Rio de Janeiro, August 2011

This city is absolutely bonkers. The flow of information and the rate of change and exchange are overwhelming. This is counterbalanced by the mind-boggling geology and the historical trajectory of Brazil. Nothing new, I suppose, just saying.

Real-estate markets are booming. Since October 2009, when the Olympics were announced, prices have more than doubled across the city. Where UPPs have been installed, rates of accretion are much higher. There is a migration of foreign dollars and foreigners into the Olympic City and a migration of locals to the periphery. The currency is overvalued, we appear to be living in some kind of bubble but in a country mired in centuries of bureauctaric inefficiency the structural changes are slow in coming which may, ironically, save Brazil from the depredations being suffered in certain European and North American countries.

Three new transportation lines are getting crammed through the city of Rio without any democratic process or access to information, tens of thousands of people will be forcibly displaced with tens of billions of public funds while the metropolitan transportation plan continues to not exist. BRT é crime.

Last week, someone realized that he had taken the wrong bus but ended up on the Rio-Niteroi bridge. His attempt to get to the other side was woefully unsuccessful and his premature death caused a 12km traffic jam. People desperate to get to work flooded onto the ferry, which has recently reduced service. There are no plans to create more effective links across the bay. The Metrô doesn’t go to either airport and there are no plans to link the two.

It frequently takes more than an hour to leave the campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, which also has no Metrô service. Two weeks ago, my excellent though crazy bus driver solved the puzzle by jumping a median, doing a u-turn and going the wrong way on a two lane road for about 3km, altering the bus’ normal route to go through the airport and then taking another u-turn to head south again. A brilliant move, but really? Those not as fortunate literally waited three hours. There is an entire traffic jam industry with people walking between lines of stopped cars selling snacks and drinks. There are massive stretches of highway that people avoid for fear of assault or the predictable insanity of Rio’s notorious traffic. Some days, the advertising section for cars in OGlobo is larger than the news section. Did I mention that there is no map of Rio's bus system, no way to tell when a certain bus is going to pass a certain point or where it will take you from there?

On Wednesday morning a group of foreign and Brazilian workers were followed from their hotel by two cars. At a certain point on the elevated highway their vans were stopped by 8 machine-gun wielding men who mistakenly robbed the Brazilians and not the gringos. The police are going to come to work a few minutes earlier now, as the assault happened before the shift started. The week before last, a bus was hijacked in front of City Hall. After the bus driver jumped out the calmest dude in the bus was forced to drive on until the Military Police shot out the tires. In the standoff, there was some shooting in which six people were wounded. All of the bullets found in the bus and in the people came from the Military Police. But don’t worry, these very same police are training to rappel down from stadium roofs in the case that someone gets the bright idea to attack a stadium full of people (which to my knowledge has never happened in the history of sport).

I took the following picture this week, there was no one around. This city is also incredibly calm and beautiful.

Yesterday, the Movement of Homeless Workers occupied the Ministry of Sport building in Brasilia demanding an end to the forced removal of people from their homes in preparation for the World Cup and Olympics. Their estimate is that at least 70 thousand people have been forcibly removed already.

In Niterói, a judge who had taken a very hard line against police corruption was shot 21 times as she parked her car in front of her house. She had received multiple death threats, had asked for police protection that was refused, and was about to sentence a high-ranking member of Niterói’s PM. All of the bullets found in the car and in her body belonged to the PM of Niterói. The news was published above the fold in Oglobo, but below were smaller articles detailing her past and present amorous relationships with police, as if these relationships were somehow complicit in her death. Common sense in Rio has is that “she was asking to be killed” as she had perhaps forgotten her place or did not understand that there are certain social and structural conventions (such as milicias being taken on by uppity female judges) that should not be messed with. Despite Carnaval and some progressive social policies, Brazil is a very conservative country.

The city finally took down the fences that surrounded the Praça Tiradentes in the center of town. It looks great. Fences around public space area sign that the government fears the public. Let’s hope they continue to make improvements like this to all of Rio’s plazas and not just those that come under the gaze of foreign architecture firms (and/or graduate programs in Architecture).

The Olympic Park Project is going to be very, very interesting and a big challenge. The project is handicapped by the location which doesn’t lend itself to integrated urbanism, but will certainly provide an opportunity for longitudinal studies into the ways in which discursive Olympism meets up with the actual needs of the cities in which the Games occur. The technical production of the project is amazing, though in the official release we are given a very limited geographic perspective (south-east to north-west) of the project as a whole. However, from the looks of it, the majority of the Vila Autódromo will be saved. El Principe did not want to comment about that.

This weekend, all of the torcidas organizadas in the entire country – with the exception of those in Rio de Janeiro (who are not integrated into the national federation of torcidas organizadas because they have a somewhat cozier relationship with the existing power structures) – will protest against Ricardo Teixeira’s reign at the CBF. The movement Fora Ricardo Teixeira has gained tens of thousands of supporters throughout Brazil. The ANT-RJ will be brining the fight to the mean streets of the Fechadão prior to Vasco x Framengo this Sunday and ANT-SP will be doing the same. There is significant attention being drawn to the endemic corruption at the CBF and FIFA. No less a figure than Romário, Brazil’s great striker of the 1990s and now a federal deputy, has launched criticisms in the direction of the 2014 World Cup saying that completing promises made to FIFA without respecting human rights and national laws simply will not be tolerated.  This is an important figure saying important things that are going against the prevailing tide. It’s not too late to do things right. 

Back in Action

After nearly two weeks away, much has changed in Rio but everything continues along the same trajectory.

A new UPP was installed in the Mangueira favela, closing the “security belt” around the Maracanã . Many communities are clamoring for the installation of UPPs, but some places are more critical than others to mega-event security and those receive military occupation first. Even O Globo can be heard to clamor for more rapid investment in urbanization and social programs to accompany the changing of one form of martial law for another.

Did you understand what our world cup symbol means?
 They're going to steal public money?
Eiii! Whose hand is this without a finger?

The Federal Government is trying to hide the real costs of mega-event construction at the same time that the tight relationships between Rio governor Deputy Dog Cabral, Eike Batista (the richest man in Brazil) and Delta Construction (recipient of more than a billion in tate contracts in the last 3 years) were revealed because of a helicopter crash that killed the girlfriend of Cabral’s son on the way to a private party in Bahia state. Batista gave R$750,000 to Cabral’s re-election campaign in 2010. Delta is part of nearly all public works projects in Rio de Janeiro. These insider relationships and the closing off of mega-event budgets to public scrutiny because they are considered “state secrets” has not done much to improve public opinion about how, where, why, and how the tens of billions of public R$ are being spent.

On the good side, there is an increasingly coordinated public movement against the autocratic turn in Brazilian politics. On Tuesday (tomorrow) there is a rally in front of the Municipal Government to call for a CPI (Parliamentary Inquisition Commission)  to investigate the forced removal of thousands of homes and the destruction of communities and livelihoods that have been the subject of so much national and international media attention. As ever, Eliomar Coelho is at the front of this movement and is struggling to get a few more city council people to get on board. The majority of the city council is in the pocket of El Principe (mayor Eduardo Paes) and are undoubtedly making tons of money.

The international NGO Witness was in Rio a few weeks ago and produced this video about the removals in the Favela do Metrô, which is being destroyed to make way for a parking lot for the Maracanã. There are a series of videos about other communities in Rio that can be linked to from this youtube clip.

Photos: Corinthians (3) x Santos (1)

These are some photos from a trip to one of the Paulista clássicos with the people from ANT-SP. Most of these are self-explainatory. My ticket, bought from a cambista, was R$50 (face value R$30, probably purchased for R$15). He initally wanted R$70. It's not cheap to go to the stadium in Brazil.

Plaza Charles Miller and the walk to the entrance

Bandeira in waiting

Main entrance, Pacaembu. Opened in 1939. 

big, but not uncommon

Playing on Corinthians' nickname of "Black Chickens", the Santos fans circle the stadium with corn feed the night before the game.

Integrantes, ANT-SP

one of millions

under the bandeira

cold rain, getting ready to fall

A nation of more than 30 million crazies. Santos fans stuck in the far corner of the stadium. 

Under the narrow roof, six rows back. I missed the third Corinthians goal.

"Fans: sit in the right place"

Galinha nova, galinha grande

Interview on Edge of Sports about World Cup and Olympics

http://edgeofsports.com/audio/media/10-22-10_segment3.mp3

The above is a link to an interview on Edge of Sports radio (Dave Zirin) about the ANT, the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. More coming soon!

Also, next week is the International Conference Mega-Events and the City to be held at the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi. Check the website for the schedule and details. I'll be publishing exerpts from my conference paper here over the next week.

For new readers, there's several years worth of posts to read up on while you're waiting for the next installment.

E para os/as Brasileir@s, vou começar postar mais em Português para que pudessem ter mais acesso aos acontecimentos em relação a Copa e Olim-piada.  Tenham paciência, estou demorando dominar a língua de vocês.

The World Cup and the Elimination of Public Memory

The Maracanã is one of the most famous stadiums in all of human history. Constructed to host the 1950 World Cup final, its official capacity was 179,000. Brazilians happily referred to the colossal stadium as “O Maior do Mundo” – the biggest in the world. Over the years, hundreds of thousands gathered in the Maracanã to watch football. To create football. To live football. It was in the Maracanã that Santos F.C. and Pelé won the World Club Championship in 1961. Flamengo and Zico did the same in 1981. Pelé chose the Maracanã as the place to score his 1,000^th goal. Since then, the goal itself has been known as the “Gol de Pelé”. The other goal is known as the “Gol de Garrincha” because that is where, in the 79^th minute of the World Cup final in 1950, with the score tied 1-1, the Uruguayan winger killed the dreams of a nation.

This is not a tale of romanticized melodrama, it’s culture. It’s living, breathing, screaming, flag-waving, carnavelesque culture, and it’s being killed as you read this. . The reforms underway to “prepare” Brazilian stadiums to host the 2014 World Cup are literally eliminating the spaces where Brazilian football culture takes place. The Maracanã has undergone a series of hatchet jobs. In 1999, the capacity was reduced from 179,000 to 129,000. Before the FIFA World Club Championships in 2000, the Maracanã suffered the idiocy of “luxury boxes” that only served to cut off the air circulation and eliminate the use of the monumental ramps that define the stadium’s exterior.  In 2004-2005, a R$450 million reform reduced the capacity to 85,000, eliminated the standing only section, lowered the field by 3 meters, and installed big screen tvs that are about to be thrown out. Why? Because the “Maior do Mundo” is undergoing a projected R$720 million reform that will reduce the capacity to 75,000, install a roof so no one but the players get wet, and will actually reduce the length of the field by 7 meters and its width by 5 meters. Both the Gol de Pelé and the Gol de Garrincha will die. Those spaces, those places, the goal line where history and culture were made and remembered and recreated and forgotten and relived and renewed week after week, season after season, year after year, for six decades – gone. Poof. Já era. Public memory, public culture, one of the constituent elements of civil society – extinguished with a torrent of public money.

This is not only happening in Rio de Janeiro. The Minerão in Belo Horizonte is undergoing the same process. The Fonte Novo in Salvador, already reduced to rubble. The Vivaldão in Manaus is no more. The stadiums that are going up in their place are temples of consumption, sanitized environments that facilitate the circulation of capital, VIP salons where culture is consumed and not produced, air-conditioned fortresses, highly securitized off-worlds, crystalline shopping malls that require one parking spot for every six spectators. The 2014 World Cup stadiums in Fortaleza, Cuiabá, Manaus, Natal, and Brasilia will have no post-cup functionality. The World Cup stadiums will have such high maintenance costs that they can only be supported though public subsidy. We just saw this happen in South Africa, where residents of Cape Town are debating whether or not to implode the Green Point stadium. This is as revolting as it is sickening and immoral.

Why are public officials so willing to invest BILLIONS in public funds to erect stadia that :

1)      have no relationship to the urban environment?

2)      have no post-event uses?

3)      are undertaken with no input from those who use the stadiums?

4)      forcibly dislocate communities to make way for a “clean” television shot?

5)      will never have any economic viability, never make a return on the public investment?

6)      become privatized during the World Cup, where only FIFA security forces operate, where the only profits accrue to FIFA and their rapacious partners?

7)      destroy the very places where public culture and memory are created, preserved, lived, and transformed?

It doesn’t have to be this way. There is a different model. There is a way to make the democratically elected officials wake up from their soporific state of infatuation with corrupt FIFA overlords. The Minster of Sport and Culture, a member of the Communist Party of Brazil, is leading the way towards the destruction of sport and culture. O que isso?!?!! The project of ANT (torcedores.org) is to change the direction of these projects, to democratize the World Cup, to make it something Brazilian, not something from Switzerland. Within two weeks of ANT’s foundation the association has nearly 1,000 members throughout Brazil. One by one, the march of the formigas (ants) will grow, and by sheer force of numbers the white elephants will be consumed.

The positive anthill (em portugues)

ANT: o formigueiro do bem

OUT OF TOUCH – NÃO ME TOQUES

A Associação Nacional dos Torcedores lançou uma campanha para lutar pelos direitos dos torcedores brasileiros. O grupo já foi criticado, sendo chamado de elitista, esquerdista, marxista, out of touch e por aí vai. Tudo bem, que venham as críticas. No entanto, com quase uma semana de vida, a ANT tem mais de 500 membros e cresce diariamente. A associação apresentou uma série de críticas e demandas, reações às mudanças visíveis e invisíveis que ocorrem na cultura dos estádios brasileiros. Muitas destas mudanças são estimuladas pelos preparativos feitos no Rio de Janeiro e em outras 11 cidades brasileiras que irão sediar a Copa do Mundo. Em especial no Rio, as transformações são multiplicadas, acentuadas e aceleradas com a proximidade dos Jogos Olímpicos e Paraolímpicos.

 A ANT foi taxada de elitista por ser liderada provisoriamente por professores universitários. No Brasil, a produção de mega-eventos é que conduzida por uma elite neoliberal privatizadora, de especuladores imobiliários, turistas de hotel cinco estrelas amantes de cruzeiros e luxos extravagantes, discípulos de Rudy Giuliani, cheios de não me toques, ilhados em seu mundinho de champagne e caviar (além de estarem protegidos tanto pelos aparatos de segurança público quanto privado). Há um tempo venho catalogando as transformações radicais que vêm ocorrendo no Rio de Janeiro no decorrer de seus preparativos para a Copa do Mundo e para as Olimpíadas, incluindo o falido Pan-Americano de 2007.

É muito fácil ser contra tudo que envolve a Copa do Mundo e as Olimpíadas no Brasil. Os eventos são forçadamente sediados nas cidades (com o consentimento de um governo representativo nominal); tais eventos tiram dinheiro dos cofres públicos e gastam tudo em infra-estrutura esportiva sem ou com quase nenhuma aplicabilidade local ou uso real após o evento; os benefícios do “legado” não são equivalentes ao dinheiro gasto; existem problemas muito mais sérios que precisam ser solucionados com essa mesma verba pública; a caixa preta vazou, todos os problemas estão transbordando; não há responsabilidade pública financeira; há de fato o uso da violência para modelar o espaço urbano tornando-o capaz de acomodar o evento esportivo; a noção de “segurança” está limitada à acumulação econômica; não se chega nem a consultar as pessoas que terão que viver com as conseqüências das reformas; os benefícios são exagerados e os custos omitidos. No caso da ANT, estamos falando de torcedores de futebol, mas devemos estender tal categoria a fim de abranger toda e qualquer pessoa que sofrerá os impactos das transformações feitas para a Copa do Mundo e para as Olimpíadas.

Logo, sabendo que a Copa e as Olimpíadas vão invadir o espaço da cidade (e mudá-lo para sempre), quais são as alternativas? Como seria um mega-evento com um algo mais, um diferencial? Quais são as contra-propostas existentes? Eis algumas ideias, todas relacionadas com as questões apontadas pela ANT:

1.      Ao término dos Jogos, a venda dos alojamentos projetados para as Olimpíadas devem ser reguladas, permitindo renda imobiliária mista. Estes projetos também tinham que ser disseminados por toda a cidade. Por que construir alojamentos olímpicos apenas em zonas olímpicas? É realmente necessário gastar DEZENAS DE BILHÕES de reais para reestruturar uma área tão limitada da cidade?

2.      Menos de 20% das escolas públicas do Rio de Janeiro têm áreas de recreação e mesmo assim só as reformas no Maracanã vão custar mais que R$1 bilhão (1.000.000.000), reduzindo a capacidade do que antes fora o maior estádio do mundo para a anoréxica quantidade de 75 mil torcedores. O mantra entoado pela Secretária Estadual de Esporte, Turismo e Lazer do Rio de Janeiro, Marcia Lins é que “nós devemos cumprir com as demandas da FIFA”. O uso de BILHÕES das verbas públicas para a criação de um estádio que receberá um evento privado, para o lucro privado, enquanto a VASTA MAIORIA das escolas cariocas está sem espaços básicos de recreação, é no mínimo uma violação criminosa dos direitos básicos de todos os cidadãos, não apenas dos torcedores de futebol. Que tal primeiro cumprir com o contrato social básico previsto numa democracia?

3.      Da mesma forma que a maioria da população vem sendo excluída dos estádios de futebol devido a um aumento nos preços dos ingressos, milhões de pessoas também serão deslocadas por causa do aumento dos alugueis. Desde que o Rio “ganhou” as Olimpíadas, o aumento de 81% dos alugueis perpassou toda a cidade. Nas comunidades “pacificadas”, houve um aumento de 400%. Em geral o estádio é um reflexo da sociedade. A cidade devia ser um lugar que existe além do domínio do consumo – todos deviam ter o direito de freqüentar espaços de lazer e recreação. A elitização dos estádios brasileiros não é um fim inevitável! A expulsão indireta do povo do centro do Rio por causa da especulação imobiliária pode ser evitada! Alguém aqui já parou para procurar apartamentos para alugar? Nem tente comprar qualquer coisa aqui até que a bolha estoure em 2017. O Rio já é uma das cidades mais caras das Américas e a tendência é piorar ao menos que existam medidas legislativas adequadas para o controle da especulação imobiliária.

4.      Os projetos de transporte de mega-eventos deviam considerar o todo da região metropolitana e não apenas reestruturar o espaço urbano para trazer pessoas dos centros turísticos (Zona Sul) ou de bolsões de mão-de-obra barata (Deodoro, Santa Cruz) para a Barra da Tijuca. Os atuais projetos de transporte vão fragmentar ainda mais a cidade, aumentando a dependência por meios de transporte obsoletos, além de não oferecer soluções em longo prazo para os já gravíssimos problemas no trânsito do Rio. Os transportes marinhos deviam exercer papel fundamental nos preparativos para os mega-eventos do Rio. Planos atuais de extensão do serviço de transporte marinho: ZERO. (Este item está relacionado aos pontos 5 e 7 levantados pela ANT, referentes ao horário dos jogos e ao transporte em dias de jogos. Por exemplo, ontem a noite em São Januário, no jogaço entre Vasco x Corinthians, o pontapé inicial foi dado às 22h. O metrô fecha à meia-noite. Por que 22h? Ora, porque assim o jogo começa depois das novelas. Por que meia-noite? Ninguém sabe o porquê, já que o Metrô Rio é dirigido por uma franquia privada).

5.      O jeito pelo qual as gerais foram removidas dos estádios brasileiros é o mesmo pelo usado pelo governo no trato das comunidades de baixa renda da cidade. Os projetos de redesenvolvimento urbano da Zona Portuária foram entregues para uma empresa privada (CDURP). Em média 30 mil pessoas moram nos arredores dessa região, mas seu futuro residencial, urbano e laborial será definido por uma forma privatizada do governo urbano. O mesmo processo está em andamento com as 119 favelas destinadas à remoção forçada pelo governo municipal. A total ausência de envolvimento público no processo de re-estruturação do Maracanã é EXATAMENTE a mesma falta que notamos em outros setores sociais. O Maracanã será igualmente privatizado após as Olimpíadas. A Zona Portuária está se transformando numa zona da empresa privada e da governança urbano privada. Grandes (e pequenas) comunidades estão sendo apagadas do mapa em prol da criação do “Espaço Olímpico”. O público precisa se envolver mais nestas decisões. A ANT se predispõe a participar das conversações acerca dos estádios. A sociedade civil vem se mostrando extremamente vagarosa ao reagir perante as grandes mudanças já em curso.

6.      O futebol não é democrático, nós sabemos disso. Mas falando sério, no Brasil nós ultrapassamos o limite da falta de democracia. Ricardo Teixeira é o presidente da CBF há 21 anos. Isso é mais do que o tempo de vida que Neymar tem na Terra. Pela primeira vez na sórdida história das Copas do Mundo, o presidente da federação nacional do futebol é também o presidente do Comitê de Organização da Copa do Mundo. Esse duplo papel já trás conseqüências calamitosas que comprometem a transparência da instituição. E claro, a filha dele (a neta do ex-presidente da FIFA, João Havelange) é a Secretária Geral da Copa de 2014. Existem 5, C-I-N-C-O, CINCO membros no Comitê de Organização da Copa do Mundo de 2014! Deve existir algum tipo de entidade independente que mantém essa máfia, representando os interesses dos torcedores brasileiros e garantindo que a Copa do Mundo deixará algo, qualquer tipo de legado que não seja 12 elefantes brancos que vão passar os próximos 50 anos sugando milhões de reais por mês em gastos com manutenção.

7.      Desde sempre os seres humanos se reúnem em espaços públicos para assistir outros seres humanos jogando. Desde essa época, ou seja, há muito tempo atrás estes mesmos seres humanos comem carne vermelha e consomem um tipo de bebida fermentada. Desde junho de 2009, o direito básico do ser humano de consumir álcool e assistir pessoas fazendo coisas em um espaço e local especificamente designado para isso, parou de existir no Brasil.  Pois é, no Brasil você não pode beber cerveja dentro de um estádio!!!!!! Pelo menos até 2014, quando os “menos violentos, com menor propensão ao crime” vierem visitar. Se existe qualquer argumento que prove que a proibição do álcool nos estádios reduz em larga ou até mesmo em média escala os níveis de violência durante partidas de futebol, por favor, me envie essa prova. Se não (você, pretenso dono supremo do futebol), trate as pessoas como adultos, não como jovens com tendências criminosas, assim você irá gerar mais lucros para a AmBev! Jesus, Maria, José, deixa a cerveja entornar! Respeitem o torcedor!

Neste domingo (17/10) a ANT fará sua primeira manifestação pública no clássico Fluminense x Botafogo.

ANT: o formigueiro positivo (The positive anthill)

The National Fans’ Association (Associação Nacional dos Torcedores) has launched a campaign to fight for the rights of sport fans in Brazil. The group has already received criticisms for being elitist, leftist, Marxist, out of touch, etc. Tudo bem, bring the criticisms. However, within a week of its founding, ANT has more than 500 members and is growing daily. The organization has laid out a series of criticisms and demands that are a reaction to the visible and invisible changes occurring in Brazilian stadium culture. Many of these changes are stimulated by preparing Rio de Janerio and 11 other Brazilian cities to host the World Cup. In Rio, the changes are multiplied, intensified, and accelerated because of the looming Olympic and Paralympic Games.

 

ANT received criticisms of elitism because it is provisionally headed by university professors. The reality of mega-event production in Brazil, is that the events are being carried off by a handful of cloistered, neo-liberal, privatizing, real-estate speculating, five star hotel tourist, Rudy Giuliani adoring, cruise ship loving, luxury box cavorting, prawn sandwich eating, out-of-touch elites (protected by private and state security apparatuses). I have been cataloging for some time now the radical transformations happening in Rio de Janeiro to prepare the city for the World Cup and Olympics, including the bulloxed 2007 Pan American Games.

It is quite easy to be against everything that is going on with the World Cup and Olympics in Brazil. The events are forced upon cities (with the consent of a nominally representative government); they take money from public coffers and spend it on sporting infrastructure that has little or no local context or post-event usage; the “legacy” benefits are not equivalent to the money spent; there are much more serious problems that need to be addressed that public money should be going to; everything is run out of a black box; there’s no public accountability; there is real violence taking place in order to shape urban space to accommodate the event; notions of “security” are limited to economic accumulation; no attempt is made to consult the very people who will have to live with the consequences of the reforms; the benefits are exaggerated and the costs hidden. In the case of ANT, we’re talking about football fans, but we should extend that categorization to include anyone, everyone who will be impacted by the preparations for the World Cup and Olympics.

 

So, given that the World Cup and Olympics are going to take place (and change space), what are the alternatives? What would a more just mega-event look like? What are some counter-proposals? Here are some ideas, each of which link up with items put forward by ANT:

1. The post-Games sale of housing projects developed for the Olympics should be regulated, allowing for mixed income residences. These projects should also be spread throughout the city. Why just build Olympic housing in Olympic zones? Is it really necessary to spend TENS OF BILLIONS of Reales to restructure such a limited area of the city? 

2. Less than 20% of Rio de Janeiro’s public schools have recreation areas, yet the Maracanã reforms alone will cost more than R$ 1 billion (1.000.000.000) and will reduce the capacity of what was once the world’s largest stadium to an anorexic 75,000. The mantra of Marcia Lins, State Secretary of Sport and Leisure, is that “we have to comply with FIFA’s demands.” The use of BILLIONS of public funds to create a stadium for a private event, for private profit, when that VAST MAJORITY of Rio’s schools are without basic spaces for play is a criminal violation of the basic rights of all citizens, not just football fans. What about attending to the basic social contract of a democracy first?

3. In the same way that large sections of the population have been excluded from football stadiums because of an increase in ticket prices, millions will also be displaced because of an increase in rents. Since Rio “won” the Olympics, rents across the city have increased by 81%. In “pacified” communities, they have increased 400%. The stadium is a reflection of society at large. The city should be a place that exists beyond the realm of consumer consumption – everyone should have the right to frequent spaces of leisure. The “elite-ization” of Brazilian stadiums and is not an inevitable outcome! The indirect expulsion of people from the center of Rio because of real-estate speculation can be avoided! Has anyone looked into renting an apartment here? Don’t even think about coming here to buy anything until the bubble bursts in 2017. Rio is already one of the most expensive cities in the Americas and it’s only going to get worse unless there are legislative measures put into place to control real-estate speculation. 

4. Mega-event transportation projects should treat the whole of the metropolitan region, not simply restructure urban space to bring people from tourist centers (Zona Sul), or pockets of cheap labor (Deodoro, Santa Cruz) to Barra de Tijuca. The current transportation projects will further fragment the city, increase dependence on outmoded forms of transportation, and will not provide long term solutions to Rio’s already grave traffic problems. Water-based transport should play an integral role in Rio’s preparations for mega-events. Current plans to extend service: 0. (This item attends to ANT items 5 and 7, game times and game transport. Last night , for example. São Januário, Vasco x Corinthians, jogasso. Kickoff 10pm. The metro closes at midnight. Why 10pm? It’s after the novellas. Why midnight? No one has any idea as Metrô Rio is run by a private concession.)

5. The jeito (style, manner) in which the cheap, standing-only sections of Brazilian stadiums (geral) were removed is the same jeito that the government uses in relation to lower income communities throughout the city. The urban redevelopment projects slated for the Zona Portuaria have been handed over to a private company (CDURP). Around 30,000 people live in this part of town but their urban, work, and residential futures are going to be shaped by a privatized form of urban governance. The same kind of process is at work with the 119 favelas slated for forcible removal by the municipal government. The complete absence of public involvement in the process of re-structuring the Maracanã is EXACTLY the same lack that we can see in other social sectors. The Maracanã will likely be privatized after the Olympics. The Zona Portuaria is turning into a zone of private enterprise and private urban governance. Long (and short) -standing communities are being cleared form the map in order to produce “Olympic Space”. The public needs to become more involved in these decisions. ANT is demanding to participate in the conversation regarding stadiums. Civil society has been slow to react to the larger changes under way.

6. Football is not democratic, we get it. But seriously, in Brazil we’ve taken things to the next level. Ricardo Teixeira has been the president of the CBF for 21 years. That’s longer than Neymar has been alive. For the first time in the sordid history of the World Cup, the president of the national football federation is also president of the World Cup organizing committee. This double papel is already having some dire consequences for transparency. Oh yeah, his daughter (former FIFA president João Haveleange’s grand-daughter) is the Secretary General of Brasil 2014. There are 5, F-I-V-E, CINCO, people on the Brasil 2014 Organizing Committee! There must be some kind of independent entity that holds this cabal accountable, represents the interests of Brazilian fans, and ensures that the World Cup will leave something, anything behind other than 12 white elephants that spend the next 50 years eating up a million R$ a month in maintenance costs.

7. Since forever, human beings have gathered in public places to watch other human beings play games. Since then, which is a very long time indeed, they have eaten red meat and consumed some kind of fermented beverage. Since June of 2009, the basic human right to consume alcohol and watch people do things in a space and place specifically designed for that activity, has ceased to exist in Brazil. That’s right, you cannot drink beer in a Brazilian stadium!!!!!! Until 2014, that is, when the “less violent, less criminally inclined” come to visit. If there is any proof whatsoever that banning alcohol reduces large or even medium scale violence at football matches, someone please send it along. Otherwise (you football overlords) treat people as adults, not criminally inclined juveniles, and you’ll be able to make some more R$ for AmBev! Jaysus Mary and Joseph – let the beer flow! Respetiam o torcedor!

ANT will have its first public manifestation at the Fluminense x Botafogo match this Sunday, October 17. 

ASSOCIAÇÃO NACIONAL DOS TORCEDORES (ANT)

Associação Nacional dos Torcedores

OUR MISSION in seven points, to honor Garrincha, the joy of the people.

Create a non-profit organization to fight against:

1. The exclusion of the Brazilian population from football stadiums, which has resulted form a deliberate policy of diminishing stadium capacity, eliminating popular sections, and an abusive increase in ticket prices.
2. The disrespect shown for Brazilian football culture with the extinction of popular areas like the geral where there was a tradition of watching games while standing, as happens in Germany, Argentina, and other major football nations. For example, the Maracanã has suffered massive and expensive reforms undertaken without consulting fans.
3. The lack of transparency in Brazilian football which has been controlled for decades by corrupt and incompetent directors; for example, the Brazilian Football Confederation has been controlled by the same person for nearly two decades. We demand that Brazilian football be democratized.
4. The political exploitation of football for political ends, abusing the sport’s popularity to use in creating public policies that work against public interests.
5. The control of the football schedule and times by a television network that for decades has retained a lucrative monopoly over the broadcast of football matches. Matches should begin no later than 8pm during the week and 5pm on Sundays, the traditional hours for Brazilian football.
6. The end of forced removals for lower-income communities in the name of the World Cup and Olympics.
7. The lack of decent public transportation on match day, we demand special transportation to bring fans to and from the stadium.

First rally: Sunday October 16, Fluminense x Botafogo, Fechadão, 5pm.