Brazil Scores, but Corruption Wins

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“Get up, stand up. Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up. Don’t give up the fight.”

On June 19, the Brazilian national soccer team faced their Mexican counterparts in a Confederations Cup group stage match.

If Brazil won, they would secure their place in the competition’s semi-finals. If they lost… well, there was little chance of that.

Despite their recent travails, Brazil remains one of the premier soccer nations, led by a mouthwatering attacking triumvirate of Hulk, Oscar and the 21 year old golden boy himself, Neymar. Neymar, he of the recent 57 million euro transfer to Barcelona, is the player of the moment, possessing a dazzling repertoire of tricks, flicks and skills, coupled with a predatory eye for the goal. It was Neymar who dominated the game for Brazil. Nine minutes in, his future Barca team-mate Dani Alves surged down the right and whipped in an inviting cross, only half-cleared by the hapless Mexican defense. Judging the flight of the ball perfectly, Neymar unleashed a fizzing left-footed volley  from all of 18 yards past the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner, sending Brazil into a 1-0 lead. Brazil controlled the game with an iron fist from that point on, but it wasn’t until the final seconds that Neymar put a stamp on the proceedings. Receiving the ball on the left wing, he beat two men with laughable ease before playing the ball across the goalmouth to his compatriot, Jo. From all of two yards out, Jo stabbed home, but it was a goal of Neymar’s creation.

When he was asked after the game what inspired him to a marvelous match by even his standards, Neymar replied, “I’m Brazilian and I love my country. I have a family and friends who live in Brazil. For that reason, I want a Brazil which is more just, safer, healthier and more honest. The only way I can represent and defend Brazil is on the pitch, playing football. From now on, I will enter the field inspired by this movement.”

The United States is a nation of many attributes, but a love of the game of soccer is not one of them. In more enlightened countries, there is an old saying: of all the unimportant things in the world, soccer is the most important. Soccer is indeed a religion in many parts of the world, but rarely will you find a sensible person claiming that it is more important than a child’s education, or an effective healthcare system, or an honest government. Yet that is the message that the Brazilian government is sending to its embittered citizenry.  The 2014 FIFA World Cup, along with the aforementioned Confederations Cup, is hosted in Brazil. Over $13 billion of public money is being spent on hosting this extravaganza of sport, a figure holding to the wildly optimistic thought that the costs will not go over budget. Normal Brazilians are therefore asking a question – why is this money being spent on soccer when there is a third-world education system, a third-world healthcare system, a bog-awful public infrastructure, and a government so corrupt it makes the Catholic Church look like angels?

To be fair, only recently has soccer been the focal point of the protests.

A quick recap: Lula de Silva, a populist President, was elected in 2002 after decades of incompetent political leaders. Under his stewardship, Brazil’s economy grew exponentially, to the point where it was mentioned alongside Russia, India, and China as a potential economic power. Exports of Brazil’s vast array of natural resources brought the Brazilian GDP to the seventh-largest in the world. The middle class, once a distant dream of many poverty-stricken citizens, was now a sudden reality for millions. Mr. de Silva, undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer, made way in 2010 for his chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff.

Mrs. Rousseff, a fellow populist who lacks the charisma and fortitude of Mr. de Silva, has found herself at the wrong place at the wrong time. In early June, a mostly lower-class rabble took to the streets to protest a small increase (20 centavos, around 9 cents) in the bus fares in Sao Paulo. Police officials, notorious in Brazil for their brutality and corruption, ordered a swift end to the march. Their subordinates obliged. Tear gas, rubber bullets, and vinegar bombs were used against the protestors. Unfortunately for the police, there was some collateral damage; many bystanding journalists caught the brunt of their attack. One famous columnist lost an eye. Public opinion, previously against the protestors, swiftly turned against the government. Once peaceful, the protestors (now over a million strong) are growing militant in their utter contempt and disgust for the Brazilian government, the Confederations Cup, and all those who stand for and represent the status quo.

In the beginning of June, Mrs. Rousseff had an approval rating of 57%. That figure has now dropped to 30%, the quickest drop in public support since Tiger Woods crashed his car one fateful Thanksgiving morn. However, that is hardly surprising given that it is the Rousseff government which ultimately bears the brunt of the blame for the catastrophic situation.

What is perhaps more surprising is the vitriol directed toward a once-unimpeachable Brazilian hero, Pele. Universally acknowledged as the finest soccer player of all time, Pele resides in a sporting pantheon which only admits the likes of Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and Roger Federer. To say he is merely a hero is a gross understatement; he is a true Brazilian icon, a god-like figure whose heroic pose atop the shoulders of his teammates, a clenched fist raised toward the heavens and his trademark grin adorning his face, is one of the indescribably memorable images in the past century of sport. Yet, with his statement which criticized the protestors a fortnight ago, Pele has been ostracized by those who once worshipped at his feet. Another Brazilian great, the legendary Ronaldo, has also received flak for his neutrality with the issue (to be fair to the man, as a representative of FIFA and the Brazilian FA, he is stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.)

Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA and a man whose own corruption and sleaze makes Silvio Berlusconi look like a schoolgirl, is adamant that the World Cup will still be held in Brazil. Easy to say for a man whose organization will not invest a penny into the planning of the event, but a vote of confidence nonetheless.

The fact is, despite the proximity of the protests to FIFA, they have little to do with soccer. They have everything to do with a government which demands a first-world rate of taxation and only delivers a third-world standard of government services. They have everything to do with a system of nepotism and back-scratching that rewards relationships with money and power. They have everything to do with a group of people who see shedloads of money spent on stadiums and nothing spent on their children’s education, their hospitals and healthcare clinics and their public services and infrastructure.

The rallying cry across the country is, “FIFA standards for hospitals and schools!”

This columnist, along with all right-thinking people of the world, stands with them.

Photo Courtesy of: cdn.3news.co.nz