Every four years the FIFA World Cup takes place in a different country around the globe, allowing senior men’s national teams to compete against each other in a colossal soccer tournament.
The event holds a strong cultural significance for both the hosting country and the visiting nations, creating a sense of unity and reunion by playing the most diverse and international sport that exists in the surface of the earth today. However, the 2014 FIFA World Cup also has major economic, political, social, and environmental impacts that affect both the hosting country and its people.
In term of cultural significance, Brazilian football, unlike any other cultural interpretation of a particular sport, is considered a sacred and serious game. For Brazilians, soccer is everything. And for the government, soccer is a way of making money. For the past four years, Brazil’s government has spent close to 14 billion dollars on the construction and renovation of the 12 stadiums, urban mobility projects, security personnel, tourism infrastructures, and networks services among others. Yet, how much of this money has been spent on the people of Brazil? None.
Additionally, the tournament is creating an environment of social inequality and frustration among the people. As demonstrations and strikes rise in the cities of Brazil, social movements claim that 170,000 people have been threatened with eviction from their homes in the favelas, while hundreds of bulldozers tear then down and make room to hold the World Cup facilities.
On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that this World Cup will likely have some positive outcomes (government predicts). For example, Brazil’s hosting of the tournament will generate jobs (3.63 million jobs/year), increase tax collections, benefit cities’ GDP, and improve the national production of goods and services all around the country. At least there is some good news after all.
Last but not least is the impact on the environment. Due to Brazil’s rapid economic growth in the past years, the Amazon rainforest, which produces 20% of the earth’s oxygen and drinkable fresh water, will likely disappear in the next coming years. Why? Well, the need to obtain natural fuels to feed the necessities of the hungry tourists is pushing the industries to race the forest as a fast speed as a way to produce as much goods as possible.
Overall, the 2014 FIFA World Cup is a significant tournament that brings people together from all around the world in a celebration of the beautiful game of soccer. However, this “dark side” of the tournament makes Brazilians forget the cultural and social implications of the game and embrace a much more negative perspective towards it.
Therefore, it is important to look at the big picture and examine the 2014 World Cup from both sides of the argument (government and people), in order to understand in the most accurate way as possible the economic, social, political, and environmental issues that are taking place today in Brazil.
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