By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter once again declared the Confederations Cup a success at his final news conference of the two-week event – and re-iterated that football was playing a unifying rather than divisive role in the country.
The final was again played out against a backdrop of protests, but this time considerably smaller with 5,000 protestors dispersed before kick off by police using stun grenades and tear gas to combat Molotov cocktails, rocks and powerful fireworks. National newspaper Estado de S Paulo reported on Sunday that 490 protests had taken place in Brazil in the past three weeks, peaking on 20 June when more than one million people took to the streets.
The atmosphere inside the Maracana was electric as well, but for completely different reasons. A huge outpouring of nationalistic support for Brazil during a passionate national anthem and a crowd that cheered their team from start to finish were the images that the world saw as record numbers of TV viewers worldwide watched the Brazil vs Spain final that all had hoped for.
It is this aspect that Blatter chose to highlight. ”Thanks to all those who have helped to make this competition such a success despite … of all this unrest and protests,” Blatter said. ”I am happy to come to the conclusion now, with the sporting results and also – with at least the impression that – the social unrest is now resting. I don’t know how long, but it is now resting.”
Throughout the World Cup dry run, anti-government protesters had expressed anger at the lack of investment in public services compared with the billions of dollars being spent on infrastructure projects required for next year’s World Cup.
Just as he done when previously facing reporters, Blatter beat the drum for all the right football reasons. ”Football is connecting people in the stadia and connecting people outside the stadia and … I am sure that we will have a wonderful World Cup next year,” he said.
At the same news conference Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo insisted the World Cup warm-up tournament was not unduly marred by the wave of unrest.
”I am quite sure no one was bothered because of the protests,” Rebelo said. ”Of course there were some acts of violence but we just faced these challenges … the problems are still there, we never try to hide this. We are not a perfect country. We are still a country with many unbalances, differences between the regions and these demonstrations did not happen by chance.”
Former Brazil icon Ronaldo, a member of the World Cup organising committee, praised protesters for helping to gain assurances from the government over public services.
”I fully support the demonstrations,” Ronaldo said. ”Brazilians are not against the World Cup or the Confederations Cup. They are against corruption, embezzlement; they are against the way the health system has been managed, the way the education system has been managed.
”It has been wonderful to see Brazilians really rise against this situation and to see most demonstrations have been peaceful and asking for change in Brazil … we have already seen the results of it because things seem to be moving forward swiftly and the government seems to be responding to the people’s calls.”
FIFA had been due to reveal ticket prices for the World Cup, but unexpectedly delayed the announcement until July 19. FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke said the delay was for logistical reasons and had nothing to do with the protests over World Cup costs.
”We want to look at all the issues we have faced at the Confederations Cup,” Valcke said. ”We want to avoid having 10,000 tickets that are not collected two days prior to the game.”
“There are three million tickets available for the World Cup but this is a land of 200 million people so we will have fan zones and giant screens in different locations, maybe in the favelas and other places where people have no access to the stadium. We want to give them the chance to watch and be part of the World Cup.”
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