This year, Brazil will see itself hosting the 20th tournament of the FIFA world cup for the second time. Brazil hosted the match for the first time back in 1950. Having played at every World Cup, and being one of the most successful teams in the tournaments history, the Brazilian team is under pressure. The fans have huge expectations that the team will perform better in this tournament as they will be the hosts; they are expected to succeed on home soil (Hurley, 2014). Apart from the pressure of performing well on their home soil, the public relations issues that have been going on have left a lot to be desired. The Brazilian team and the country itself have suffered from bad publicity for not being well prepared for the upcoming World Cup, and high insecurity rates.
One of the major issues facing the Word Cup tournament in Brazil is the state of the stadiums. The huge fears that people are having are whether the stadiums will be built and up and running in time. In November, two workers lost their lives at the Itaquerao Stadium (McLeod, 2014). The stadium in located in Sao Paulo and is set to host the opening match of the tournament. The putting up and renovation of these stadiums has been affected by the high level of public debts that the country faces. The improvement on these stadiums will require the country to change its fiscal strategies, to enable it improve the physical infrastructure. The delay of the PAC during the implementation and the spending of only 40 per cent of the earmarked funds spent by 2009, major projects like the World Cup and the Olympics in 2016 have been delayed (Bodman, Sweig & Wolfensohn, 2011). As of early January, six out of the twelve stadiums that should be used were not yet ready (Gallegos, 2014). Such issues have brought negative public relations concerning the tournament, which is set to begin on 12th June this year. Apart from the stadiums, the railroad line that was meant to connect downtown Sao Paulo to the airports is also behind schedule and is no longer expected to start operating before the World Cup starts in June (Zimbalist, 2011). The late delivery of the stadiums has been a major issue in that the greatest fear is that the stadiums might not be safe for the fans and the players. The FIFA committees had set up a date for the stadiums to be completed to enable them ensure that the stadiums were y up to their standards. The late delivery has thus led to the many questions that the stadiums might not be up to the standards of FIFA which might make them dangerous to the fans and the players. Sao Paulo stadium has been closed and the completion has been postponed till it has been proven safe for use and finishing of the construction.
According to McLeod (2014), the social issues that have been going on with people demonstrating against the World Cup. The inequality in South American country has seen the rise of a strong movement, which has been rioting in the street of Sao Paulo against the World Cup. The movement already has issued an official name that will be put on t-shirts and other items, ‘Operation Stop the World Cup’. The movement was protesting against the use of the funds in building stadiums. According to them, the funds should be put into some more tangible projects like medical and social services (Chandler, 2014).The public was also aggravated by the fact the funds being used for the construction of all those facilities was public funds and would put a strain on the tax payers within a short period of time. As the riots coincided with the Confederations Cup Soccer tournament, which is a warm- up tournament for the World Cup (The Guardian, 2014), people are worried on the rioting which might pick up during the World Cup. This will cause a lot of insecurity during the event, and due to this, the upcoming tournament has been on the receiving end of the negative PR.
The industry of support services has also been on the receiving end of the public relations negativity that has been going on. As much as there are many private services that have the capacity to properly cater to the needs of the visitors during the tournament, it has been a major concern to the public and the fans that these services might not be met to the latter. Services such as taxis, food, retail sales and health are mostly independent of public policies and thus, keeping to the expected prices and demands according to market pressure might be difficult. The hardest part knows whether the necessary resizing will occur, especially in cities that have been subject to little tourism traditions or cities that are smaller hosts of the tournament.
The other issue that has been disturbing people is the state of the airports in Brazil. People have been complaining that the Brazilian airports and airways don’t have the capacity to handle the heavy demands of fans flying back and forth between cities. It has been reported that three of the major renovations projects on the Brazilian airports were all behind schedule. The problem with this is that the security concerns are only hitting a notch higher for lack of reliable airlines and airports. This is one of the events that are increasing the heat of the public relations drama that the World Cup tournament in Brazil is facing. One of the airport’s, Fortaleza airport in the North of the country, has delayed major renovations till the end of the upcoming World Cup. The airport authorities have opted for a plan B where they have improvised a tent terminal. The city of Fortaleza will be hosting four of the World Cup matches, and its airport is just one among the many across the country that need extensive renovations to help them cope with the influx of tourists as thousands of soccer fans flood the country ahead of the matches. In January, workers went on strike demanding late payment of salaries and bonuses thus paralyzing the renovations. The airport authority has offered a statement saying the airport will not be ready by the time the tournament starts in June.
Most of the obstacles that the country has been facing, and those that have added to the pounding negative public relations issues ahead of the World Cup, were labor shortages, political corruption, insufficient funds, bureaucratic encumbrances, legal entrapments, inadequate infrastructure and incompetence. The state of the traffic back in 2011 was among the negative images that the country began to suffer ahead of the tournament. The visitors travelling back home from San Paulo were being urged to leave their hotel rooms five hours earlier before their scheduled flights as the traffic along the 15- mile road was unbearable. That was long before the football was even close to the doors of the country (Zimbalist, 2011). Fans are now worried that the traffic will heighten over the World Cup tournament as the number of tourists both domestic and foreign will heighten. The other issue apart from the increased number of tourists in the country, the movements across the twelve cities that are hosting the World Cup will also be a problem as most of the people will be opting to use the flights to connect to these cities. This is because travelling by road will be tedious and long distance coverage which might see people missing some of the games. Some of the road and railway projects have already been derailed or stopped with the match set to start in June; therefore fans are worried whether they can make to take the flights with so much traffic on the roads and in the airports.
The hospitality system in the country has also been on the receiving end of the negative Public relations. Though it is a private sector concern, people have been worried that the accommodation available might not be enough for the crowd that will show up in Brazil during the tournament. The hotel system is expected to have added around 19, 500 hotel rooms before June when the tournament kicks off, but the worry is the rooms might not be even there for the many tourists. The only cities with a better hotel infrastructure are Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Sao Paulo, and the matches will be held in twelve cities. This shows that the rest of the nine cities might not be having the right hotel infrastructure that will meet the capacity requirements that are recommended by FIFA.
When rumors on the cancellation of the prestigious football industry conference started, in November 2013, a few eyebrows were raised. But more was at stake when the soccerex was called off in Rio de Janeiro seven months before the World Cup tournament started. When asked about the issue, the organizers claimed that the civil unrest that was ongoing was to blame for the cancellation of the event. However, FIFA and the state of Rio organizers claimed that the cancellation was due to financial decisions (Smith, 2013). The two conflicting claims were of course confusing as people did not know which to believe, but fact is the event brought a huge setback ahead of the World Cup tournament in the country; it added to the sense that people have always been having that the World Cup event will be having fraught difficulties. Both FIFA and Brazil have been facing negative public relations battle and this just added to the pile of issues that they had going on. The protesting by the public clashing with the police making the political environment look unsafe added more to the negative public relations.
When FIFA president SeppBlatter said that Brazil started working preparations for the World Cup in January, there was no much effect. However, when Jerome Valcke’s, FIFA’s Secretary General updated in early march that they were corking in conditions where the cement was not dry yet and the IT and telecommunications system had not been installed, the negative image of the tournament that is soon to start heighted a notch higher.
One of the methods that the country has used to resolve some of these issues is looking for private investors to fund some of the projects like the temporary grandstands that have to be erected in some of the stadiums. Since the public started protesting against the use of the public funds to support the ongoing constructions, most of the cities have been reluctant on using public money to erect the grandstands. Ronaldo, a former Brazilian striker said that the temporary seats were very crucial, during the inauguration of the Biera- Rio stadium. The city authorities have been running up and down to get private investors to put up the grandstands. Though it has been hard finding private investors in a last minute rush, some have been secured for the projects.
Another method that the country has resolved to use during the tournament is the tent terminal. The tent terminal will be having anything that a terminal is supposed to have; check- in area and restaurants among many others, but will be just temporary. This issue has of course contributed to the negative public relations bombarding that Brazil has been facing with people worrying that their travel arrangements might not be met and the level of insecurity might increase from the lack of fully installed airport terminals, but it the best since the terminal is not complete.
Though some of the measures have been taken to tackle the matter, some of the details given are confusing and maybe not professionally handled. As much as there was assurance of Sao Paulo stadium being completed in time, the fans were not however assured of their safety. The death of a worker raised the safety questions and has led to speculations that the stadium has been closed till necessary safety measures have put in place.
The country has used another strategy to boost the negative public relations they have been facing, one that was meant to assure the tourists and anyone else that they are serious on the sex topics and the human trafficking issues that have been going on concerning the World Cup. Last year, the women’s soccer league had t-shirts named feeling ‘Thorns?’ which were pulled off the shelf as they were deemed too sexist. In February this year, the topic on the t-shirts came up again when the World Cup partner Adidas agreed to a request by Brazil’s tourism board to stop the sale of two t-shirts in the US for US consumers. The t-shirts were thought to promote sexual tourism in the country, though they were meant to be good natured. Brazilian authorities and leaders have been fighting and monitoring the issue of sexual tourism closely, and to them, the t-shirts were just a means of promoting the ideal. One of the t-shirts has a woman in Bikini- clad with open arms under the word- pay ‘ looking to score, and the other, has a word- play ‘ I love Brazil’ heart that resembles the upside-down butt of a woman, wearing a thong bikini bottom (Joe, 2014). The authorities have argued though they use promotions of women in bikinis in the beaches of Brazil as a means of promoting tourism, the ones that were being used for the World Cup were just promoting sexual tourism which the country could not have. This acted as a positive public relation in that it showed the country was ready and willing to fight the sexual tourism menace that has been going on. This will help in ensuring that the World Cup will run smoothly and sexual abuse on children through the sexual tourism saga is kept at bay.
Though these measures are being taken by the country to ensure that the bad publicity issue is handled, the whole strategy and methodology that is being used to handle the situation is a bit confusing to the public and the fans in general. It also looks a bit unprofessional as the FIFA organizers and the Brazil organizers are not offering any details. As much as the negative public relations is going on, what fans and the world need is assurance that the game will go on and be assured of their safety. Most of the World Cups have faced pre- match nightmares. During the 1968 World Cup tournament in Mexico, the match was still held after the country suffered devastating earthquakes. The FIFA committee and managers together with the Brazilian authorities should be getting out a message, which they are not doing, that all will be fine, which will be a way of driving positive public relations around the world. If they do this, the effects that the negative PR has had on the fans will be cleared and the tournament can take place in peace- and attract more fans since they will be assured of their security.
The already ailing PR of the country and the tournament can be driven towards the positive direction by the use of some of the old players of the Brazil team. The 1970 Brazil team that consisted of Felix, Pele, Carlos Alberto, Gerson and Rivellino is said to be the best the team that ever represented Brazil. The FIFA committee and Brazil organizers can use this team to assure people that all is well ahead of the June tournament. Though Pele was quoted at end of last year saying that the tournament will be a success, the already battered PR of the country and the World Cup needs more than Pele; the whole team and more players that are known should be brought to the front, bringing the same message to the world. If a positive message about the tournament is passed through by a group of known and loved players the public together with the fans will be assured of their safety and the game going on as well.
Being involved in the issue in one way or the other could have helped ease up the negative publicity that is being faced. For one, funds being used for construction would have outsourced from foreign investors. Foreign investors are good at investing in projects that they know will break even in time. The infrastructures would have helped in ensuring the tourism rates of the country still rise up after the World Cup. The infrastructures would also invite more investors in future as the improvement would be good for businesses. Through this, most of the investors would get their returns by the end of the World Cup or even the Olympics that will be held in 2016.
Another strategy that would have been used was ensuring that the construction of all the facilities was started up in time. Starting the construction of the stadiums, the airports together with the renovation of the other infrastructures early would have prevented the last minute rush that is being witnessed now. Moreover, this would have ensured that there was enough time for the FIFA organizers to supervise the facilities and approve them safe for use. I would have ensured that the construction of such facilities started as soon as the country was approved to hold the tournament. This would have been hard of course, but the involvement of outside investor’s right from the beginning would have made it much easier. Starting the constructions and renovations early would have also ensured that the facilities were safe and used quality materials. Most of the accidents that are being faced at the moment would not be witnessed as workers would not be working in a rush. The demonstrations would have also been avoided as much of the public funds would not have been used to facilitate the construction and renovation of these facilities. The public funds would still be used for what they were meant for; health and other social facilities like education, but not construction of facilities and structures.
The issue of security would have been much easier too, if I were involved in any of the arrangements. To reduce the demonstrations that were happening and ensuring that they did not occur especially during the tournament, I would have ensured that the public is educated on the benefits of holding such an event. The country will be flocking with thousands of fans from all over the world and this help in boosting the economy of the country. Tourists bring with them great investments; the money they spend travelling, buying stuff all over and even for their accommodation, all these are ways of pumping money into the Brazilian economy. This would benefit the locals and some education on the benefit of being peaceful and holding such an event would have been passed on.
Another issue that would have been handled differently was ensuring that foreign investors were also allowed to invest in the hospitality businesses in the country. This would have saved the hospitality industry from the negative publicity that they are facing at the moment. It would have also helped in assuring the fans and the tourists that they would get high class accommodation.
As much as the public relations issues have had a negative impact on the World Cup tournament, FIFA and Brazil organizers are convinced that the tournament will kick off as planned and that everything shall be smooth. It is too late to change the venues and start new arrangements in a new country. The tournament has to go on no matter the setbacks that are being faced. FIFA will have to come up with ways to assure the fans that the stadiums are safe for use, by both the fans and the players. The Brazilian authorities and organizers will also to step up and assure the fans of their safety in the streets. Though some problems might be faced throughout the period, the fans are already eager and the organizers are assured that the tournament will go on as scheduled. The organization has already sold 2.3Million tickets, out of the 3.3 Million tickets that have been set to be sold.
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