If FIFA had any kind of moral compass, then the popular protests that have spread across Brazil and have seen over two million take to the streets this week would prick their conscience. Nobody would dare to lay the blame for the entirety of Brazil’s societal ills on the hosting of a single sporting event, but questions are certainly raised as to the wisdom of a country spending over £9bn on the World Cup while demanding its downbeat populace spend more on public provisions which they consider to be inadequate.
Alas, Sepp Blatter is keen as ever to highlight just how out of touch he is with the common man, woman or child. “They should not use football,” he says. “… to make their demands heard.” It is a position of remarkable hypocrisy and arrogance. When discussing the virtues of hosting the World Cup, Blatter and his colleagues are all to keen to emphasise the joy it shall bring to the streets, the improvements in infrastructure it will herald, and the popular myth that the return on the investment shall trickle down to local people and business. Now that Brazilians have cottoned on to the fact that, save for the feel good factor for some during the event itself, tangible benefits for them will be few and far between, Blatter demands they disassociate their grievances from the game.
In the mind of Sepp Blatter football is his own personal possession, a particularly handsome child whose ears must be covered when people say nasty things about it. Like any proud parent, he shows off his little miracle to friends around the globe, lapping up the praise they bestow and happily accepting the financial gifts made for its upkeep. But should anyone break with such convention, he shall consider it an affront. A suggestion that his parenting lacks integrity shall be treated with derision; a complaint that his child has a nasty streak will be denied or batted away with ‘boys will be boys’; when one questions why billions are given to his loved one when some can barely feed their own, they will be told to shut up.
Of course Blatter’s inability to act with a modicum of humility or self-awareness comes as no surprise. This is a tournament after all secured for Brazil under the stewardship of Ricardo Teixeira, the former head of its Football Confederation who Swiss prosecutors allege has secured, along with his father-in-law, over $41m in bribes for the awarding of World Cup marketing rights. If FIFA are able to gloss over this (allegations of Teixeira’s corruption pre-date the awarding of the World Cup by a long way), why on earth would they care if bus prices in São Paulo have gone up by 20 per cent or if a pensioner in Goiânia has to wait days for basic medical treatment?
Brazilians should at least be able to look to its sporting
icons for solidarity and supportx, particularly as many of its football stars
grew up in the impoverished conditions that protestors now bemoan. Indeed
Givanildo Vieira de Souza, or Hulk to you and me, a man who last transfer was
for the fee of around €40m and is alleged to receive a wage of around £6m per
annum, refreshingly agreed that ‘Brazil needs to improve in many areas and [we]
must let the demonstrators express themselves.’
However the most famous figure of all managed to produce a
display of foot-in-mouthistry that might have even made Blatter blush. Pelé remarkably
suggested that the nation should ‘forget’ about protesting and simply get
behind the national team. He has since felt compelled to change his tune
following the enormous backlash on social media and beyond, but the extent to
which Brazil’s
most famous export was out of touch with his people had been made crystal
clear.
Pelé’s lack of judgment and perception has been well known for some time. Nonetheless how disheartening it must be for the common Brazilian to be patronised in this manner by a sporting legend at a critical juncture in their country’s history. As both the world’s most famous Brazilian and the world’s most famous footballer, Pelé could serve as a powerful weapon in the struggle against corruption, inefficiency and injustice, both within the society of Brazil and the governance of football. Instead, no doubt with his cosy relationship with FIFA in mind, he has opted to parrot Blatter’s irreverence. If the people of Brazil succeed in securing their aims of an improved society, they will owe the world of football absolutely nothing.
