Speaker 1: For the last few episodes, you've heard about FIFA's historical
Speaker 1: fondness for brutal authoritarians. Specifically, it's a Paulium behavior in Chile,
Speaker 1: South Africa, and Argentina in the nineteen sixties and seventies,
Speaker 1: So you might ask, has FIFA changed, Has it learned
Speaker 1: any lessons? Of course not, It's FIFA, and that brings
Speaker 1: us to today's episode, a more modern tale about FIFA's avarice.
Speaker 1: When faced with the choice between prophets and human rights
Speaker 1: ethics and good conduct in Brazil in two thousand and fourteen,
Speaker 1: FIFA did what it always does. It put profits first,
Speaker 1: screw the consequences. I'm Connor Powell. This is episode ten,
Speaker 1: White Elephants. If you travel inland a thousand miles or
Speaker 1: so on the murky waters of the Amazon River, they're
Speaker 1: likely to catch a glimpse of the three toed sloth,
Speaker 1: an animal so slow algae literally grows all over its body.
Speaker 1: You might encounter charismatic and talkative Gold and bluem maccause,
Speaker 1: by the score their voices loud as hell, you will,
Speaker 1: without a doubt see the massive pink nose river dolphin
Speaker 1: and incredibly social mammal is excited to see you as
Speaker 1: you are to see it. But there's another species out there,
Speaker 1: an invasive one. It's the great white elephant. They've pushed
Speaker 1: people by the thousands out of their homes in trampled
Speaker 1: the fragile budgets of local governments. The Amazon, which sits
Speaker 1: mostly in the soccer moutination of Brazil, is the size
Speaker 1: of Spain, France, Italy, Sweden and Greece combined, teeming with
Speaker 1: wildlife found no worlds. A massive river runs through its rainfalls,
Speaker 1: and it's in Brazil where this white elephant infestation grows,
Speaker 1: from the remote city of Manaus to the cattle town
Speaker 1: of Cuieba to the nation's capital of Brazilia. The white
Speaker 1: elephants arrived in two thousand and fourteen, raised and then
Speaker 1: abandoned by the organization known as FIVA. The twelve state
Speaker 1: of the art stadium is built or refurbished, are turning
Speaker 1: into wide elephants, proving too costly to maintain. The white
Speaker 1: elephants of Brazil are not like the native creatures that
Speaker 1: make the Amazon such a rich envirobrant place. No, these
Speaker 1: needy beasts are state of the art soccer stadiums made
Speaker 1: of concrete, steel and glass, built to satisfy FIVA's punishing
Speaker 1: requirements for host countries to live up to World Cup standards.
Speaker 1: This brand new stadium is the jewel in Manoa's is crown,
Speaker 1: designed in the shape of a traditional basket, the seats
Speaker 1: are the colors of amazon in fruits. At a cost
Speaker 1: of three hundred million dollars alone, the arena of the
Speaker 1: Amazon and the middle of Brazil's tropical rainforest was supposed
Speaker 1: to transform Annouse, a sleepy river city for the better.
Speaker 1: Some see the lavish temple to football as an investment
Speaker 1: that will attract tourists into the area. No expense was spared,
Speaker 1: and that's in part because construction was a logistical nightmare.
Speaker 1: Thousand seeds stadium was built hundreds of miles away from
Speaker 1: Brazil's nearest population center and besieged by months of torrential downpource.
Speaker 1: At help save time, parts of the stadium, like the roof,
Speaker 1: for being built in other locations. Mannouse is so remote
Speaker 1: that it's almost impossible to reach by car, which is
Speaker 1: why officials had to have the stadium materials brought in
Speaker 1: by boat, most of it prefabricated in Portugal. Undred tons
Speaker 1: of steel had to be barged up the Amazon River.
Speaker 1: Despite the astronomical cost, The arena of the Amazon hosted
Speaker 1: just four World Cup games before it was basically abandoned.
Speaker 1: Aside from a few Brazilian national team matches, a handful
Speaker 1: of birthday parties, and the occasional evangelical Christian revival, it
Speaker 1: is sat largely empty ever since the two thousand and
Speaker 1: fourteen World Cup. The Manous economy just can't support a
Speaker 1: stadium of the size FIFA demanded with all of its
Speaker 1: sky boxes and luxury suites. Manawas doesn't have a first
Speaker 1: league football team, and most of the locals can't afford
Speaker 1: tickets to the games. As officials and Manus search for
Speaker 1: new uses for the stadium, the white Elephant deteriorates under
Speaker 1: the heat and humidity of the Amazon. One loose tongue
Speaker 1: civil servant even suggested this could become a holding zone
Speaker 1: for prisoners en route to more permanent jails. You heard
Speaker 1: that right, turn a world class soccer stadium into a prison.
Speaker 1: And yet the stadium in Manouse isn't even the worst
Speaker 1: example of Brazil's wasteful spending to meet FIFA's demands. Everything
Speaker 1: about Manega Ainsia Stadium is big, a towering presence in Brazilia.
Speaker 1: At a cost of nearly eight hundred million dollars, it
Speaker 1: was the most expensive stadium the country, built for the
Speaker 1: two thousand fourteen World Cup. These days, there's very little
Speaker 1: football being played at the world's second most expensive stadium.
Speaker 1: In fact, it mostly says empty. Like in Mannouse, there's
Speaker 1: no first division soccer team to bring in fans to
Speaker 1: fill the seats. The occasional football exhibition matches are not
Speaker 1: enough to sustain the five million dollars a year to
Speaker 1: maintain the stadium, and like in Manouse, Brazilia's officials are
Speaker 1: struggling to find ways to pay for the upkeep. Officials
Speaker 1: expected this stadium to be full, and at least one
Speaker 1: way it is, but not how they had hoped. The
Speaker 1: parking lot has been turned into a giant storage area
Speaker 1: for buses to turn. And white elephant refers to the
Speaker 1: ancient fable when a rare and prized white elephant is
Speaker 1: given as a gift by the king, the recipient is blessed.
Speaker 1: After all white elephants are sacred. The monarch favors you.
Speaker 1: Then you come to understand the curse. You can't afford
Speaker 1: defeat an elephant, and you can't give it away. It
Speaker 1: serves no practical purpose, and it's starting to eat you
Speaker 1: out of house and home. FIFA's gift of white elephants
Speaker 1: to Brazil has proven to be every bit the curse
Speaker 1: it was in the ancient tales. And what does it
Speaker 1: tell you when someone who knows all the downsides of
Speaker 1: the white elephant curse shows up at your door with
Speaker 1: an albino packadern and worse tells you it's gonna make
Speaker 1: you rich. Sounds like a grift right well. When FIFA
Speaker 1: arrived in Brazil with designs for extravagant stadiums, it promised
Speaker 1: the country they enjoy riches and glory if they built them.
Speaker 1: Of course, FIFA does what is best for FIFA always.
Speaker 1: After the tournament, FIFA fat, with swollen bank accounts, walked
Speaker 1: away from Brazil, leaving the country to clean up its
Speaker 1: financial mess. If you want to understand how FIVA's insatiable
Speaker 1: appetite for profits hurts real people in real places, then
Speaker 1: sit back and you'll hear the tale of the two
Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen World Cup in Brazil and the Curse
Speaker 1: of the White Elephants, the gift that keeps on taking.
Speaker 1: The lines outside of sal Pollo's Arena Corinthians were unbearably
Speaker 1: long and disorganized. Now with the full kick off, long
Speaker 1: queues of ticket jacks, thousands of excited fans, many dressed
Speaker 1: in the iconic black with white striped jerseys of the
Speaker 1: homeside Corinthians, jostle as overwhelmed ticket takers struggled with the
Speaker 1: surge of bodies. Eventually, the queues got so bad that
Speaker 1: they were simply let through. With a little more than
Speaker 1: a week to go before the opening match of the
Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen World Cup, FIFA had demanded the
Speaker 1: Brazilian Soccer Confederation stage a league match at the new
Speaker 1: stadium to iron out any issues, of which there were many.
Speaker 1: For instance, the roof wasn't finished. Despite pumping in more
Speaker 1: than three billion dollars yes, I said three billion dollars
Speaker 1: into the building of new stadiums, Most of Brazil's new
Speaker 1: and renovated arenas were over budget and way behind schedule.
Speaker 1: We saw a stund which last month was still being built.
Speaker 1: It seemed near a completion, but not near enough, as
Speaker 1: was clear once week I went into the arena and
Speaker 1: I was stunned. That's Andrew Downey, veteran foreign correspondent and
Speaker 1: lifelong soccer fan who, as you might have noticed by
Speaker 1: his accent, is from Scotland. Until recently he lived in
Speaker 1: Brazil and covered the run up to the two thousand
Speaker 1: and fourteen World Cup. One of the big reasons for
Speaker 1: Brazil hosting the World Cup was the Brazil needed more
Speaker 1: and better infrastructure for the World Cup. You need you know,
Speaker 1: roads and airports and trains and busses and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, and it was a chance to modernize.
Speaker 1: And so the opportunity for Brazil in this World Cup
Speaker 1: was to add that infrastructure that would benefit the population
Speaker 1: because it was public money that was being used, and
Speaker 1: that was one of the great attractions of this World Cup.
Speaker 1: The government said, we will start building this infrastructure. This
Speaker 1: is our chance to upgrade and upgrade quickly. Downey was
Speaker 1: at that dry run match that day in June to
Speaker 1: see firsthand what years of FIVA's demands and the Brazilian
Speaker 1: government's promises looked like in practice. He navigated the long
Speaker 1: lines and remembers the chaos and clutter and then new
Speaker 1: still unfinished stadium. There was still lots to do, but
Speaker 1: one part was absolutely finished and that stuck out as
Speaker 1: much as anything. There was this enormous, enormous, welcoming nedial
Speaker 1: foy inside the stadium and it was the most beautifully
Speaker 1: appointed thing you've ever seen, and I was just thinking,
Speaker 1: why is all this so necessary? Like the foyer, the
Speaker 1: luxury suites were not only finished, it looked like they
Speaker 1: were plucked straight out of the taj Mahal. It was
Speaker 1: what the lords of soccer expected, what they demanded of
Speaker 1: so called FIFA quality stadiums. I remember walking into the
Speaker 1: toilets and it was like walking into the toilets at
Speaker 1: the Four Seasons because everything was marble. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: from Scotland, you know, I grew up watching my team
Speaker 1: Hibs in the eighties and nineties and not remember when
Speaker 1: you went to the toilet, the toilet was a wall
Speaker 1: at the back of the stadium, right. I've obviously got
Speaker 1: suggested that you should have that in the World Cup venue,
Speaker 1: but I just thought, is it really necessary for the
Speaker 1: Fruitball stadium to have model bathrooms? Where these new marble
Speaker 1: bathrooms and the majestic foyer really necessary for a month
Speaker 1: long tournament, Downey wasn't the only one asking whether marble
Speaker 1: bathrooms and the majestic foyer were worth the cost. For months,
Speaker 1: in the soccer mad nation, where the cliche soccer is
Speaker 1: like a religion is used without irony, Brazilians have been
Speaker 1: protesting the reports of financial excess and corruption to struggle
Speaker 1: to satisfy FIFA's stadium standards, and impressed the global soccer
Speaker 1: community was ripping Brazil apart. On June two thousand and thirteen,
Speaker 1: as the sun set over Rio de Janeiro, the lights
Speaker 1: of its fame mark and a stadium came on, illuminating
Speaker 1: the pitch. Ahead of the Confederation's Cup match between Tahitian Spain,
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of Brazilians marched through the city streets
Speaker 1: towards the stadium. They weren't heading for the game. The
Speaker 1: streets have been filled with protests for weeks, some turning violent.
Speaker 1: Brazil is a place with protests. Crowds have invaded the
Speaker 1: streets to voice that discontent with the government. The protesters
Speaker 1: came from different backgrounds. Rebellious students were joined by middle
Speaker 1: class professionals, left wing activists joined by traditional stay at
Speaker 1: home mothers. Together as a group, they moved closer. Police
Speaker 1: dressed like characters out of a Marvel's Avengers movie, went
Speaker 1: into battle with newly purchased riot helmets and plexiglass shields.
Speaker 1: They opened fire with a volley of rubber bullets and
Speaker 1: tear gas. These clashes between police and protesters had been
Speaker 1: on repeat, night after night after night across Brazil. The trigger.
Speaker 1: The government had jacked up bus fares to cover the
Speaker 1: costs of construction for the sleek, new modern stadiums FIFA
Speaker 1: required for the two thousand and fourteen World Cup. The
Speaker 1: government has spent more than eleven billion dollars getting ready.
Speaker 1: It had begun peacefully, with about one thousand protesters moving
Speaker 1: towards the stadium, demanding that the government spent more money
Speaker 1: on health than education rather than sporting events. People to say,
Speaker 1: we are fit up, we want changes. That's Carlos Vanier,
Speaker 1: a professor of urban and regional planning at the Federal
Speaker 1: University of Rio de Janeira. Veneer, was one of the protesters,
Speaker 1: marching with his family. As the protests grew, he remembers
Speaker 1: so too did the brutality of the police response. The police,
Speaker 1: he said, we're under pressure from the Brazilian government and
Speaker 1: FIFA to protect the stadiums and the soccer facilities. Donny
Speaker 1: was there too, and he confirms Veneer's account. You would
Speaker 1: have these big matches and outside Colomba from the stadium,
Speaker 1: you would have tens of thousands of people on the
Speaker 1: streets and the police would come in. The police would
Speaker 1: fire Robert bullets and the police would fire tear gas
Speaker 1: and it was a uh, it was a big deal.
Speaker 1: The more the police trying to reign in the protest
Speaker 1: from Porto Allegra to sell Paolo to Rio, the more
Speaker 1: they grew. The repression provoked more anger and more people
Speaker 1: talk to the streets. These things are happening on a
Speaker 1: daily basis, and it was it was it was scary,
Speaker 1: to be honest. Chris Gaffney is an American researcher, academic,
Speaker 1: and yes protester. He became the English speaking international voice
Speaker 1: of the protest movement. And I remember sitting very clearly
Speaker 1: on put of neither put as a dentity of Vatagus
Speaker 1: and being shot at by the police with concussion grenades
Speaker 1: or a bullets, and being chased on motorcycles and having
Speaker 1: to run through the streets of Rio to try to
Speaker 1: find a way home. The smell of tear gas was
Speaker 1: just like my cologne for the day. The contrast between
Speaker 1: old and new was painful. Brazil's inadequate and aging infrastructure,
Speaker 1: underfunded hospitals, and crowded schools, they all looked even more
Speaker 1: tired and beaten down in the light of the glistening
Speaker 1: new World Cup stadiums. It was so obvious that the
Speaker 1: basic needs of the people were not being attended to,
Speaker 1: and that FIFA quality stadiums were the priority, but FIFA
Speaker 1: quality hospitals were not, in that FIFA quality schools were not,
Speaker 1: And so this kind of FIFA standard or FIFA quality
Speaker 1: came to represent the bending over backwards in fealty to
Speaker 1: the desires of a Swiss non profit who managed to
Speaker 1: make four billion dollars in the four year cycle that
Speaker 1: led it that finished in two thousand fourteen. And so
Speaker 1: people saw this and were disgusted and took to the
Speaker 1: streets and were violently repressed by the very same mechanisms
Speaker 1: that were designed to secure the World Cup. Here again
Speaker 1: is Carlos Venier. The main slogan that many movements at
Speaker 1: that moment used is we want fair World Cup which
Speaker 1: that way to say we once soccer. We do not
Speaker 1: want spending billions of dollars on this. We do not
Speaker 1: have corruption of these, we want fair World Cup. The
Speaker 1: violence and anger in the streets of Brazil couldn't have
Speaker 1: been further from the optimism and joy just six years earlier,
Speaker 1: when FIFA President Sepp Ladder stood on a stage in
Speaker 1: Zurich and in front of the world, ripped open his
Speaker 1: white envelope to announce with five World Cup titles and
Speaker 1: a booming economy, Brazil seemed like a natural pick. There's
Speaker 1: no nation more passionate about soccer, and the South American
Speaker 1: giant hadn't hosted a World Cup since n Best known
Speaker 1: for its endless beaches and yearly carnival, these days, Brazil
Speaker 1: is developing a new calling card. It's economy, which most
Speaker 1: of the world's economy is stagnant, Brazil's is growing at
Speaker 1: seven percent. Sal Polo's stuck market is shattering records since
Speaker 1: the discovery of new offshore oil fields, the Brazilian oil
Speaker 1: industries booming. Brazil's president at the time, the left leaning
Speaker 1: Louis and Nazio Lula da Silva, often called just Lula
Speaker 1: for short, was one of the most popular politicians in
Speaker 1: the world, and he was eager to show that progress
Speaker 1: Brazil had made under his leadership. With low inflation, a
Speaker 1: shrinking inequality gap, and a religious deal for soccer, Brazil
Speaker 1: was a sporting nation on the rise. Nearly eight percent
Speaker 1: of Brazilian supported hosting the World Cup, with only ten
Speaker 1: firmly against it. On Lula's watch, Brazil had also been
Speaker 1: selected to host another international sporting event, the two thousand
Speaker 1: and sixteen Olympics. Journalist dave's Iron, who wrote Brazil's Dance
Speaker 1: with the Devil, a book all about Brazil's preparations for
Speaker 1: the World Cup and the Olympics, says Lula, backed by
Speaker 1: the nodding heads of fee Fund, the International Olympic Committee,
Speaker 1: promised that these world events would further transform the rapidly
Speaker 1: developing nation. This idea of bringing in the World Cup
Speaker 1: and then subsequently in the Olympics in two thousand and
Speaker 1: sixteen came with it so many promises about how this
Speaker 1: was going to be great for Brazil. It was gonna
Speaker 1: be great for Brazil economically, it was going to be
Speaker 1: great for Brazil socio politically, and it was going to
Speaker 1: be great for Brazil in terms of its global standing
Speaker 1: among the nations of the world. So it was all
Speaker 1: built on this idea that it was going to help
Speaker 1: while the opposite took place. As they say on Wall Street,
Speaker 1: markets go up and markets go down. By two thousand
Speaker 1: and thirteen, Brazil's booming economy wasn't just going down, it
Speaker 1: was crashing. A Latin America's large as economy is showing
Speaker 1: signs of a slowdown. And this is a difficult to watch.
Speaker 1: You see a very promising economy slowing down quite radically.
Speaker 1: To make matters worse, Lula had been termed out of office.
Speaker 1: Dilma Russaf, Lula's former chief of staff, was left to
Speaker 1: manage Lula's legacy and the economic crash. The money he
Speaker 1: remarked to build the new World Cup infrastructure began to
Speaker 1: rapidly disappear, Sucked up by construction and corruption, Brazil was
Speaker 1: forced to raise taxes, cut basic services, and borrow from
Speaker 1: international markets to pay for the ever increasing costs. There
Speaker 1: was a wide spread I can go to that all
Speaker 1: this money was being spent for FIFA and for football
Speaker 1: rather than being spent on ordinary Brazilians. It was two
Speaker 1: thousand and thirteen, and RUSSAF tried to thread the political
Speaker 1: pandering needle as protesters flooded Brazil's streets. She condemned the violence,
Speaker 1: but she said she also supported the protesters right to
Speaker 1: demonstrate and called for dialogue. What Dilma Russof didn't do
Speaker 1: was pushed back against FIFA. You know, the guys who
Speaker 1: were insisting not just on new stadiums, but particular style
Speaker 1: of new stadiums, with marble atriums and luxury suites. Scaling
Speaker 1: back the extravagance was not something FIFA would even contemplate. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: resources for promised improvements through roads, subways, and airports related
Speaker 1: infrastructure that would benefit more than just soccer were redirected
Speaker 1: to help me FIFA stadium construction deadlines. The gap between
Speaker 1: what Brazilians have been promised and what they were seeing
Speaker 1: being built for FIFA only widened as the protests grew.
Speaker 1: FIFA did what it normally does stayed quiet, But behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, FIFA did not adjust or reevaluate their demands.
Speaker 1: What FIFA wanted FIFA was going to get. There are
Speaker 1: all sorts of like a death by a thousand cuts
Speaker 1: sent the economy into a downward spiral. And yet FIFA
Speaker 1: doesn't care if your economy is in bad shape. They
Speaker 1: want their FIFA quality stadiums. Dave's Iron says FIFA's indifference
Speaker 1: and greed had real world consequences. They felt like they
Speaker 1: needed to push ahead, which led to cost cutting, which
Speaker 1: led to corruption, which led to a lot of dissatisfaction
Speaker 1: among the people who felt like their needs were being
Speaker 1: ignored while stadiums were being built. The first punches were
Speaker 1: thrown seconds after the final whistle blew. The full row
Speaker 1: of green stadium seats came curling through the air and
Speaker 1: onto the pitch. Countless other pieces of trash and debris,
Speaker 1: some one fire came raining down from every part of
Speaker 1: the stadium. It was two thousand and nine. Hundreds of
Speaker 1: supporters of the Brazilian side Quarter Chiba storm their home pitch.
Speaker 1: Hackey clothed police officers swung their batons wildly and fired
Speaker 1: rubber bullets trying to be back the enraged soccer hooligans.
Speaker 1: The chaos erupted after core Achieva's shocking relegation to Brazil's
Speaker 1: domestic second division, meaning for non soccer fanatics, they had
Speaker 1: the worst record and so they got booted down to
Speaker 1: a lower division, their fans went ballistic. It was the
Speaker 1: very type of soccer violence Brazilian lawmakers had hoped to
Speaker 1: end when they banned the sale of alcohol and stadiums
Speaker 1: six years earlier. In two thousand three, the Brazilian government
Speaker 1: banned alcohol from stadiums because of the enormously high death
Speaker 1: rate amongst fans. Those stamping out all of the violence
Speaker 1: completely was proving to be difficult. That ban on alcohol
Speaker 1: had saved lives and helped reduced violence, But as the
Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen tournament near Brazil's ban on alcohol
Speaker 1: and stadiums became a flashpoint of intention for World Cup organizers,
Speaker 1: Jerome Vodka, the General Secretary of football's world governing body,
Speaker 1: has urged the Brazilian government to approve a law which
Speaker 1: allows the sale of beer at World Cup venues. For
Speaker 1: more than twenty five years, the red Budweiser logo had
Speaker 1: adorned nearly every corner of FIFA's World Cup advertising. The
Speaker 1: King of Beers is one in a massive cavalcade of
Speaker 1: advertisers whose commercials bombard TV sets during World Cup matches.
Speaker 1: Brazil's ban on alcohol and stadiums threatened FIFA's money making machine,
Speaker 1: and the only thing worse than the loss and advertising
Speaker 1: for FIFA would be the loss of lucrative in game
Speaker 1: beer sales, and FIFA wasn't about to let that happen.
Speaker 1: Just listen to FIFA's General secretary Jerome Valc, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: to say, and maybe I look a bit arrogance, but
Speaker 1: that's something will not negotiate to. I mean there will
Speaker 1: be and the MusB a spot of the of the law,
Speaker 1: the fact that we have the right to sell beer.
Speaker 1: Brazil had enacted this band in two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: faced with a staggering level of soccer violence and preventable deaths,
Speaker 1: It's hard to argue this law wasn't completely reasonable. And
Speaker 1: yet FIVA, a nonprofit who stayed admission is to grow
Speaker 1: and protect the game of soccer, not to earn money,
Speaker 1: demanded Brazil removed the band, which, of course Brazil ended
Speaker 1: up doing. Beer would be sold at World Cup games,
Speaker 1: but at least if FIFA was going to make money
Speaker 1: off of beer sales, Brazil could count on tax revenue
Speaker 1: and profit sharing is part of its hosting duties right well,
Speaker 1: and they're going to make money as well as all
Speaker 1: money this FIFA makes the money. This is where the
Speaker 1: controversy is. The country usually doesn't make money. FIFA, the
Speaker 1: organization of the World Cup, is who makes the money.
Speaker 1: Despite spending north of three billion dollars on FIFA required stadiums,
Speaker 1: ending public safety laws aimed at preventing alcohol related violence,
Speaker 1: Brazil wasn't guaranteed a penny for hosting the World Cup tournament.
Speaker 1: That is, FIFA and its FIFA subsidiaries that are fully
Speaker 1: exempt from any text whatsoever levied at whatever level, state level,
Speaker 1: municipality level, all sorts of texas, consumption, texas income, texas,
Speaker 1: you name it, its all exempt. Remember, the rules of
Speaker 1: the game are rigged by FIVA for FIFA. So not
Speaker 1: only is FIFA blessed with a tax exemption as part
Speaker 1: of its hosting requirements, so are all FIFA's corporate sponsors.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and fourteen, Brazil spent fifteen billion dollars
Speaker 1: to host the World Cup. FIVA earned nearly five billion
Speaker 1: dollars from World Cup advertising deals and sponsorship agreements. Brazil's
Speaker 1: cut zero the final insult FIFA security demands. FIVA, of course,
Speaker 1: understood the hazards of combining alcohol and a fan base
Speaker 1: with a history of soccer violence. Drunken hooliganism has been
Speaker 1: an issue in world soccer for decades, but add to
Speaker 1: the mix a population worried about a crashing economy and
Speaker 1: angry at the bejeweled stadium springing up amidst a crumbling infrastructure,
Speaker 1: and the two thousand and fourteen World Cup was beginning
Speaker 1: to look like a powder keg ready to explode. As
Speaker 1: soccer fans lined up to inner Rio's Maracana Stadium July
Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen for the final game, the images
Speaker 1: were dazzling. Argentinian fans wore the classic light blue and
Speaker 1: white striped jerseys. Germany's fans don white and red Adiita's
Speaker 1: tops with black trim mixed in, where the bright, almost
Speaker 1: electric yellow kits of host country Brazil standing in stark
Speaker 1: contrast all the bright colors where the drab al of
Speaker 1: green military uniforms of the Brazilian security forces. Come Sunday,
Speaker 1: Rio de Janeiro may look like an occupied city. Troops,
Speaker 1: military police, firefighters and National guardsmen are being deployed, largest
Speaker 1: ever in the city's history. The site of troops standing
Speaker 1: along roads and at intersections, and heavily clad riot gear
Speaker 1: became the persistent image of the tournament, and everything was
Speaker 1: only amped for the final match, which was played under
Speaker 1: a draconian security blanket. Israeli drones flew above the stadium,
Speaker 1: American provided bomb busting robots patrolled outside, while German anti
Speaker 1: aircraft tanks kept watch over the skies. No one can
Speaker 1: accuse Brazil of scrimping on security for soccer's biggest event.
Speaker 1: The country total nearly one billion dollars in security costs,
Speaker 1: five times what South Africa spent during the two thousand
Speaker 1: ten Cups. You've surely noticed that since the terror attacks
Speaker 1: of two thousand and one, security at large gatherings, including
Speaker 1: public sporting events, has become increasingly militarized. But Brazil and
Speaker 1: FIFA security set up in two thousand and fourteen, while
Speaker 1: state of the art was something all together different and
Speaker 1: unheard of in world sport, Brazilian authorities are leaving nothing
Speaker 1: to chance. One hundred and seventy thousand security forces will
Speaker 1: be mobilized throughout the country. There are now more security
Speaker 1: forces on the ground in Brazil than the United States
Speaker 1: deployed at the height of the Iraq War. Brazil, a
Speaker 1: country with no international enemies or history of domestic terror
Speaker 1: had created a full on World Cup army, an army
Speaker 1: whose weapons were trained not on some foreign enemy, but
Speaker 1: on the very people the World Cup was supposed to benefit.
Speaker 1: This massive security force was never about stop in a
Speaker 1: terror attack or even solving Brazil's stunning lee high murder rate.
Speaker 1: It was required by FIFA to pacify Brazil's own population,
Speaker 1: which had grown increasingly hostile to the soccer organization and
Speaker 1: the Brazilian government. By the time the first game kicked
Speaker 1: off in two thousand and fourteen, Brazilian public opinion had
Speaker 1: swung wildly against the World Cup, where once it was
Speaker 1: eight in favor when step Ladder announced the winning bid.
Speaker 1: More than sixty Brazilians believe hosting the World Cup is bad.
Speaker 1: When you have Brazilians protesting soccer, you know something went
Speaker 1: very wrong. As journalists Dave's Iron points out, if you
Speaker 1: need a US military sized army to keep security during
Speaker 1: a soccer tournament in a nation of soccer fans, then yes,
Speaker 1: something has gone seriously wrong. It was slowly instituted in
Speaker 1: preparation for the World Cup like terrific surveillance, a tremendous
Speaker 1: surveillance and as well as you know things like you know,
Speaker 1: water cannons and concussion grenades like it's it's not just
Speaker 1: about the weaponry, it's about a plan in a mode
Speaker 1: of attack against your own population. It wasn't just the
Speaker 1: massive spending on FIFA stadiums that angered the Brazilian public,
Speaker 1: though that was a big part of it. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't just the appearance of troops. It's what the military
Speaker 1: actually did. In the lead up to the World Cup.
Speaker 1: Brazil's newly created heavy handed security force was trained by
Speaker 1: who's who of international security conglomerates. They included Academy, which
Speaker 1: you'll know by its former name Blackwater, the infamous private
Speaker 1: security company used during the Iraq War, and the Israeli
Speaker 1: firm Raphael Advanced Defense Systems, which has long provided the
Speaker 1: backbone for the Israeli blockade around Gaza and its military
Speaker 1: occupation of the Palestinian West Bank. These firms didn't just
Speaker 1: provide secure already, they paved the way for the forced
Speaker 1: displacement of tens of thousands of Brazilians and entire neighborhoods
Speaker 1: for the World Cup. One such slam Rio's huge Mari
Speaker 1: Favela complex was recently pacified after an operation involving hundreds
Speaker 1: of men, tanks and helicopters, and by pacified they mean
Speaker 1: removed from the safety of its bunker in Zurich. FIVA's
Speaker 1: leadership pushed for all of this additional security. It was
Speaker 1: unlike any other sporting event. Ever, FIFA brings with it debt,
Speaker 1: displacement and the militarization of public space. It takes two
Speaker 1: to tango, and what FIFA looks for is willing nations.
Speaker 1: They're willing to, you know, march to the beat of
Speaker 1: FIFA's drum. In Brazil, FIFA found a willing partner. That partnership, however,
Speaker 1: enriched FIFA and ripped apart Brazil. Here, Chris Caffey, what
Speaker 1: do we have at the end is you know, sixt
Speaker 1: or four games of football and a country that is
Speaker 1: now in economic samples Today, the high speed train that
Speaker 1: connects Salpallo's largest airport to its city center is rarely late.
Speaker 1: The modern metro is a much needed addition, but the
Speaker 1: project itself was anything but on time. It first opened
Speaker 1: in April of two thousand and eighteen. It was originally
Speaker 1: one of the many infrastructure projects promised as part of
Speaker 1: Brazil's World Cup bid. It was supposed to be ready
Speaker 1: when the tournament kicked off in two thousand and fourteen,
Speaker 1: but the high speed rail line was ditched as money
Speaker 1: was diverted to key World Cup infrastructure projects like stadiums,
Speaker 1: especially those empty, crumbling white elephant stadiums that now in
Speaker 1: fast places like Manaus in Cuioba. The fact that the
Speaker 1: train line to the airport was completed even four years
Speaker 1: later makes it unique. Dozens of other promised infrastructure projects
Speaker 1: from Brazil's original World Cup plan, from roads the train
Speaker 1: lines have yet to be built and probably never will be.
Speaker 1: When Brazil was awarded the World Cup by FIFA back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven, the country had dreams of glory,
Speaker 1: confident it would win a record sixth championship and show
Speaker 1: the world the progress Brazil had achieved. It was a
Speaker 1: narrative FIFA was all too willing to inflate and encourage.
Speaker 1: FIFA's demands for its World Cup, and let's be very clear,
Speaker 1: every tournament is FIVA's and not the host nations brought
Speaker 1: out the worst in Brazil after months of civil unrest,
Speaker 1: a ton of unfinished public works projects, a new draconian
Speaker 1: security system, a fifteen billion dollar price tag and Brazil's
Speaker 1: seven to one thrashing at the hands of Germany and
Speaker 1: the World Cup semifinal. The two thousand and fourteen World
Speaker 1: Cup is anything but glorious and what are the long
Speaker 1: term consequences? Today? Brazil has been ravaged by the COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen virus, Its economy has crashed and stagnated, and its
Speaker 1: right wing government led by Yair Bulson Nario, is sending
Speaker 1: signals it will use Brazil's new robust security apparatus built
Speaker 1: under the direction of FIFA, to stay in power. No
Speaker 1: matter what, You've heard a lot about the bad and
Speaker 1: world soccer under FIFA, decades of corruption and generations of abuse.
Speaker 1: It might make you wonder if there's any reason to
Speaker 1: be hopeful. The answer is yes, absolutely yes, and it
Speaker 1: starts with a team of outsiders who pushed to be
Speaker 1: treated as equals. Could the answer to FIFA's corruption be
Speaker 1: women's soccer? That's coming up next on The Lords of Soccer.
Speaker 1: The Lords of Soccer, How FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game
Speaker 1: is an Inside Voices media production in conjunction with I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. The series was written and executive produced by
Speaker 1: Gary Scott and me Connor Powell special thanks to Giselli
Speaker 1: Rossi for helping me with the trickiest of the Brazilian names.
Speaker 1: If I screwed up, It's on me, not her Logan
Speaker 1: Heftell and Katie mcmurrn provided the sound design with assistance
Speaker 1: from j. C. Swaddick and Jake Blue Note. Alec Cowen
Speaker 1: is our associate producer and Jeffrey Katz was our story editor.
Speaker 1: Our fact checker is Alexa O'Brien and thanks to Miles Gray,
Speaker 1: who produced the series for I Heart Radio. If you
Speaker 1: have any comments or questions, please reach out. You can
Speaker 1: find us on Twitter. I'm at Connor M. Powell and
Speaker 1: Gary is at Gary Robert Scott and if you have
Speaker 1: any stories about FIFA, let us know. If you like
Speaker 1: what you hear, please give us a shout out at
Speaker 1: the hashtag Lords of Soccer