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World Cup a distant dream for Brazil and Colombia
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The last train to Sao Paulo trundled out of
Rio de Janeiro's Central station several years ago and it could be an
even longer wait for the next one.
While tens of thousands of fans who went to this year's World Cup in Germany
were whisked around the country by high-speed trains which streaked through
a sleek, modern rail network with clockwork reliabilty, Brazil, candidates
to host the 2014 finals, abandoned its passenger trains years ago.
The alternatives are bone-crunching bus and car journeys of hundreds of
kilometres over pot-holed highways, some of them stalked by gun-toting
bandits, or the uncertainties of a chaotic air transport system.
Brazilian air transport has been in crisis following the country's worst
air crash on Sept. 29 in which 154 people died.
The last few weeks have seen hundreds of delays and cancellations following
a work-to-rule by air traffic controllers, who are widely reported to
be underpaid, overworked and dependent upon unreliable obsolete equipment.
Yet a good transport network is one of the key criteria for successfully
staging a World Cup.
The lack of it is one of the many stumbling blocks facing Brazil and,
to a lesser extent, rivals Colombia, the only two nations to formally
express their interest to FIFA in staging the 2014 World Cup before the
Dec. 18 deadline.
The tournament is due to be staged in South America under FIFA's new rotation
system which will begin in South Africa in 2010.
FIFA, however, has already said it will look elsewhere if the South American
Confederation cannot produce a bid which meets its rigid criteria.
CLEAR RUN
Until this week, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) believed that
it would have a clear shot at the tournament.
Three years ago, the federations of the South American countries voted
unanimously to back Brazil as their only candidate.
But the Colombian FA broke ranks this week under pressure from Presi0dent
Alvaro Uribe, who wanted the country to launch its own bid.
The Brazilian media immediately dismissed the Colombian bid.
"They know they won't win, but at the least they will put the country
on display," sneered the Rio de Janeiro-based daily newspaper O Globo
in an editorial.
In fact, there seems little to choose between the two, apart from Brazil's
incomparable tradition on the field and the fact that it has already hosted
one World Cup back in 1950.
Both are multi-racial nations of stunning natural beauty whose inhabitants
are known to like a good party but where a reputation for violence puts
off foreign visitors.
Brazil's security problems are largely urban, highlighted recently when
two of the country's top judges were car-jacked by eight armed bandits
on the main road from Rio de Janeiro airport to the city centre.
Colombia has seen a sharp drop in urban crime in four years under President
Uribe but parts of the countryside are still controlled by guerilla groups,
who have fuelled a 42-year civil conflict.
EARLY WITHDRAWALS
Both countries' previous attempts to host the event ended in embarrasing
and early withdrawals.
Colombia were awarded the 1986 World Cup but pulled out two years before
it was due to be staged because of economic problems. The tournament was
instead held in Mexico.
Brazil were candidates to stage the 2006 World Cup but withdrew three
days before the final vote decided in Germany's favour in July 2000.
The campaign never captured the public's imagination and attracted vociferous
opposition from Pele, who described it as a waste of money.
Colombia and Brazil would have to invest lavishly in new stadiums. The
Metropolitano stadium in Barranquilla is the only Colombian arena which
comes near to World Cup level while Curitiba's Arena da Baixada is the
only Brazilian stadium which would have any chance of passing the test
today.
The world famous Maracana, like many of the gigantic stadiums built around
Brazil between 1950 and 1980, is now crumbling and many believe it should
be pulled down.
Both countries are confident they can drum up the necessary investments
but neither has yet to announce concrete plans about how they intend to
bring their infrastructure upto scratch.
So far, the respective discourses have been limited to words of optimism.
"We can do it, we can provide the necessary investments and the country
has to start thinking about big projects," Colombia Vice-President
Francisco Santos told Reuters this week. "Countries need to have
dreams, they need great achievements."
Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was similarly upbeat.
"Football is the greatest passion in the country and it deserves
to host the World Cup," he said recently.
"I will give all the backing necessary to (CBF president) Ricardo
Teixeira so that, 64 years on, we can hold the World Cup in Brazil."
By Brian Homewood. Reuters,
Dec 22, 2006
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