If the months, weeks and days leading up to the 2014 Fifa World Cup were dominated by civil unrest in its host country – and rightly so – it seemed for 24 hours yesterday at least, Brazil switched focus.
After all, they had been waiting a while. Sixty-four years had passed since the world’s most successful national team welcomed the globe’s most-important sporting event, and almost from the moment dawn broke over Sao Paulo, Brazil prepared to party.
In the western outskirts of the city – the opposite end to the Arena Corinthians, where the country’s finest footballers kicked off the tournament against Croatia – the air was perpetually pierced by fireworks. It was 9am.
As Globo News, a prominent cable channel, brought images of minor skirmishes around the city, eager reporters spoke to excited fans already making their pilgrimage to the stadium, or the Fifa Fan Fest in Anhangabau, at the heart of the city centre.
Traversing Sao Paulo by train, taxi or metro, it felt almost remiss not to be wearing canary yellow or tooting a giant green airhorn. Even the Chihuahuas, out for their morning walk in Avenida Paulista, Sao Paulo’s bustling main street, were decked out in Brazilian colours. Cars flew by, with drivers honking horns and waving flags out windows. Road safety was clearly taking a back seat.
Remember, the build-up to the World Cup had been justifiably subdued, up until the final few days. An albeit-limited vox pop – Sao Paulo’s population sits at around 11 million – provided a common consensus: hosting football’s main event had cost the country around US$11.5 billion (Dh42bn), money that would have been better spent improving Brazil’s infrastructure, health, security and education. Football would not paper over the cracks.
However, sport and politics have long been intertwined in this South American superpower, stretching back to the 1970 World Cup triumph. The government uses its national team to maintain order, to pacify its people.
The protests and the problems of the past year had dulled national pride, though. In anticipation of World Cups past, streets in Sao Paulo’s suburbs typically were adorned in yellow, green and blue. This year, they have been less common, although a television advertisement for Google Brazil highlighted how communities have still come together, armed with spray cans and Brazilian flags.
“The closer it gets, the more people join in,” said one local as he prepared to paint the area just outside his home. “Brazilians like to celebrate – we have love and passion for our country.”
That devotion has obviously been tested, and a certain section of the population maintains that a sixth world title for Brazil would be unwelcome. It offers President Dilma Rousseff’s government a much-needed fillip ahead of this year’s elections, and she is clearly not popular.
“People don’t want to get behind the country as much this time, because it would be agreeing with everything the government has done when there remain so many problems here,” said Charlene Rezende, a Sao Paulo native. “But today there is a World Cup atmosphere; everyone is in party mood. They already knew there could be issues, so they planned for it.”
Those issues – metro strikes, cordoned-off streets and violent protests – in the majority did not materialise around Sao Paulo’s centre, as Brazilians took to the streets hours before the opening ceremony brought up the curtain on what promises to be four weeks of festive football.
“You notice everything is calm,” said Walter Marin, a Colombian studying in Sao Paulo, as he walked along Paulista. “Football here is like anaesthesia to the problems.”
That is not to say the troubles will be forgotten. The World Cup supplies a platform to the planet, and no matter how passionate Brazilians are about the jogo bonito, the socio-political situation remains a constant concern. It quietened the clamour surrounding the tournament, and Brazil’s matches aside, it should continue to do so.
“Business has not been any better for me,” a city taxi driver said on Wednesday. “It is normal. I do not need to work tomorrow as it will not be beneficial. And anyway, I want to watch the match, at home, with all my family.”
Just like many of his compatriots, he would have been glued to a television set as Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side opened against Croatia at a fervent Arena Corinthians. Yesterday was designated a public holiday, to give Brazil the opportunity to unite behind its football team. It had the desired effect.
Bars in the vibrant Vila Madalena had tables reserved for months, and erected giant television screens to bring the action to the masses. Planning for this World Cup may have been a government botch-job, but Paulistanos were certainly prepared.
“There is still an angry climate,” said Daniel Carvalho, a local restaurant owner. “It won’t change. But we hope football can be more important than the protests. Football here is a way of life, a religion.”
In Sao Paulo, that much was evident. Whatever difficulties afflict the country, yesterday, football soothed the soul. As the slogan beneath the mammoth screen at the Fifa Fan Fest proclaimed, for 24 hours at least, Brazil seemed “all in one rhythm”.
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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