2014 – A WORLD CUP DISASTER The World’s most successful footballing nation having won the world cup a record 5 times in their history is of course the football loving country of Brazil. It wasn't surprising therefore to see the South American giants eagerness to win the bid for the 2014 world cup, after years in the past of the hosting of these major sporting events only being available to the MEDC’s in the world, it was seen as a privilege to the newly industrialising nation of Brazil to win the bid. The Brazillian government was keen to construct it’s vision, spending an estimated total of 15 billion dollars on the project (including the bid and building stadiums etc). A significant part of this money was from public money and therefore meant the government would have to cut public spending elsewhere, which was not particularly popular. Aldo Rebelo was the Brazillian minister of sport at the time of the world cup, and promised that the tournament would provide Brazil with long lasting economic growth, boosting the Brazillian economy by around 90 billion dollars.This claim to this day has never been backed up with any evidence and FIFA themselves have been accused of stealing the vast majority of Brazil's profit from the event. Concerns further arose when Brazillian citizens demanded the government to tackle Brazil's real socio economic issues such as inequality and massive deprivation instead of spending its money away on the tournament and its infrastructure which only lasted 31 days. 2013 marked a year in which millions of Brazillian citizens had had enough and took to the streets in protests against how the government was handling its economic issues. The first being the inflation rate of 6.2%, this was far away from the target of 3.75% (+-1.5%). This high inflation rate added to peoples uncertainty going into the event, and potentially leading to less investment in the future, which did not fill people with confidence. Lack of government investment in Brazillian public services was also a massive factor leading to the disputes as demonstrated by the image on the left, citizens voicing their concern of their public services being sub optimal, and Brazil as a nation not being in the position of spending billions on a 31 day sporting event. The image on the right demonstrates Brazil's most famous stadium-the Maracanã. Next to the impressive stadium with a capacity of over 78,000 lies some of the Rio de Janeiro slums commonly recognized as favelas.The highly controversial concept of social cleansing was said to have begun in Brazil and in particular Rio De Janeiro prior to the world cup, which resulted in the Brazillian government trying to eliminate the imagery of the slums around the stadiums from the public eye (eg demolishing favelas homes to millions of people and displacing them 40km away) ,as questions will have and are being raised of how a nation can
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