It’s been more than three years that FIFA confirmed Brazil as host of the World Cup 2014, and nearly two years that FIFA announced the host cities of the World Cup. The World Cup is just three years away.
However, very little has been done. None of the stadiums of the Cup is remotely near being ready. Brazil is still thinking how to build new airports, new hotels, new roads, new everything.
A report (for subscribers only) published today February 15th 2011 by Brazilian newspaper Valor Econômico, based on data provided by the Portal of Transparence (which lists all expenditures of the Federal Government), shows the situation very clearly.
The newspaper interviewed the Minister of Sports, Orlando Silva, who acknowledged that Brazil is entering a “zone of risk”; if the invesments don’t move quicker this year, the Minister foresees trouble in 2014.
The Federal Government plans to invest a total of R$ 23,571 billion for the World Cup; up until today, only 36.5% were already contracted (meaning that the other 63.5% are still awaiting planning, approval, bidding, signing); and only 0.87% were effectively carried out.
The table below shows the situation broken down by host city.
Rio de Janeiro, where the final watch will be staged, is the most advanced host city; out of a total of R$ 3.211 billion, nearly R$ 2 billion were already signed and. However, only R$ 84 million were already carried out, which translates as only 2.6% of the estimated total.
Sao Paulo, the richest State in Brazil, will have the biggest share of investments, with a bit more than R$ 5 billion; less than 0.4% were already spent. In Sao Paulo, the stadium will be a private one, hence demanding less federal funds; such is the case also in Porto Alegre and Curitiba.
It looks like the most isolated cities, Manaus and Cuiaba, antecipated the logistic problems they would face because of the longer distances, and are the ones which already signed most contracts (according to CBF reports, these two cities are the ones following more closely the planned schedules).
Recife and Brasilia signed very few contracts (the Governor of Brasilia was arrested in 2010, which added to the delays). The northeastern cities of Salvador, Fortaleza and Natal are also running against the time.
Tags: belo horizonte, brasilia, cuiaba, curitiba, fortaleza, manaus, natal, porto alegre, recife, rio de janeiro, salvador, sao paulo, world cup, world cup 2014, world cup brazil
