Brazil 2014 Update: No Government Money For Stadiums

Brazil­ian pres­i­dent, Luiz Iná­cio Lula da Silva recently announced that the gov­ern­ment will not give money for sta­di­ums to be built for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Speak­ing in São Paulo, the head of Brazil’s gov­ern­ment made it clear that gov­ern­ment funds will be used to improve infra­struc­ture in the host cities and not for con­struc­tion of stadiums.

Lula, seen here hold­ing the World Cup Tro­phy, also said that it is the respon­si­bil­ity of the clubs, the Brazil­ian Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion (CBF-Confederação Brasileira de Fute­bol), and the pri­vate sec­tor to improve the sta­di­ums. He also guar­an­teed that funds will be appro­pri­ated to improve infra­struc­ture for the sites for The Great Tour­na­ment once they are announced.

Pro­grama de Acel­er­ação do Cresci­mento or “Growth Accel­er­a­tion Pro­gram” is the gov­ern­ment pro­gram in Brazil to improve infra­struc­ture and pub­lic ser­vices and will be the source of funds inte­grat­ing pub­lic and pri­vate resources to imple­ment poli­cies to improve things in the host cities and through­out Brazil.

Brazil has received approval from FIFA to have 12 cities as host sites for the tour­na­ment even though FIFA prefers to 8 to 10. Brazil is the world’s 5th largest nation in terms of land area which poses infra­struc­ture and trans­porta­tion issues unique to the coun­try. The readi­ness of sta­di­ums for the World Cup has come into ques­tion, espe­cially after a 2007 FIFA Inspec­tion Report indi­cated that none of the pro­posed sta­di­ums were up to FIFA stan­dards for the event.

Since then, orga­niz­ing offi­cials have said that the sta­di­ums will be ready in time for The Great Tour­na­ment. The Mara­canã will become the 2nd sta­dium to host a World Cup Final twice along with Esta­dio Azteca in Mex­ico City. Brazil, the 5-time World Cham­pi­ons will become the 5th nation to host the World Cup for the 2nd time, join­ing Mex­ico (’70 & ’86), Italy (’34 & ’90), France (’38 & ’98), and Ger­many (’74 & ’06).

Tagged as: , Brazil, FIFA, World Cup, World Cup Stadiums