In Brazil, they use the expression "futbol arte" to describe
the type of soccer which made the country's world champion team of 1970 so easy
on the eye.
But no longer -- football has changed, and
Brazil has changed too.
When it won the World Cup in 1994, the
national team's style of play was dubbed "futebol dá força" -- a
tougher, more pragmatic approach.
And, after a year of violent protests, rubber
bullets and tear gas, the romantic ideal of Brazil often portrayed in glossy
travel magazines seems hard to imagine.
Thursday marks the start of an opportunity
for Brazil to redefine itself after a difficult 12 months preparing for
arguably the world's largest and most popular event.
So no pressure, then, on Brazil's
footballers, who take on Croatia in the tournament's opening game in Sao Paulo,
the recent epicenter of the unrest.
Will the host team's expected progress, led
by current hero Neymar, help ease the sense of injustice which has ingrained
itself within the population?
As if that wasn't a great enough weight on
the shoulders of coach Luiz Felipe Scolari's team, there is the added pressure
of Brazil's quest to exorcise the ghosts of 1950 -- which will begin 64 years
after what is known as the country's "Hiroshima."
When Uruguay defeated Brazil in the deciding match courtesy of Alcides
Ghiggia's strike, it left an indelible mark on a country whose first love has
always been football.
And yet, after more than six decades of
waiting for the tournament to return to their home country, the Brazilian
people are otherwise engaged.
Whereas football may still be a religion, its
Brazilian congregation have slowly turned their backs on their deity.
"This World Cup is not for the
Brazilians," 59-year-old street vendor Maria Elza de Fatima told CNN.
"It is for the foreigners and FIFA
friends."
While thousands of tourists flock to Brazil
and media pack the streets to broadcast the action across the world, Sao Paulo
has been brought to a standstill by metro workers striking over wages -- the
latest in a series of protests against the government.
An estimated $11 billion of public money has
been spent on hosting the tournament -- much to the chagrin of the protesters,
who argue that money might have been better spent on public services..
"I think the best moment to protest is at the end of the World Cup,"
says two-time World Cup winner Cafu, Brazil's most-capped footballer.
"This will be the moment we can show
ourselves that we can fight for our rights -- better education, better
healthcare, better culture, better transportation," he told CNN.
"This is the moment we can show the
world we are capable of staging a well-organized World Cup. We will show we are
a democratic country and (later) fight for our rights."
Once the football starts, nobody will be more
relieved than FIFA and its under-fire president, Sepp Blatter.
The 78-year-old, who has held the position
since 1998, was told Tuesday that he should not stand for a fifth four-year
term by some of the organization's key European members within UEFA.
However, at Wednesday's FIFA Congress in Sao
Paulo, he told delegates "my mission is not finished ... I am ready to
accompany you in the future."
Just a fortnight after allegations of
corruption during the 2022 World Cup vote was reported by Britain's Sunday
Times, Blatter has been forced to endure one of the most difficult periods of
his tenure.
The newspaper claims to have unearthed
millions of emails and other documentation which allege Qatar's former FIFA
Executive Committee member Mohamed Bin Hammam used a multimillion-dollar slush
fund to buy support for the bid.
The claims have been strenuously denied by
Qatar organizers, who in a statement released to CNN Sunday said they had been
co-operating fully with U.S. lawyer Michael Garcia, who has been appointed by
FIFA to lead an investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022
World Cups, awarded to Russia and Qatar.
But president of the Dutch Football
Association Michael Van Praag believes enough is enough.
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