in 2012. The poor performance is related to the fact that by May 2012 only 25% of the transport projects had completed the bidding process and that by the end of the same month 41% of works for the World Cup had not yet started. The construction sector is to complete the construction of 13 airports, 7 ports, 37 transport projects, and the building or refurbishment of 12 stadiums for the World Cup. The construction sector employs 2.5 million formal workers and an estimated 1.5 million informal workers. The delays contributed to the unemployment rate in Brazil, which increased to 5.6% in February 2013.
The construction sector appears to experience dramatic fluctuations in their annual net profits. Engevix, for example, had posted -85% in 2010 but posted a 256% increase in 2011. Companies such as OAS Empreendimentos which had an increase in net profit of 2,244% in 2010 had a 360% decrease in 2011. Andrade Gutierrez realized a net profit increase of 23% in 2010 and 28% in 2011 while Odebrecht reported a 148% increase in its net profit in 2010, the highest profit in its history.2 Andrade Gutierrez and Odebrecht are two companies that are responsible for 7 of the 12 World Cup stadiums.
Brazilian Stadium Cost Overruns
Brazilian and foreign construction companies such as the German architectural firm GMP are the main beneficiaries of the World Cup-related infrastructure outlay, which is currently calculated at US $18 billion, with 78% of the total spending coming from public funds. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Sports, the overall economic impact will exceed US$100 billion, creating 332,000 permanent jobs (2009-2014) and 381,000 temporary jobs in 2014.
The fact that by May 2012 about 41% of the works for the World Cup had not yet started led the Federal Government to change its procedures for approving projects with an “exceptionality status” created to increase the speed of the approval rate for FIFA World Cup 2014 infrastructure projects. Construction companies will opportunistically use this situation to their advantage to collude to fix the official bidding costs way above their value, resulting in enormous cost overruns which will have to be paid by the Brazilian government with public funds.
The most reliable source for the original cost estimate of each of the stadiums is contained in the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup Bid Book. Since Brazil’s Bid Book is not made public (as is the case with all bid books), it is not possible to review the original cost for each stadium. It is, however, reasonable to assume that since the Brazil Bid Book had been submitted to FIFA by 31 July 2007 and the FIFA Inspection Team conducted their inspection visit on 23 August 2007, the figure in the team’s report of US$1.1 billion for all the stadiums is reflective of the original Bid Book figures. The FIFA Inspection Report of 2007 thus grossly underestimated the cost for the Brazil World Cup stadia which increased 327% in 2013, reaching a whopping US$3.6 bn.
The cost escalations at Mané Garrincha Stadium (Brasília) and Maracanã Stadium (Rio de Janeiro) have more than doubled their prices since 2010, which now total R$2.9 billion or US$1.3 bn. The two stadiums alone therefore cost more than the original US$1.1 billion for the entire FIFA World Cup stadia estimate. At the current rate of cost escalations, it is probable that Brazil could own the most expensive FIFA World Cup in world cup history.
Towards a Construction Sector Cartel Investigation
The Brazilian Congress was to decide whether or not to probe the stadium cost overruns and allegations of corruption.
We believe that there are sufficient grounds for the Brazilian government to open a full investigation into the operations of a construction cartel: the Competition Committee Report of the OECD; the overwhelming evidence of South Africa’s Competition Commission Report, especially in relation to the 2010 FIFA World Cup; and the dramatic cost increases of Brazil’s stadium costs when compared to the 2007 FIFA Inspection Team Report.
Finally, it is necessary that the Brazilian government responds to the appeal by civil society for greater transparency and accountability in the affairs of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and make public the official Brazilian Bid Book.
1 This preliminary report of the Institute for Latin American Studies (IELA) concerns the operation of construction cartels involved in the FIFA World Cup. The full report can be downloaded at www.iela.ufsc.br.
2 At the time of writing this paper, most of the companies had not yet released their 2013 Annual Reports, which could provide a different outlook to what is being presented here as the financial position is likely to have improved as indicated earlier.
Tradicionalmente, presidente do país sede do torneio está na decisão e entrega a taça ao campeão
29 de junho de 2013 | 20h 17
JAMIL CHADE – Enviado especial – Agência Estado
RIO – A Fifa tomou como um gesto de desrespeito a decisão da presidente Dilma Rousseffde não ir à final deste domingo no Maracanã entre Brasil e Espanha. Tradicionalmente, presidente do país sede do torneio está na decisão e entrega a taça ao campeão. Neste sábado, parte da cúpula da Fifa que conversou com a reportagem não escondia surpresa diante da decisão da chefe-de-estado de não viajar ao Rio de Janeiro. Apesar da ausência de Dilma, a ala VIP do estádio do Maracanã estará lotada de políticos.
Dida Sampaio/Estadão. Dilma foi vaiada na abertura e quer evitar desgaste
Dilma foi vaiada no jogo de abertura, em Brasília, e decidiu que, diante dos protestos nas ruas e de sua queda de popularidade, não seria o momento de aparecer num estádio, mesmo que seja no evento-teste para a Copa do Mundo e uma espécie de cartão de visita do País.
Apesar das declarações de membros do Comitê Executivo da Fifa, a assessoria de imprensa insistiu em adotar posição diplomática e garante que seus cartolas não representam a posição oficial da entidade.
“A Fifa respeita totalmente a decisão da presidente Dilma Rousseff em relação à participação na final
no Maracanã, seja ela qual for”, disse a assessoria.
Entretanto, nos bastidores, parte dos funcionários da Fifa tentavam entender a decisão de Dilma de não estar no estádio. “Isso é bom ou ruim para ela?”, questionou um deles. Para outros mais próximos da presidência, a atitude é um “gesto de desrespeito”.
A relação entre governo e Fifa já não era das melhores. Mas um dos legados do torneio será um esfriamento ainda maior dos contatos. O governo ficou irritado com os comentários da Fifa sobre as manifestações e com as cobranças por mais segurança.
Se Dilma não estará no estádio, o Maracanã não sentirá falta de políticos. Além de governadores e do prefeito do Rio, Eduardo Paes, deputados, vereadores e senadores estão sendo aguardados na tribuna de honra.
Nas arquibancadas, a torcida já indicou nos meios sociais que irá usar a final para protestar. Nas ruas que dão acesso ao Maracanã, milhares de pessoas prometem protestar. O estádio estará blindado por mais de 6 mil policiais.
Para fontes na Fifa, a situação chega a ser irônica. Afinal, o governo brasileiro quer usar justamente os megaeventos esportivos para se promover no exterior e as autoridades não têm economizado recursos para o marketing baseado no torneio.
Até mesmo a Agência de Promoção das Exportações, ligada ao Ministério do Desenvolvimento, se transformou em associada da Fifa, pagando uma cota de patrocínio de R$ 20 milhões. Já o BNDES e diversos outros órgãos foram fundamentais em bancar estádios e infraestrutura para o evento.
Para outro experiente cartola, o que surpreende é o contraste em relação à participação de outros chefes-de-estado em torneios similares. Em 2009, o capitão da seleção brasileira na época, Lúcio, recebeu o troféu de campeão das mãos de Jacob Zuma, presidente sul-africano. Zuma ainda participou de todos os jogos em Johannesburgo, num esforço de mostrar o compromisso do governo com o torneio. Em 2005, na Alemanha, a cúpula do governo de Berlim também se fez presente.
Fontes próximas ao presidente Joseph Blatter insistem que o cartola suíça “entendeu” a decisão política de Dilma. Mas considerou que sua atitude mostra que o governo não está sempre disposto a bancar o evento e que cálculos políticos pesam mais que o torneio em si. “O que parece é que, quando as coisas vão bem, o Brasil quer usar a Copa para se promover. Mas quando não funciona ou há uma crise, todos querem se dissociar do futebol”, comentou um membro do Comitê Executivo da entidade, que pediu anonimato.
– Mas exportamos o futebol do Brasil para todo o mundo. Todos jogam como nós.
– Tudo bem… Mas por que não conseguimos ganhar?
– Precisamente por causa disso. Todo sucesso vira fracasso. Quem ganha perde…
Ouvi isso na barca indo para o Rio, eu que continuo insistindo em morar em Niterói. Ora, morar em Niterói é como não saber que o futebol sofre de um pecado original: o nosso time não pode perder. E, no entanto, se um time fosse eternamente ganhador os estádios ficariam vazios.
Num espaço de tempo que hoje engloba uns 100 anos, contabilizamos muitos jogos e, em consequência, muitas perdas e ganhos. As derrotas, contudo, são mais lembradas porque nossa memória retém – como dizia Freud – mais a ferida e o sofrimento (o trauma) do que o gozo, o encantamento e a beleza de céu estrelado das experiências transitórias (aliás, Freud tem um belíssimo ensaio sobre esse assunto). O belo passa e o feio fica? De modo algum. Mas o bom é amarrado com teias de aranha, ao passo que o ruim deixa cicatrizes. Pensamos a vida como uma escada quando, de fato, ela é uma bola que gira sem parar e corre mais do que nós.
Notei num ensaio presunçoso que, em inglês, existe uma diferença entre jogar e jogar. Entre “to gamble” e “to play”; entre ir a um cassino para apostar ou jogar tênis e tocar um piano. Num caso é necessário algum tipo de habilidade sem a qual não há música ou disputa, mas nos jogos de azar basta ter sorte. Mas além de “gamble” e “play” existe a palavra “match” para designar o encontro equilibrado entre dois adversários.
Veja o leitor. Na roleta não há um “match”, porque as chances são da banca. É um jogo com aficionados, mas sem “atletas”. Ninguém compete com uma roleta, mas contra ela. No mundo do esporte, porém, a disputa se transforma em competição. A igualdade inicial é um ponto central da dualidade constitutiva do esporte. Ora, a dualidade é o eixo sobre o qual gira a reciprocidade contida das fórmulas da caridade, das boas maneiras, da vingança e do dar-para-receber como viu Marcel Mauss. A palavra “partida” designa isso e antigamente era usada para se falar do futebol que retorna com a força das paixões recalcadas.
Para nós, brasileiros, o verbo jogar engloba tanto o jogo de azar (como o famoso e até hoje milagrosamente ilegal “jogo do bicho” e as loterias bancadas pelo governo) quanto o encontro esportivo regrado e igualitário, essa disputa agônica constitutivamente ligada à probabilidade de vencer ou perder.
Mas se uma mesma palavra – jogo – junta o jogo de azar e a disputa esportiva – nem por isso lembramos que o futebol é imprevisível. Nossa leitura canônica do futebol é sempre a de uma luta na qual o time do nosso coração vai ganhar, daí as desilusões das derrotas. Podemos perder, sem dúvida, mas resistimos freudianamente a pensar nessa possibilidade. Temos perdido muito, sem dúvida, mas recusamos perpetrar a única coisa acertada diante da derrota: aceitá-la.
Surge, então, o problema cósmico do futebol no Brasil. Como admitir que perder e ganhar fazem parte da própria estrutura desse jogo, se nós – em princípio – não lemos na palavra jogo a possibilidade de derrota? A agonia e o prazer do futebol estão ligados precisamente a essa possibilidade, mas isso é afastado do nosso consciente. Quando vamos ao jogo, vamos à vitória e há motivos para isso. Um deles eu mencionei na semana passada: o futebol foi o primeiro elemento extraordinariamente positivo de uma autovisão que era permanentemente negativa. Como imaginar que um povo convencido de sua inferioridade natural como atrasado, porque era mestiço, pudesse disputar (e vencer) os brancos “adiantados” e “puros”, que inventaram a civilização e o futebol?
Quando começamos a dominar o futebol dele, fazendo um fato social total: algo com elementos econômicos, religiosos, culturais, morais, políticos, filosóficos e cósmicos – uma grande tela que projetava tudo -, descobrimos que o que vinha de fora podia ser canibalizado e tornar-se nosso. Era possível inverter a lógica colonial. A digestão do outro pela sua incorporação ou englobamento sociopolítico no nosso meio é o pano de fundo do roubo do fogo dos deuses pelos homens.
No entanto, é preciso uma nota cautelar. Roubamos o futebol, mas não a vitória perpétua. Confundir a atividade futebolista com o sucesso permanente é infantil. Na política, isso surge com o vencer a qualquer custo ou, como diz um professor de poder no poder, o Sr. Gilberto Carvalho, “o bicho vai pegar…”. Ou seja: temos que vencer com ou sem jogo o que, lamentavelmente, mas graças a Deus, é bem diferente do futebol. Escrevi essas péssimas linhas antes da vitória de 3 a 0 contra a França! Somos, de agora em diante, somente vencedores? Um lado meu espera que sim…
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O futebol como filosofia
05 de junho de 2013
ROBERTO DAMATTA – O Estado de S.Paulo
O jogo é um modelo da vida. Ele exige temporadas, palcos, equipamentos (mesas, baralhos, dados, roletas, bolas, uniformes, redes, tacos) e regras de modo a garantir uma atenção apaixonada. E como tem início, meio e fim o jogo reduz a indiferença da vida. Com isso, faz com que meros passantes possam posar de campeões. O domingo pode não ter mesa farta, mas tem o jogo do Brasil com sua pompa e seus resplendores de esperança. Os jogos são uma das passagens secretas que permitem escapar de nós mesmos.
Dentre os esportes modernos, o futebol praticado no Brasil é certamente o mais denso. Simoni Lahud Guedes, uma estudiosa pioneira do futebol sugere que ele seria uma tela sobre a qual projetamos nossas indagações. Nascido na Inglaterra industrial dos 1860, o futebol ganhou regras fixas e, desde então, tem sido o sujeito predileto de intensas projeções simbólicas em todo o planeta.
No Brasil, ele acordou reações. Embora tivesse a chancela colonial de tudo o que vinha de fora e da poderosa Inglaterra, era uma atividade desconhecida. Um “esporte” (uma disputa governada por normas e pela necessidade imperiosa de saber vencer e perder), algo inusitado num Brasil que conhecia duelos e brigas que sempre acabavam mal.
Ademais, exercícios físicos e banhos frios não faziam parte da prática nacional. Entre nós, a barriguinha sempre foi prova de riqueza e da imobilidade física – expressiva do ideal de imobilidade social. Como receber essa inovação marcada pela disputa física veloz e igualitária, na qual perder e ganhar são – como na democracia – parte de sua estrutura? Onde encontrar um lugar para um jogo livre das restrições aristocráticas do nome de família, da cor da pele, e da “aparência”. Esse marco com o qual convivemos até hoje no Brasil?
O futebol sofreu muitos ataques em nome de um nacionalismo que se pensava frágil como porcelana. E, no entanto, como estamos vendo nessas vésperas de Copas, canibalizamos e digerimos o “foot-ball”, roubando-o dos ingleses. Hoje, há um estilo brasileiro de jogar e produzir esse esporte. De quinta coluna capaz de desvirtuar, ao lado da música e do cinema americanos, o estilo de vida e a língua pátria, o futebol acabou servindo como um instrumento básico de reflexão sobre o Brasil, conforme eu mesmo assinalei no livro Universo do Futebol, no qual, em 1982, agrupei um conjunto de ensaios socioantropológicos de colegas sobre esse esporte. Em 2006, no livro A Bola Corre Mais Que os Homens, reuni trabalhos nos quais apresentava uma saída para o dilema do esporte como alienação ou consciência do mundo insistindo como, no Brasil, o sucesso futebolístico foi o nosso primeiro instrumento de autoestima diante dos países “adiantados” e inatingíveis. O futebol foi o alento de um Brasil que se concebia como doente pela mistura de raças e que, até hoje, tem problemas em conviver consigo mesmo. Ele é a garantia do recomeço honrado na derrota e do gozo sem arrogância e corrupção na vitória.
Como prova do imprevisível destino das coisa sociais, o futebol não veio confirmar a dominação colonial. Pelo contrário, ele nos fez colonizadores e, mais que isso, filósofos por meio de toda uma literatura que a partir de Nelson Rodrigues, Jacinto de Thormes (Maneco Muller), José Lins do Rego e Armando Nogueira, entre outros, nos permitiu articular uma leitura positiva do mundo.
Literatura? Não seria um exagero? Digo que não e vou mais longe para acrescentar: o futebol criou entre nós uma filosofia, uma antropologia e uma teologia. O seu maior papel foi, como eu disse algumas vezes, o de ensinar democracia. Foi o de revelar com todas as letras que não se ganha sempre e que o mundo é instável como uma bola. Perder e vencer, ensina o futebol, fazem parte de uma mesma moeda.
Nelson Rodrigues fala de jogos bíblicos, do mesmo modo que nos abre a uma metafísica quando associa jogos e craques a destinos fechados ou ao afirmar que já no começo do mundo aquele gol seria perdido. Sua condenação da “objetividade burra” é uma crítica aguda de um senso comum hierarquizado e aristocrático que tenta tornar a própria vida algo oficial, possuída pelo Estado. Por outro lado, sua antropologia inaugura uma neoaristocracia nativa insonhável de negros e mestiços que deixam de ser híbridos enfermiços e passam – tal como ocorreu no jazz de uns Estados Unidos segregados – a príncipes, duques, condes e reis, apesar de nossos desejos inconfessáveis de fracasso. A sub-raça envenenada dos que queriam curar o Brasil se tornou a metarraça que, driblando os nossos subsociólogos – esses cartolas acadêmicos -, nos brindou com cinco Copas do Mundo. “A pátria em chuteiras” abria um novo espaço para esse futebol não branco, permitindo a países como o Brasil, uma redefinição inclusive muito mais abrangente e sem preconceitos de suas identidades nacionais.
(Bebeto Matthews/ Associated Press ) – Aldo Rebelo, Brazil’s minister of sport, speaks during an interview Tuesday, June 4, 2013, in New York. Rebelo complained to FIFA about high prices contemplated for next year’s World Cup, and said soccer’s governing body will give 50,000 free tickets to poor communities and make half-price seats available to the elderly and students.
By Associated Press, Published: June 4
NEW YORK — Brazil’s Minister of Sport complained to FIFA about high prices contemplated for next year’s World Cup, and said soccer’s governing body will give 50,000 free tickets to poor communities and make half-price seats available to the elderly and students.
FIFA said last week it will announce prices on July 1 for the 2014 tournament and ticket sales will start Aug. 20. For the 2010 World Cup, prices were announced in November 2007 and sales started in February 2009.
Non-premium prices for the 2010 tournament in South Africa ranged from $70-$450 for the opener and $20-$160 for other first-round matches, and escalated to $150-$900 for the final.
During an interview Thursday at The Associated Press, Aldo Rebelo said prices for the tournament in Brazil, to be played from June 12-July 14, became an issue.
“I spoke with FIFA representatives, stating that this was unacceptable, that the prices were so high,” he said through a translator. “This is really a celebration of the people of Brazil. Soccer is very important for the whole population in Brazil. So I mentioned to FIFA representatives, how about that part of the population that cannot afford those expensive tickets?”
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook estimates Brazil’s per capita income at $12,000 last July 1, ranked 106th among nations. Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host, is first at $102,800 and the United States is 15th at $49,800.
“FIFA has donated 50,000 tickets to these poor communities and Indigenous communities,” Rebelo said. “And also we have 50 percent discount for the elderly population and for students.”
For the Confederations Cup, an eight-nation warm-up tournament this month, FIFA is making available half-price tickets to Brazilian residents who are either students, 60 or older by June 30 or in the Bolsa Família government assistance program.
Brazil is spending an estimated $3.5 billion on stadium construction and renovation for the World Cup, and Rio de Janeiro also is getting ready to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Among the construction projects are new highways, avenues and mass transit.
“The infrastructure investments are really geared toward all communities. The investments were already planned for before or regardless of the World Cup and the Olympics,” Rebelo said. “The whole population will benefit from these improvements in infrastructure.”
Estadio Olímpico Joao Havelange, built in Rio for the 2007 Pan American Games, will host track and field during the 2016 Olympics. City councilmen introduced legislation last month to change the stadium name to Joao Saldanha, Brazil’s coach during qualifying for the 1970 World Cup, after a FIFA ethics report concluded Havelange accepted bribes in a World Cup kickback scandal in the 1990s. Havelange resigned as an IOC member in 2011 and quit this year as FIFA’s honorary president.
“Havelange was a name that was very important and very well received not only within soccer but within the sports industry as a whole,” Rebelo said. “After investigations, he no longer occupies any positions within FIFA or within the International Olympic Committee. However, the mistakes committed by Joao Havelange do not really delete any of the benefits that he brought either to FIFA or to the International Olympic Committee.”
Rebelo said the stadium construction for the World Cup — six venues will be new and the other six renovated — can’t be compared with the venues erected for World Cups in South Korea in 2002 or in South Africa, many of which are underutilized.
“In the ‘70s, Brazil built a lot of big stadiums and these stadiums were geared only toward soccer, nothing else. But these stadiums nowadays are completely different,” he said, predicting they will be used for “conferences, musical shows, restaurants, also trade shows.”
“This,” he said, “will allow the possibility for these stadiums to have some income, because these spaces will be rented for a high rate.”
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Autor de estudo sobre torcidas organizadas, Renzo comentou tentativa infundada dos dirigentes do futebol brasileiro em erradicar as torcidas organizadas
Por Amanda Duarte, Gabriel Mansour e Pedro Muxfeldt | Yahoo! Esporte Interativo – ter, 28 de mai de 2013 02:22 BRT
Autor de diversas pesquisas sobre o fenômeno das torcidas organizadas no Brasil e na Argentina, o antropólogo Renzo Taddei falou com exclusividade ao Yahoo! Esporte Interativo sobre a proposta de elitização do público do Maracanã contida no estudo de viabilidade econômica realizado pela IMX Venues.
Professor da Escola de Comunicação da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Renzo também falou sobre a proposta de transformação do estádio em centro de entretenimento e, estudioso do assunto, enxergou conexão entre a política de aumento do valor dos ingressos com a tentativa de exclusão das organizadas dos estádios de futebol, algo que, para o acadêmico, não acontecerá da maneira prevista devido às ligações próximas entre as diretorias de clubes e suas torcidas e uma falha na visão que os comandantes do futebol e a mídia têm dos grupos de torcedores organizados. Confira a entrevista na íntegra:
Yahoo! Esporte Interativo: O estudo de viabilidade econômica do complexo do Maracanã prevê, textualmente, a “mudança do perfil do público e consequente aumento do valor médio dos ingressos”. Qual sua visão sobre esse processo de elitização do público dos estádios que já vem ocorrendo?
Renzo Taddei: Não está claro ao que exatamente o estudo se refere: se ao aumento da renda das classes populares, o que significa que o público se mantém o mesmo, ainda que seu “perfil” de consumo mude, ou à substituição das classes populares por classes médias e ricas, via encarecimento dos ingressos. Essas alternativas não são excludentes; em termos financeiros, podem até levar aos mesmos resultados. Em termos sociais e políticos, no entanto, são coisas muito diferentes.
Existe uma distinção importante a ser feita: uma coisa é um investimento privado ser economicamente viável, outra é uma política pública ser democrática e eficaz. Infelizmente o governo do Rio de Janeiro parece confundir as coisas: permitir que a iniciativa privada elabore políticas públicas é mais do que um erro político, é um tiro no próprio pé. No Brasil, como em diversos lugares do mundo, o futebol é muito mais do que um negócio, tem um papel importante na vida de muitas coletividades; o que o governo tem dificuldade de enxergar é que reduzir o futebol a um mero bom negócio pode ter consequências sociais funestas.
O futebol poderia ser um instrumento poderosíssimo na construção de uma sociedade melhor, dada a penetração que tem em diversos públicos e setores da sociedade. Para isso, deveria ser usado em conjunção com políticas públicas sérias e inteligentes. Se os gestores públicos soubessem usar o futebol com inteligência, seria possível até argumentar que ele deveria ser subsidiado. Mas, infelizmente, já há muitas décadas o futebol é controlado por interesses financeiros pouco comprometidos com objetivos e metas sociais maiores; a forma como o dinheiro que vem da transmissão televisiva define os rumos do esporte mostra como este é refém do mercado.
Ao usar critérios mercadológicos para julgar o valor de uma boa ideia, o governo permite que o apartheid social brasileiro se estenda às políticas sociais nas áreas de lazer e cultura.
Y!EI: Em outros pontos do estudo, fala-se na necessidade de transformar o complexo esportivo do Maracanã em “centro de entretenimento”. Que efeitos sociais a transformação de um símbolo cultural do Rio de Janeiro como o Maracanã em abrigo de shoppings e hotéis, como está previsto no estudo, podem causar?
RT: Colocando de forma direta, trata-se da transformação do mais importante espaço de comunhão que temos no Brasil em mais um espaço de segregação. A atratividade financeira do projeto faz com que nossos governantes se façam cegos ao papel simbólico do futebol, através do qual se dá um bocado da vida social das pessoas desse país, em todas as suas regiões e de todas as classes sociais. O futebol une gente que em outras ocasiões encontra-se separada em credos e partidos políticos distintos – credos e partidos que, via de regra, não funcionam com base em regras claras e conhecidas por todos, e num contexto em que os jogos sempre começam do zero a zero e o fair play é valorizado.
Ainda que não intencionalmente – ou, quem sabe, intencionalmente -, shoppings centers e hotéis são espaços de segregação, onde descamisados e gente de chinelo não entra. Aqui estou falando das dimensões simbólicas do futebol; vai da solução arquitetônica mesclar isso tudo e ver até onde o espírito do futebol vai ser descaracterizado.
De qualquer forma, para que um hotel exista num estádio haverá que se instalar barreiras e restrições à mobilidade das massas que hoje não existem. Não vejo como o resultado possa ser bom, em qualquer dimensão que não seja estritamente financeira, e apenas para quem vai investir no projeto. Em minha opinião, essa é apenas mais uma etapa do processo, apoiado pela Fifa, pela CBF e pelas federações estaduais, que transforma o futebol em refém do capital financeiro. Só não vê que parte do comportamento das torcidas é uma reação negativa a isso tudo quem não quer – e há um bocado de gente em postos importantes que efetivamente não tem qualquer interesse em enxergar isso.
Basta seguir os perfis das torcidas em redes sociais e ver a forma como elas se manifestam contra o que chamam de “futebol moderno”, que é nada mais do que o futebol refém do capital financeiro – das verbas de patrocínio que definem regras e formas de funcionamento do esporte, dos contratos que induzem os jogadores a estabelecerem relações muito superficiais com os times em que atuam, dentre muitas outras coisas.
Y!EI: Já nos dias de hoje, jogos às vezes de pouco apelo dos campeonatos estaduais, por exemplo o Carioca, têm ingressos com preços que chegam a R$ 80. Neste cenário, são nas torcidas organizadas onde mais se concentram integrantes das classes mais pobres da sociedade. O processo de “demonização” das organizadas pode ser entendido como um outro passo para a retirada da população pobre – especialmente jovem e negra – dos estádios?
RT: Sem dúvida. Mas isso só se dá porque há uma compreensão muito ruim, por parte do poder público e da mídia, de como funcionam as torcidas organizadas. Elas nunca deixarão de estar nos estádios, porque na maioria das vezes suas lideranças não pagam os ingressos. Há uma relação entre os clubes e as torcidas que não está considerada nessa abordagem econômica, porque esse é uma questão da política interna do futebol.
Os próprios dirigentes facilitam a entrada das organizadas, porque elas são parte fundamental do fenômeno e do espetáculo que é o futebol, e os jogadores e dirigentes reconhecem isso. É mais fácil ver isso quando se joga de visitante: muitas vezes quem vai ao jogo é apenas a torcida organizada, que viajou mil, dois mil quilômetros, em veículos mal conservados e lentos, apenas para assistir o jogo e voltar para casa.
Num estádio hostil, uma torcida atuante, que canta e demonstra apoio ao time pode afetar positivamente o estado psicológico dos jogadores do seu time – não há jogador ou técnico que não reconheça isso.
Por outro lado, é equivocado achar que os torcedores mais pobres estão nas torcidas organizadas. Algumas torcidas têm um faturamento alto, de atividades legais. O que se está confundindo aqui é a forma como as elites pensam o mundo, com seus maniqueísmos e preconceitos, e a forma como o mundo do futebol efetivamente existe; as duas coisas não são equivalentes, obviamente. O futebol não se resume à divisão de classes sociais, exatamente porque em grande parte do tempo funciona como elemento de comunhão social, e não de divisão. Transformar o futebol de acordo com a visão que as elites têm da divisão de classes sociais é assassinar o espírito do esporte, o que pra mim deveria ser crime inafiançável.
RIO DE JANEIRO — It’s an image as Brazilian as Carnival or Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue.
Drummers pound out a Samba rhythm. Swaying to the beat, fans sing and saunter up and down the aisles waving flags the size of bedsheets, seeming oblivious to the match below.
Little by little this picturesque mayhem in Brazilian soccer stadiums is disappearing, and ticket prices are soaring despite the toned-down version being sold.
The “Beautiful Game” has become the “Pricey Game.”
This year’s Confederations Cup and next year’s World Cup, the first in this South American country in 64 years, are speeding the changes. The national game is getting a different look with the use of numbered seating, a transformation that’s been going on for several years.
This might seem like a small thing, but it’s big in Brazil.
For decades, Brazilians simply raced into the stadiums and grabbed the best spots — some sitting, others standing in a crush amid thousands of others. At the Confederations Cup and World Cup, the seats will be assigned, and they won’t come cheaply. As an example, the least expensive seats for Sunday’s exhibition game between Brazil and England — the first major test event at Rio de Janeiro’s renovated Maracana Stadium — will be 90 reals ($45).
That’s 30 times more than the cheapest seat eight years ago at the historic stadium.
The Brazil-England match comes only days before the opening of the Confederations Cup, the eight-team warmup for the World Cup that starts on June 15. Maracana is the venue for the title game June 30 — and the World Cup final.
“The giant price change means there is a shift concerning the kind of people that are going to the new stadiums,” said Erick Omena de Melo, a native of Rio de Janeiro who is working on a doctorate in city planning at Oxford University in England. “It was previously a much more diverse place in the stadiums. But as the economy in Brazil changes, they are converting these stadiums to a much more middle-class, upper-middle class or even upper-class place that is much less for the lower-middle class and poor.”
Traditional general admission is being eliminated with luxury boxes and modern seating taking over at the six stadiums being used for the Confederations Cup, and the additional six that are to be ready for the World Cup. This change has already filtered down to the country’s heavily indebted club teams and is sure to take some of the spontaneity out of what Brazilians call “futebol” (pronounced foo-chee-BOHL).
Brazilian fans used to play a major role in the drama. These days they’re staying away. Average attendance for matches in Major League Soccer in the United States is higher than attendance for first-division matches in Brazil, which likes to call itself the “Home of Football.”
“What’s being done so far is transferring a European model to Brazil,” said Omena de Melo, who is working on a book about the social history of Maracana. “But Brazil is really different. It’s a totally different atmosphere at a football game. The changes are seen by many as a huge aggression against the traditional fans, the traditional crowds at football matches.”
Officials counter that ticket prices in Brazil are still below European levels, and that new and refurbished stadiums will improve safety that is needed in a country where soccer-related crime and violence is common. In addition, Brazil would never have been awarded the World Cup — and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro — without a pledge to upgrade crumbling stadiums and tighten security.
The South American country is spending an estimated $3.5 billion on new stadiums and refurbishments, though most of the project has run behind schedule. The need to work 24-7 to finish the venues will run up the costs by millions more. FIFA has complained openly about the delays, acknowledging the Confederations Cup will be a maze of unfinished work.
FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke has admitted that “not all operational arrangements will be 100 percent,” then warned “this will be impossible to repeat for the FIFA World Cup.”
The new national stadium in Brasilia opened at a cost of more than $590 million, the most expensive of the 12 World Cup venues. But it has no local team to call it home, and many say it’s a “white elephant.”
It will host the opening of the Confederations Cup on June 15 with Brazil facing Japan.
Another stadium is going up in Manaus in the northern state of Amazonas — again with no local team. It’s the same in the southwestern city of Cuiaba, also without a team in Brazil’s top league.
Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo — a Brazilian Communist Party member — defends the stadiums as “centers for sports and nonsports events,” and suggested they would be good places for businesses to hold conventions, shows and fairs.
Omena de Melo countered that the “gentrification” eliminates the diversity.
“Football in Brazil has been a kind of antenna that captures all the different values in Brazilian culture and correlates them into one,” Omena de Melo said. “This sort of informality has existed for a century in these stadiums.”
He used the example of Maracana to show how prices have soared.
The stadium has been closed twice for refurbishment since in the last decade. When it was closed in 2005 to be redone for the 2007 Pan American Games, Omena de Melo’s research showed the cheapest ticket was about $1.50.
In 2010, when it was closed again to be refurbished for next year’s World Cup, the cheapest ticket was about $20.
The Maracana was opened again a few weeks ago. Its capacity has been reduced to just under 79,000 — it held more than 170,000 for the final match of the 1950 World Cup — and plans call for it to be eventually shared by Brazilian clubs Flamengo and Fluminense.
In a country where the official minimum monthly salary is $339, the cheapest ticket for the Brazil-England match will be about $45 — 30 times the price of the cheapest ticket only eight years ago and out of reach for most Cariocas, the term for residents of Rio.
Rio de Janeiro sports journalist Telmo Zanini defended the rising prices and said adjusting to the seating changes will be easy in Rio and Sao Paulo in the prosperous southeast, but more difficult in provincial cities.
He cited a recent case in the city of Belo Horizonte “where people took seats and didn’t want to give them up when the ticketholders arrived. So police or stewards had to be called in.”
He said ticket prices had been rising for a long time, and declined to blame the World Cup. Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are two of the world’s most expensive cities. A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of tomatoes recently sold for $6.50 at some Rio de Janeiro supermarkets, where a standard can of shaving cream costs $12. Shaving gel goes for $15.
“Poor people also can’t buy tickets in England or the United States,” Zanini said. “It’s a question of the market. You don’t see poor people buying tickets for Los Angeles Lakers games. The World Cup is not the only reason. Ticket prices have been going up for a long time. But with the World Cup stadiums we will have better quality stadiums. Some people have not gone to games previously because they did not feel safe.”
Marcello Campos, a 29-year-old fan of Rio club Flamengo who goes to at least one match a week, called the changes “a little difficult.”
“It’s going to be a challenge for the people who are used to the low prices; people who don’t have money to buy a ticket for 80 reals ($40) or 100 reals ($50). It’s expensive now.”
He said getting people to stay in numbered seats would be even tougher.
“It’s impossible for me to watch a football game sitting,” Campos said. “I’m too nervous to be sitting. I’ll need to fix that in my mind, to concentrate on sitting.”
He said the changes would be beneficial, imposing organization on chaos.
“We need to change the culture. It kind of gives everyone equal rights, not just those who show up first.”
Benefiting from many of the changes is a multinational consortium that won a contract in May from the state of Rio de Janeiro to run Maracana for 35 years. The consortium is made up of Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht, Los Angeles-based Sports and entertainment company AEG, and the sport and entertainment company IMX, which is owned by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista.
Critics say the deal gives the Rio de Janeiro state government less money than it invested in the venue and will lead to the demolition of an indigenous museum, a public school and some athletics facilities in the area. A public prosecutor estimated that $615 million in public money has been spent on Maracana since 2005, raising questions why a private consortium should reap most of the profits from taxpayer money.
The Brazilian soccer great Pele has come out against the privatization, saying the famous stadium “must be of the people, for the Brazilian people.” Others have also questioned selling off what has been traditionally a public space to private interests.
Omena de Melo cautioned that the new stadiums will not eliminate soccer-related violence.
“Violence tied to football could still be there, even after the gentrification,” he said. “If people can’t get inside the stadiums, they are going to get violent outside. You can’t isolate the stadium from the society where it exists. Brazilian society has a lot of problems caused by inequality, and violence is one of them.”
Aerial view shows the new rooftop of the Maracana Stadium, which is undergoing renovations.
Felipe Dana/AP
TURIN — The Brazilian government is worried ordinary fans could be priced out of the country’s modernized stadiums in an unwanted legacy from hosting the 2014 World Cup.
Brazil is building two brand new stadiums and remodeling another 10 which will leave the country with a glut of all-seater, state-of-the-art arenas once next year’s tournament is finished.
It will be a new experience for many Brazilian fans who for years have had to put up with dilapidated arenas, dubious catering and overflowing toilets.
The worry is that many of those who provided the throbbing atmosphere at top matches will no longer be able to afford to go to games as administrators look to gentrify the soccer-going public to increase income.
“To have socially exclusive stadiums as a result of the World Cup investments is not the legacy we want,” deputy sports minister Luis Fernandes told Reuters in an interview.
“The government is very concerned with this issue and it has to be addressed very seriously. I think we could have a gentrification of the stadiums.
“Some stadium administrators are quite explicit in saying that, to be economically feasible, they would have to shift the type of attendance at games,” he added.
“It would change from one where what predominates is the so-called D and E class, to one where there will be a heavy predominance of what they call class A and B spectators who will not only buy the tickets but will also consume in the stadium.
“But if you want to shift the social origin of the spectators so you can have people that can afford to buy other merchandise and food besides tickets, that could be a negative side effect.”
Until recently, there has been almost nothing to buy inside Brazilian stadiums apart from rudimentary fast food and soft drinks. Supporters often prefer to buy counterfeit merchandise from unlicensed street vendors, known as camelos, in front of the stadium.
Nine of Brazil’s 12 World Cup stadiums are owned by the governments of the respective states and will be handed over to private administrators who will hope to make money from selling merchandise inside.
“Football had and has a very central role in building national identity in Brazil,” added Fernandes. “So we are very concerned with that aspect and will be dealing with it in terms of national and state legislation.”
A similar phenomenon has already taken place in England where stadiums have improved vastly over the past 20 years, but working-class fans have been priced out and replaced by middle-class ones.
However, while the shift in England, was built on the back of growing popularity for football, attendances at many Brazilian games are shrinking with an average of 13,000 for last year’s national championship first division.
Fans of Cruzeiro have already noticed the difference. Cheapest tickets for some of the team’s matches have cost 60 Reais ($29.87) since the re-opening of Belo Horizonte’s Mineirao stadium.
Meanwhile, cheapest tickets for the re-opening the Castelao stadium in Fortaleza cost 50 Reais for a double bill of matches in the local state championship, more than at many European first division clubs.
Fernandes pointed out that soccer had such a strong influence in Brazil that memories of the 1950 tournament, which the country hosted but the team lost to Uruguay in the deciding match, were still dragged up.
“It has deep historical, roots,” he said, explaining that Brazilians suffered from what writer Nelson Rodrigues described as “the stray dog complex”.
“Brazilians suffered an inferiority complex and when we lost that match against Uruguay, it reinforced that,” he said. “We were the stray dogs and the others were the pedigrees.
“People felt condemned to be inferior. Football was the first area which inspired national pride up, where we thought Brazil can do it.”
Por Katryn Dias – Esporte Essencial – 4 de dezembro de 2012
Em meados de 2001, cursando a pós-graduação em antropologia na Universidade de Columbia, em Nova York, Renzo Taddei iniciou sua pesquisa de campo, de caráter etnográfico. Como seu plano era estudar a violência, optou por um tema muito recorrente no cotidiano de diversos países: as torcidas organizadas. Comumente associadas a atos criminosos, de vandalismo ou brigas, as torcidas da Argentina foram o foco principal.
Nesta entrevista exclusiva, Taddei, que atualmente é professor da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, explica um pouco do que pode observar enquanto esteve em contato com torcedores e líderes de torcidas, vivenciando o cotidiano daquele grupo. Na medida do possível, também traça alguns paralelos entre o que viu na Argentina e o que encontra hoje no Brasil.
Esporte Essencial: Durante a sua pesquisa de campo, você teve oportunidade de conhecer de perto uma torcida organizada em Buenos Aires. O que você observou lá também se adequa ao cenário brasileiro? Em que sentido?
Renzo Taddei: Há diferenças marcantes entre a forma como as torcidas existem e se organizam na Argentina e no Brasil. Uma delas é a associação com partidos políticos. Isso é muito forte na Argentina, mas, até onde eu sei, não ocorre no Brasil. Em parte isso se dá porque o Partido Peronista tem uma imensa base popular naquele país, do tamanho que nenhum partido tem no Brasil. Muitos políticos estabelecem relações com grupos de torcedores, muitas vezes inclusive usando-os para causar confusão em eventos políticos de rivais. Mas raramente se pode dizer que uma torcida organizada participa disso; em geral são grupos pequenos.
Outra diferença deve-se à distribuição espacial dos clubes. No ano em que fiz minha pesquisa de campo mais longa, em 2001, 13 dos 20 clubes da primeira divisão Argentina estavam sediados em Buenos Aires. No Brasil, não há mais de dois ou três clubes por cidade, o que reduz a relevância espacial do lugar onde o clube está sediado. Não há muita relação entre torcer pelo Botafogo e viver em Botafogo, ou torcer pelo Palmeiras e viver próximo ao Parque Antártica, em São Paulo. Na Argentina, com exceção de times como o Boca Júniors e o River Plate, que conjugam uma participação de bairro forte com uma existência que transcende o bairro onde estão, os demais times são muito fortemente ligados às localidades e bairros em que ficam. Isso significa que outras formas de conflito, como tensões entre bairros, tendem a contaminar a relação entre as torcidas.
“HÁ MUITO MAIS NA VIDA SOCIAL DAS TORCIDAS DO QUE A VIOLÊNCIA. ESSA É UMA PARTE ÍNFIMA DA ATIVIDADE DAS TORCIDAS, E DA QUAL PARTICIPAM POUCAS PESSOAS. MAS, INFELIZMENTE, É O QUE CHAMA A ATENÇÃO E VIRA NOTÍCIA”
Eu converso bastante com torcedores no Brasil, especialmente no Rio de Janeiro e em São Paulo, e acompanho pela imprensa as notícias sobre as torcidas organizadas. Leio também os trabalhos acadêmicos produzidos no Brasil sobre o tema. Creio que há muitas semelhanças entre os dois países – ou pelo menos entre as três cidades: Buenos Aires, Rio e São Paulo. Mas minhas opiniões sobre as torcidas no Brasil não são fundamentadas em trabalho de campo sistemático, como é minha visão sobre as torcidas argentinas, e em razão disso os paralelos têm que ser traçados com muito cuidado.
EE: O que você pode concluir com a pesquisa sobre a violência nas torcidas organizadas?
RT: Inicialmente, a primeira coisa que eu concluí é que a percepção da violência varia muito em função do lugar de quem observa. Se nos basearmos em estatísticas policiais, como faz boa parte dos estudiosos sobre o assunto, o que veremos é apenas violência, que pode crescer ou diminuir, mas é sempre violência. A abordagem da antropologia parte de uma tentativa mais ampla de compreensão do mundo das torcidas, para só então analisar o papel que a violência desempenha aí. Há muito mais na vida social das torcidas do que a violência. Essa é uma parte ínfima da atividade das torcidas, e da qual participam poucas pessoas. Mas, infelizmente, é o que chama a atenção e vira notícia. Ninguém tem interesse nas demais atividades, com a exceção do carnaval, em São Paulo, onde as três maiores torcidas participam com suas escolas de samba. É óbvio que se torcida organizada fosse sinônimo de violência, como a imprensa faz parecer recorrentemente, seria impossível que essas mesmas torcidas organizassem algo grande e complexo, que demanda cooperação e organização, como um desfile de carnaval.
Minha pesquisa ocorreu em um bairro da periferia de Buenos Aires, Mataderos, numa região onde há áreas habitadas pela classe média, por famílias de classe média baixa, e onde está também uma das maiores favelas da Argentina, chamadaCiudad Oculta. E o que eu encontrei foram pessoas vivendo suas vidas e tentando resolver seus problemas, em geral sem muita ajuda do poder público. A imensa maioria dos torcedores-habitantes da região se esforçava para tentar prevenir as situações em que a violência das torcidas ocorre, incluindo aí todos os líderes de torcidas com os quais tive a oportunidade de conviver. Em geral, estavam preocupados com o crescimento do consumo de drogas (pasta base e cola de sapateiro, naquele momento) por crianças, e com o aumento da disponibilidade de armas de fogo no bairro; mas o que realmente os preocupava era o empobrecimento da população da periferia. Vi os líderes recorrentemente organizando churrascos na sede de clube, nas manhãs dos dias de jogos, onde grande quantidade de comida era distribuída entre os torcedores mais pobres. Muitas vezes os líderes dedicavam parte da semana coletando doações de comida entre diretores do clube, jogadores e alguns torcedores mais abastados do bairro. Uma vez um líder me disse que se os torcedores mais pobres entrassem no estádio com fome, coisa que não era incomum, a chance de confusão era muito maior.
Torcedor comemorando vitória do time Nueva Chicago, na Argentina, em ônibus da torcida.
Havia pessoas da comunidade que se envolviam em atividades ilícitas – como há em qualquer lugar, independente de classe social. Na torcida do Nueva Chicago, clube com o qual trabalhei, nenhum dos líderes era “bandido”, mas eram pessoas com perfil de líderes comunitários. Havia líderes do passado que tinham se envolvido com crimes, mas na época da minha pesquisa, eram todos trabalhadores. Quando voltei ao bairro, dez anos depois da pesquisa, todos os líderes de torcida com os quais eu havia trabalhado eram líderes comunitários; alguns eram líderes sindicais. Nenhum havia sido preso ou morrido.
O fato de que boa parte deles é grande, forte, barbudo, tatuado e tem “cara de mau” não faz qualquer diferença aqui. Grande parte do problema das torcidas é reflexo da discriminação social e racismo presentes em nossas sociedades – não apenas o racismo manifestado nas arquibancadas, pelas próprias torcidas, mas principalmente o racismo que não ganha espaço na mídia, o racismo das classes médias urbanas para com os jovens pobres de periferia. Esse racismo se manifesta, sobretudo, na relação tumultuada que a polícia tem com esses jovens.
Aliás, uma das “conveniências” da expressão “violência das torcidas” é o fato de que ela faz referência à violência associada à população jovem, pobre e negra, sem precisar ser explícito a respeito. Ninguém pensa em alguém rico e branco quando se evoca o problema das torcidas – como se essas pessoas não fizessem parte das torcidas. Tenho a impressão de que, muitas vezes, o uso dessa expressão permite que algumas pessoas e instituições sejam racistas sem parecer estarem sendo racistas.
“GRANDE PARTE DO PROBLEMA DAS TORCIDAS É REFLEXO DA DISCRIMINAÇÃO SOCIAL E RACISMO PRESENTES EM NOSSAS SOCIEDADES. PRINCIPALMENTE O RACISMO DAS CLASSES MÉDIAS URBANAS PARA COM OS JOVENS POBRES DE PERIFERIA”
EE: Quais as principais causas geradoras da violência dentro das torcidas organizadas? E como evitá-las?
RT: Não há sociedade sem violência. Nunca houve, na história da humanidade. O que temos são sociedades que sabem lidar melhor com certos tipos de violência; em geral, essas são as que tem uma visão mais aberta e realista sobre a violência, e não uma visão moralista, como a nossa. Fingimos o tempo todo que a violência não existe, apenas para nos chocarmos quando ela se manifesta.
Tratar a questão da violência das torcidas como problema de polícia faz parte desse panorama. É uma forma de evitar termos que pensar a sociedade em que vivemos, encarar nossos problemas a fundo. De qualquer forma, não acho que os atos de violência que ocorrem na relação entre torcidas tenham causas diferentes de outras formas de violência da sociedade. Posso elencar alguns fatores, correndo o risco de deixar muita coisa de fora. Há o fato de tentamos suprimir artificialmente as muitas formas de discriminação que existem em nossa sociedade, fingindo que elas não existem, o que apenas faz com que elas ressurjam de formas abruptas e violentas. Eu poderia também mencionar a impunidade, mas acho que essa é apenas a ponta de um iceberg. Pelo menos no que diz respeito às torcidas, por baixo disso – de atos violentos condenáveis – há o ressentimento por parte da população para com o poder público, e em especial para com a polícia, em razão da violência desmesurada e frequentemente aleatória por parte desta sobre a população jovem, pobre e negra. Tenho a impressão que, em situações de alteração emocional coletiva, esse ressentimento se transforma em ataque ao patrimônio público. No ano de 2001, durante a crise política argentina, a multidão incendiou o Congresso Nacional daquele país. Para grande parte daquelas pessoas, o Estado está ausente de suas vidas diárias, exceto pela presença da polícia. Ou seja, a polícia é a cara do Estado. E muita gente em Buenos Aires tem a experiência de ter apanhado da polícia ou de ter sido presa sem fazer a menor ideia do motivo para tanto. No Brasil não acho que isso é diferente.
Portanto, a questão passa pela legitimidade do Estado frente às populações, muito mais do que pelo tema da impunidade. O Estado não faz qualquer esforço no sentido de construir sua legitimidade política junto às populações mais pobres, com muito raras exceções. A percepção de que o Estado é ilegítimo, somada ao tratamento aviltante dado pela polícia à população em geral, e aos torcedores em particular, resulta em ações contra a ordem instituída – depredação do patrimônio e agressão contra a própria polícia. Mas essa reação não é planejada, não é articulada objetivamente, e por isso ela pode também ser parte de outras formas de violência, como a que ocorre entre torcidas. Ou seja, é um contexto que produz a violência como forma de expressão, e que produz pessoas que usam a violência como forma de expressão. O contexto violento impõe as regras violentas do jogo; as pessoas não são violentas por alguma “essência” interior. E isso é uma questão que se faz presente em diversos contextos sociais, não apenas no futebol.
Assassinos devem ser julgados e punidos; a não punição de assassinos não vai melhorar a situação no curto prazo, só piorar. Mas reduzir a questão mais ampla dos atos de violência associados às torcidas a um problema de polícia não vai resolver nada de forma definitiva. Na minha percepção, a maneira como o poder público trata o problema se reduz a um imenso teatro. E a população em geral não consegue pensar de outro modo que não seja “isso é problema do poder público”; por isso estamos atolados, sem sair do lugar. Ou seja, é preciso, no mínimo, transformar as forma de relação entre o Estado e a população, o que passa por transformar a polícia.
EE: No seu trabalho, você afirma que “a maioria dos torcedores torcia pelas torcidas”. Como você explica esse fato? E por que motivo o que acontece dentro do campo deixa de ser tão importante?
RT: O futebol, como esporte, passou por muitas transformações ao longo dos últimos 150 anos. Inicialmente, na Inglaterra, houve o esforço de “civilizar” a sua prática, que era notória por sua capacidade de gerar tumulto e confusão. Segundo Eric Dunning, um importante estudioso da violência no futebol, as autoridades inglesas iniciaram um combate ao futebol, através de leis que o proibiam em certos locais, por volta do ano 1314. No século 19, as regras que conhecemos foram desenvolvidas, com o objetivo de transformar uma prática de lazer popular em exercício de disciplinamento do corpo e da mente. Esse já foi um primeiro passo no processo de distanciamento entre a vida das classes populares e o esporte. Ao longo do século 20, duas outras coisas importantes ocorrem nesse sentido: o futebol se transforma em espetáculo, o que faz com que participantes sejam transformados em espectadores – a própria ideia de torcedor, que implica em alguém que não participa diretamente do jogo, aparece apenas no início do século passado. Em segundo lugar, e em especial na segunda metade do século, há um processo de profissionalização e de aburguesamento do esporte, o que distancia ainda mais o que ocorre dentro de campo e a comunidade de torcedores. Jogadores que antes eram membros da comunidade, como ainda ocorre em times pequenos, de segundas e terceiras divisões, passam a ser profissionais-celebridades com quem a torcida não interage de forma significativa; inclusive porque tais jogadores tendem a permanecer pouco tempo em cada clube. Qualquer resquício de experiência de comunidade ficou então restrito às torcidas, ao que ocorre nas arquibancadas. Foi o que eu vivenciei na Argentina: os jogadores eram festejados como celebridades, mas a relação com eles era superficial; a relação com a vida da comunidade de torcedores, com seus símbolos e rituais, no entanto, era muito mais forte e perene. Por isso eu disse que os torcedores em geral torcem muito mais por suas próprias torcidas do que pela equipe.
“REDUZIR A QUESTÃO MAIS AMPLA DOS ATOS DE VIOLÊNCIA ASSOCIADOS ÀS TORCIDAS A UM PROBLEMA DE POLÍCIA NÃO VAI RESOLVER NADA DE FORMA DEFINITIVA”
Mas isso marca mais os torcedores que frequentam os estádios e outros lugares das torcidas. Há vários tipos de torcedores. O torcedor de sofá, em geral, não tem essa experiência. O torcedor de boteco tem um pouco dela. Na relação com a torcida nos estádios, há muitos torcedores que são espectadores de terceiro grau: são espectadores do jogo e do espetáculo que as torcidas promovem nas arquibancadas, que eles só veem pela televisão. Aliás, parte do cinismo presente nos discursos midiáticos sobre a violência das torcidas é o fato de que estes jamais mencionam que muitos espectadores veem nas torcidas um espetáculo tão notável quanto o que ocorre em campo. Tenho amigos corintianos que falam com muito orgulho da Gaviões da Fiel, sem nunca terem se aproximado fisicamente da torcida. Vi a mesma coisa com a La 12, maior torcida do Boca Juniors, na Argentina.
EE: Em Buenos Aires, você descobriu que os torcedores mais jovens são geralmente os mais agressivos. No Brasil, um levantamento do jornal Lance! mostrou que, nos últimos 24 anos, mais de 150 pessoas foram mortas em decorrência de brigas entre torcidas, sendo 47% delas na faixa etária entre 11 e 20 anos. Esse número pode ser explicado pelo mesmo motivo?
RT: Ninguém deveria morrer indo ao estádio. Mas esses são números que revelam que o pânico moral em torno das torcidas é ridículo. Muito mais gente morre andando de bicicleta do que indo ao estádio. Pensemos através dos números: as grandes torcidas organizadas têm dezenas de milhares de associados; só no brasileirão de 2011, o público total foi de cinco milhões e meio de pessoas. Adicione aí os estaduais, e as outras divisões, e seguramente temos mais de 10 milhões de torcedores nos estádios anualmente. E temos uma média de 10 a 12 mortes por ano. Se esses números estiverem corretos, é como dizer que a taxa é de 0,1 mortes por 100.000 habitantes, e apenas levando em consideração as pessoas que efetivamente vão aos estádios. Estatisticamente, é obvio que ir ao estádio, e mesmo participar das torcidas, não está entre as coisas mais perigosas da vida urbana; pelo contrário. Para uma grande quantidade de gente – em especial os mais pobres nos grandes centros urbanos -, participar de uma torcida dá uma sensação de pertencimento e segurança não encontrada em outras áreas da vida. Foi isso que eu vi na Argentina: boa parte dos imigrantes de outras partes do país, ou de outros países, ia morar nas favelas da capital argentina, onde não tinham rede de apoio social, parentes, amigos. Encontravam isso nas torcidas.
“SE HOUVESSE UMA MELHOR INTERLOCUÇÃO ENTRE OS DIVERSOS SETORES DA SOCIEDADE ENVOLVIDOS NA QUESTÃO, E EM ESPECIAL ENTRE AS TORCIDAS E AS AUTORIDADES, TENHO CERTEZA DE QUE AS PRÓPRIAS TORCIDAS AJUDARIAM NO CONTROLE DO PROBLEMA. MAS AS TORCIDAS E SEUS LÍDERES SÃO PREVIAMENTE TAXADOS DE BANDIDOS”
Com relação à idade dos participantes, isso remete a outras questões que eu ainda não mencionei. As culturas e sociedades humanas, quaisquer que sejam, têm que lidar com essa questão, a necessidade de controlar, de alguma forma, a abundância de energia e os comportamentos agonísticos, agressivos, dos garotos adolescentes e jovens adultos. O próprio surgimento dos esportes pode estar ligado a isso, de alguma forma. Entre os jovens ligados às torcidas organizadas, não é incomum a visão de que, para se transformar em um líder com fama e prestígio, é preciso demonstrar altos níveis de coragem e agressividade. Com o tempo, os membros das torcidas, e especialmente os líderes, que tendem a ser mais velhos, entendem que para ter a liderança é preciso muito mais do que coragem e valentia; é preciso, fundamentalmente, inteligência e carisma. E isso não se ganha no grito.
Por isso eu digo que, sem as torcidas e os controles que elas exercem sobre seus membros, os índices de violência e criminalidade em áreas periféricas, como a que eu pesquisei na Argentina, seriam provavelmente maiores. Qualquer grupo social exerce alguma forma de controle sobre seus membros; as torcidas não são diferentes. Como eu ouvi recorrentemente na Argentina, situações de violência e confusão não são convenientes aos líderes de torcida, porque estes têm muito a perder com isso. Também não são convenientes, para usar um exemplo mais chocante ao nosso senso comum, a quem trafica drogas dentro das torcidas: em situações violentas, eles correm o risco de perder a droga e serem presos. Eu vi traficantes atuando de forma a conter o ímpeto de violência de alguns torcedores, o que poderia desencadear eventos violentos coletivos. Não se trata de apresentar traficantes como “bons moços”; muitas vidas são efetivamente perdidas com o consumo de droga na torcida, e não descarto que eventos violentos podem ser desencadeados por ações tolas e desmesuradas cometidas por alguém sob efeito de drogas. O que eu estou tentando dizer é que a realidade é mais complexa do que o que faz crer essa tendência que temos de dividir o mundo entre “bons” e “maus”.
De qualquer forma, minha experiência com as torcidas me diz que, em geral, quando uma torcida é a causadora de atos de violência contra a polícia ou outra torcida, isso frequentemente se dá em decorrência de atos impensados e impulsivos dos torcedores mais jovens. Os torcedores mais velhos e os líderes precisam saber administrar o ímpeto dos mais jovens. Mas nem sempre são capazes de fazê-lo, e quando a situação sai de controle e o combate se estabelece, os líderes acabam tendo que entrar na briga ao lado dos jovens que a causaram.
Eu presenciei negociações entre líderes de torcida e delegados de polícia de bairros de periferia, em que os últimos autorizavam a entrada de bandeiras ou tambores nos estádios, coisa proibida em Buenos Aires quando fiz minha pesquisa, em troca da garantia dos líderes que estes iriam controlar los pibes, a “molecada”, e que não haveria confusão ao redor do estádio. Ou seja, essa relação entre as ações dos mais jovens e as brigas era entendida de forma semelhante tanto por líderes como por policiais de bairro.
“PARA UMA GRANDE QUANTIDADE DE GENTE, EM ESPECIAL OS MAIS POBRES NOS GRANDES CENTROS URBANOS, PARTICIPAR DE UMA TORCIDA DÁ UMA SENSAÇÃO DE PERTENCIMENTO E SEGURANÇA NÃO ENCONTRADA EM OUTRAS ÁREAS DA VIDA”
Na Europa, uma das iniciativas mais ousadas de que tenho notícia é a contratação de assistentes sociais, na Bélgica, Holanda e Alemanha, com o intuito de conviver com as torcidas, e agir estrategicamente nos momentos em que ações de poucos indivíduos poderiam desencadear reações em cadeia, se alastrando para toda uma multidão e resultando em violência e depredação. Ou seja, a ideia era, ao invés de criminalizar todo um contingente de pessoas, evitar que a fagulha que produz a explosão coletiva ocorresse. Acho isso uma ideia genial; liberal demais, talvez, para o pensamento de nossas elites políticas, porque desarticula as formas de discriminação que existem na base de nossa existência social.
EE: Depois da obra, o Maracanã vai contar com um conjunto de ações anti-vandalismo, que inclui a utilização de materiais anticorrosivos e resistentes a pancadas. Você acredita que essa é a maneira correta de prevenir esse tipo de ação? Como evitar confusões entre torcedores em eventos de grandes proporções, como a Copa do Mundo?
RT: O Maracanã está saindo muito caro para a sociedade. Acho bom que ele seja, pelo menos, durável. Mas não há qualquer prevenção nisso.
Pensando em escala de curtíssimo prazo, para os grandes eventos que se aproximam, as autoridades devem ser capazes de identificar agressores e submetê-los à justiça, mas de forma precisa, objetiva, isenta. Se houvesse uma melhor interlocução entre os diversos setores da sociedade envolvidos na questão, e em especial entre as torcidas e as autoridades, tenho certeza de que as próprias torcidas ajudariam no controle do problema. Mas as torcidas e seus líderes são previamente taxados de bandidos, e o que se vê pautando a percepção coletiva, via mídia, é então apenas o discurso da polícia, repetido no jornalismo de forma quase sempre acrítica. Muitos jornalistas, infelizmente, pensam: “não vou dar espaço a esses bandidos” – sem perceber que, ao fazê-lo, estão pré-julgando e condenando muita gente que nunca se envolveu em violência. Essa é uma das razões pelas quais nunca se ouve a voz de quem participa das torcidas. Ou seja, em geral, a cobertura jornalística sobre a questão das torcidas tende a refletir apenas um ponto de vista, dentre muitos outros possíveis: o que manifesta certo moralismo das classes médias urbanas. Como conclusão, eu diria então que um pré-requisito para qualquer avanço nessa área é a melhoria na interlocução entre torcidas, jornalistas, autoridades e demais envolvidos.
Num prazo mais longo, é preciso mudar a relação entre o Estado e os segmentos da população diretamente envolvidos. Uma das coisas que as lideranças da polícia do Rio de Janeiro aprenderam, a duras penas, com a implantação das Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora, é que o treinamento dado aos policiais para o policiamento das ruas não era adequado para a situação de convivência com as comunidades. É justamente essa a questão, o mesmo ocorre nos estádios: os policiais precisam, antes de tudo, ser treinados para a convivência com os torcedores, entendendo as lógicas específicas dos contextos das torcidas, e só então o combate ao crime entra em cena. Não se pode pensar que a convivência é uma coisa óbvia, e o combate ao crime é que é complexo: a convivência entre torcedores e policiais deve ser tomada como um elemento fundamental, tão importante e complexo, do ponto de vista dos policiais, quanto ser capaz de identificar um crime. Por essa razão, eu sinceramente espero que o Coronel Robson, uma das autoridades policiais mais esclarecidas a esse respeito no Rio de Janeiro, seja envolvido na preparação das polícias de todo o Brasil para a Copa do Mundo de 2014.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2012) — Homophobia exists in many areas of life. It also seems to be particularly entrenched in sport, exercise and physical education (PE) settings of all kinds. But why is this the case?
To find out, an international trio of psychologists have become the first to examine the relationship between investment in physical/sporting identity, certain psychological attributes, and homophobia in PE/sport participants.
The authors, Kerry S. O’Brien, Heather Shovelton and Janet D. Latner, whose pioneering work appears in the International Journal of Psychology, had two goals in mind. First, they wanted to address the lack of quantitative work on homophobia in PE and sport settings. Second, they wanted to examine the role played by established sociological constructs in homophobia. Since other forms of bias such as racism are associated with conservative ideologies and personality traits such as authoritarianism and social dominance orientation (SDO — a preference for social hierarchies), the authors wanted to see whether such traits were also associated with homophobia.
Because heterosexual masculinity and physical identity are defined by physical attributes for both men and women (which gay men and lesbians are often seen as threatening), the authors also explored the relationship between ‘sporting identity and athletic self-concept related constructs’ and homophobic attitudes. The authors posited that individuals who identify strongly as members of a physically oriented group (such as PE/sport science students), place a high value on physical attributes, abilities and appearance (such as strength or skill), or have more conservative ideologies, or may hold more negative attitudes towards those whose beliefs and attitudes differ from their own.
The conclusions bore out the researchers’ hypothesis: anti-gay and anti-lesbian prejudice was greater in PE students than non-PE students, and males had greater anti-gay, but not anti-lesbian, prejudice than females. The differences between the two groups appear to be explained by differences in the conservative psychological traits; higher scores for authoritarianism and SDO were significant predictors. In addition, physical identity and athletic attributes based around masculine ideals also appear related to prejudice in males.
The authors conclude that sport settings may benefit from ‘prejudice reduction initiatives that address the overinvestment in physical attributes and masculine ideas’ and which reinforce social equality and diversity. Such initiatives also need to address the contextual and psychosocial factors that underpin homophobia. While there is of course no suggestion that sportiness itself encourages prejudice, the authors warn that the high levels of anti-gay and anti-lesbian sentiment they found ‘may be due to the contextual influences that enhance or support the expression of homophobia’. In other words, prejudice can become entrenched in a group over time, in accordance with social identity theory (SIT).
The findings presented in this ground-breaking study provide vital new quantitative evidence to support qualitative and anecdotal reports that homophobia is higher in sport and PE than in other settings, making it essential reading for the educators, coaches and sporting professionals who must work together to root it out.
Journal Reference:
Kerry S. O’Brien, Heather Shovelton, Janet D. Latner.Homophobia in physical education and sport: The role of physical/sporting identity and attributes, authoritarian aggression, and social dominance orientation. International Journal of Psychology, 2012; : 1 DOI: 10.1080/00207594.2012.713107
[Interessante como texto e fotos passam mensagens contraditórias no que diz respeito à atribuição de responsabilidade pela violência nos estádios. RT]
18/10/2012
Por Katryn Dias
A violência dentro e fora dos estádios de futebol é uma triste realidade brasileira. Nos últimos 24 anos, mais de 150 pessoas foram mortas no país em decorrência de brigas entre torcidas organizadas e, segundo um levantamento realizado pelo jornal Lance! em abril deste ano.
Para discutir medidas de combate à violência, foi convocada nesta quarta-feira (17) uma reunião extraordinária da Comissão Permanente de Prevenção e Combate à Violência nos Estádios de Futebol. Promotores e procuradores discutiram medidas preventivas que serão apresentadas hoje (18) à Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF).
“É muito importante que essa regulamentação amplie e aprofunde o espírito do Estatuto do Torcedor para que nós possamos ter nos estádios as famílias, as pessoas que querem torcer, as torcidas ordeiras. E não, eventualmente, pessoas que queiram cometer crimes ou praticar a violência”, afirmou o promotor de Justiça Sávio Bittencourt.
Durante a reunião, o Ministério Público defendeu a uniformização em todo o país de medidas para punir os criminosos. A meta é aplicar punições severas às torcidas responsáveis pela promoção da violência e do vandalismo, inclusive com prisões de alguns de seus membros. “A primeira questão é a impunidade. Precisamos discutir e verificar onde está a falha, porque muitas vezes a polícia militar atua, mas essa atuação não se reflete em prisões”, destacou José Antônio Baêta, presidente da Comissão de Prevenção e Combate à Violência.
Outra medida em discussão está levantando uma grande polêmica. A proposta da Comissão é estender a proibição da venda de bebidas alcoólicas a uma área de até 500 metros no entorno dos estádios em dias de jogos. Segundo Baêta, desde que foi implementada, a proibição da venda de bebidas dentro dos estádios já mostrou resultados, refletindo, inclusive, no aumento expressivo de mulheres e crianças nas torcidas.
The last weeks of October 2012 saw racism rear its ugly head again, in the European Leagues, particularly in England, affecting both the Premier League clubs and players, as well as the national one too. Many have wondered whether the major football bodies UEFA and FIFA will act as some have been trying to do like the Football Association (FA) in England.
To give us a perspective into the racism issue, ArsenalNews chronicles various incidences of racism that have taken place in different countries:
Racism is a major issue in our world nowadays, even the beautiful game is filled with it. Players, officials and fans are all targeted, some may be targeted because of them being on the opposing team and some individuals are even targeted by their own fans. Below are some football related racist incidents and acts that happened all around Europe.
In February 2011, Roberto Carlos signed a contract with Russian Premier League club Anzhi Makhachkala. The following month during a game away against Zenit, a banana was held near Carlos by one of the fans as the footballer was taking part in a flag-raising ceremony.
In November 2008, Middlesbrough’s Egyptian forward Mido was subjected to Islamophobic chanting from a small number of Newcastle United fans.
In March 2012, a 29 year old Arsenal fan was arrested after being caught racially abusing Newcastle United player Cheik Tiote by SkySports cameras.
The most talked about incident in the 2011/2012 season was when England captain John Terry was caught on tape allegedly racially abusing Anton Ferdinand. Few days ago Queens Park Rangers faced Chelsea, Ferdinand refused to shake hands with Terry before the start of the match.
While it may have affected the various national leagues, it seems that international games are not immune to these incidents with the most recent one in Serbia when the Under-21 England team played the Serbian Under-21 on October 16.
Here is a video uploaded by youtube user SaintOrthodox of the incident that ensued in Serbia in the match between the Under-21 England and Serbian national teams on 16 October 2012:
The disturbing scenes in Serbia this week have once again drawn attention to the issue of racism in football, particularly in this part of the world, where an unhealthy political culture of hard-line nationalism and ethnic prejudice in the region over the past decades has bred violence and bigotry on the terraces.
There is little doubt that the problem of racism, accentuated by periods of aggressive ethnic nationalism in the Balkans, remains a significant problem for football. This is a problem that UEFA and the football authorities appear unwilling to address, in the hope that it will fade out of public consciousness. Their actions to this point in dealing with Tuesday’s despicable incidents have only added weight to this claim.
Lester Hollaway in his blog-post What Rio can learn from non-League football reflects on the English footballer’s refusal to wear a Kick It Out t-shirt, a campaign driven by an awareness programme under the same name:
Football has always been a game built on the grassroots and, on a day when a handful of highly-paid Premiership players headed by Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand postured over racism, it was refreshing to witness non-league Sutton United remind us what is good about the game.
First, they were picking on the wrong target. Any criticism about light punishments for racism – for example in the cases of John Terry or Luis Suarez – must go first and foremost to the football authorities and then to Premiership clubs themselves. Kick It Out are merely a pressure group without power, and one that has consistently been calling for tougher penalties for many a year.
The PFA (Professional Footballers Association) in the UK on 24 October gave a 6-point proposal to curb the issue including the so-called Rooney Rule as highlighted by FootyMatters:
The PFA’s plan calls for:
speeding up the process of dealing with reported racist abuse with close monitoring of any incidents,
consideration of stiffer penalties for racist abuse and to include an equality awareness programme for culprits and clubs involved,
an English form of the ‘Rooney Rule’ – introduced by American football’s National Football League in 2003 – to make sure qualified ethnic minority coaches are on interview lists for job vacancies,
the proportion of black coaches and managers to be monitored and any inequality or progress highlighted,
racial abuse to be considered gross misconduct in player and coach contracts (and therefore potentially a sackable offence),
not losing sight of other equality issues such as gender, sexual orientation, disability, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and Asians in football.
The idea of introducing a “Rooney rule” might seem a panacea to cure football of its current ills. Yet in reality it would simply paper over the fundamental flaws which beset the entire process of appointing managers. England does not just lack a reasonable number of black managers within the football league, it lacks a sensible method of unearthing managers of talent, regardless of their ethnicity.
Rather than a requirement to interview members of ethnic minorities, a far more inclusive amendment would be to interview prospective managers of any race who had not previously held a professional position. That would not only open up the field to members of all ethnicities, it would end the “old boys’ network” that sees failing managers bounce around from club to club based on a long past playing career. Sadly in their attempt to take control of the media agenda, the PFA have instead latched on to another half-baked idea that will benefit nobody.
It’s truly about time that the major governing bodies in the game of football took decisive action against this act that smears the beautiful game of football. It has no place in sport in this time and era as the game is truly global as represented by the players playing in most leagues in Europe and other successful leagues.
It probably won’t rain during any given match, but if it does it’s likely to be in the sites closest to the tropics in the north and the
“Verona #2,” by Lyle Ashton Harris, 2001-2004. Courtesy of the Robert E. Holmes Collection
“Pieta,” by Generic Art Solutions, 2008. Courtesy of the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans
“Sir Bobby,” by Chris Beas, 2007. Courtesy of the Martha Otero Gallery
“Hondjie,” by Robin Rhode, 2001.
“VOLTA,” by Stephen Dean, 2002-2003. Courtesy of Baldwin Gallery, Aspen
“Samuel Eto’o,” by Kehinde WIley, 2010. Courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, Calif.
Em meados de 2001, cursando a pós-graduação em antropologia na Universidade de Columbia, em Nova York, Renzo Taddei iniciou sua pesquisa de campo, de caráter etnográfico. Como seu plano era estudar a violência, optou por um tema muito recorrente no cotidiano de diversos países: as torcidas organizadas. Comumente associadas a atos criminosos, de vandalismo ou brigas, as torcidas da Argentina foram o foco principal.
RT: Ninguém deveria morrer indo ao estádio. Mas esses são números que revelam que o pânico moral em torno das torcidas é ridículo. Muito mais gente morre andando de bicicleta do que indo ao estádio. Pensemos através dos números: as grandes torcidas organizadas têm dezenas de milhares de associados; só no brasileirão de 2011, o público total foi de cinco milhões e meio de pessoas. Adicione aí os estaduais, e as outras divisões, e seguramente temos mais de 10 milhões de torcedores nos estádios anualmente. E temos uma média de 10 a 12 mortes por ano. Se esses números estiverem corretos, é como dizer que a taxa é de 0,1 mortes por 100.000 habitantes, e apenas levando em consideração as pessoas que efetivamente vão aos estádios. Estatisticamente, é obvio que ir ao estádio, e mesmo participar das torcidas, não está entre as coisas mais perigosas da vida urbana; pelo contrário. Para uma grande quantidade de gente – em especial os mais pobres nos grandes centros urbanos -, participar de uma torcida dá uma sensação de pertencimento e segurança não encontrada em outras áreas da vida. Foi isso que eu vi na Argentina: boa parte dos imigrantes de outras partes do país, ou de outros países, ia morar nas favelas da capital argentina, onde não tinham rede de apoio social, parentes, amigos. Encontravam isso nas torcidas.
Pensando em escala de curtíssimo prazo, para os grandes eventos que se aproximam, as autoridades devem ser capazes de identificar agressores e submetê-los à justiça, mas de forma precisa, objetiva, isenta. Se houvesse uma melhor interlocução entre os diversos setores da sociedade envolvidos na questão, e em especial entre as torcidas e as autoridades, tenho certeza de que as próprias torcidas ajudariam no controle do problema. Mas as torcidas e seus líderes são previamente taxados de bandidos, e o que se vê pautando a percepção coletiva, via mídia, é então apenas o discurso da polícia, repetido no jornalismo de forma quase sempre acrítica. Muitos jornalistas, infelizmente, pensam: “não vou dar espaço a esses bandidos” – sem perceber que, ao fazê-lo, estão pré-julgando e condenando muita gente que nunca se envolveu em violência. Essa é uma das razões pelas quais nunca se ouve a voz de quem participa das torcidas. Ou seja, em geral, a cobertura jornalística sobre a questão das torcidas tende a refletir apenas um ponto de vista, dentre muitos outros possíveis: o que manifesta certo moralismo das classes médias urbanas. Como conclusão, eu diria então que um pré-requisito para qualquer avanço nessa área é a melhoria na interlocução entre torcidas, jornalistas, autoridades e demais envolvidos.
A violência dentro e fora dos estádios de futebol é uma triste realidade brasileira. Nos últimos 24 anos, mais de 150 pessoas foram mortas no país em decorrência de brigas entre torcidas organizadas e, segundo um levantamento realizado pelo jornal Lance! em abril deste ano.
Durante a reunião, o Ministério Público defendeu a uniformização em todo o país de medidas para punir os criminosos. A meta é aplicar punições severas às torcidas responsáveis pela promoção da violência e do vandalismo, inclusive com prisões de alguns de seus membros. “A primeira questão é a impunidade. Precisamos discutir e verificar onde está a falha, porque muitas vezes a polícia militar atua, mas essa atuação não se reflete em prisões”, destacou José Antônio Baêta, presidente da Comissão de Prevenção e Combate à Violência.
Uma (in)certa antropologia 
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