The FIFA World Cup brings out the best and the worst of football, and it’s done the same for Brazil.
The football has been phenomenal in terms of storylines and talent. Teams such as Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States have played up to their potential, with a bit of luck along the way. Messi and Neymar have delivered for their respective sides as another rendition of the Maradona-Pele saga continues.
But then there’s been plenty of disappointment.
Perhaps the two nations with the most critical press have seen their nations bow out in the first round as England and Spain have begun packing their bags for an early departure. The world’s best footballer, Christiano Ronaldo, cannot stay healthy and Portugal cannot cope.
Too often this tournament has been troubled with non-football related issues.
If something could go wrong for Brazil, it has. Sadly, that’s what has been one of the major talking points of the World Cup: a nation that lacks infrastructure continues to have unexplainable problems.
After incredible amounts of rain battered the host city of Natal, Brazil, a massive sinkhole opened just four miles from the Arena das Dunas stadium.
A truck smashed into the side of a bridge in Recife, Brazil, another host city, creating a massive traffic standstill as fans who planned to arrive early for the Italy-Costa Rica match found themselves arriving with a half hour gone. Hours after the match, traffic was just as dense as the policía nacional stood off to the side, chatting while the semi had not moved an inch.
Those are problems Brazil cannot afford to let happen. As the World Cup has progressed, it has become clearer that the country was not prepared to host the tournament.
While Brazil has combated potential protests in streets near the stadiums by setting up riot vans and arming police with machine guns, some of flack falls on FIFA, the self-believing, too-big-to-fail football governing body.
When the organization sold tickets for seats that didn’t exist, two fans spent the first half of the Greece-Japan match in a golf cart circling Natal’s stadium with FIFA volunteers trying to figure out what to do with the “ghost tickets.”
An official gift shop’s credit card machines kept malfunctioning from Wi-Fi shortening during the U.S. and Ghana match, forcing fans to wait an hour in line.
Even the stadiums’ architectural designs have sparked complaints as the ratio of male-to-female bathrooms is so heavily skewed that women spend more time in line, even if more men attend the match.
This World Cup has given plenty to shout and smile about, but it has also revealed serious infrastructural issues with a nation clearly overwhelmed.
Charlie Hatch, a sophomore at Ohio University and a staff writer for The Post, is in Brazil for the World Cup. Send him questions at @charliehatch_or gh181212@ohiou.edu.
