2013 Confederations Cup rioting: Brazil can gain knowledge of from South Africa

Brazil, hosts of next year’s Fifa World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, continue to be engulfed by wave after wave of riots at the on-going Confederations Cup, the precursor to next year’s global showpiece.

                           Brazil, President say the game must go on

                               Police dispatch off the riot 

Protestors were repelled with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets in the latest round of violence to sweep the country, and a teenager died at the weekend in Sao Paolo after apparently being hit by a car driven by a man attempting to break up a group of around 20,000 protesters.

None of such developments reflects well after the billions the Brazilian government has invested to make the Confederations Cup and World Cup a successful event. The battle to win the bid to host the World Cup was probably not as challenging as the crisis being faced by the Local Organizing Committees of both the Confederations and World Cup.Usually at such tournaments, the country is trying to create a positive impression to the watching world. The tournament is screened virtually all over the globe for an audience of billions. And of of course there is the small matter of hundreds of thousands of visitors seeking to tour the country while enjoying their football.Brazil would do well to look back to South Africa to understand how to handle the most extreme situations ahead of the hosting of a major tournament. Prior to South Africa 2010, there was western-propagated pessimism about Fifa’s choice of staging the biggest sporting event in the world.

The world was told how the South Africa capital Johannesburg had one of the highest crime rates anywhere and would be a risk to visitors. The world was told how the country’s infrastructure would not be finished in time for the World Cup because of the strikes of the workers and corruption. The size of some of the cities’ airports was questioned as well as several other trivial issues. The negative media was unprecedented.

Yet by the time the tournament concluded, the same people who had dismissed South Africa’s potential made the mother of U-turns and praised a truly unique World Cup. The South African World Cup had enriched the legacy of the competition, ending without a glaring glitch.Brazil need not look far. South African organizers were spurred by the doubting Thomases to deliver a first class event. In fact there is a school of thought that suggests South Africa would not have pulled it off the way it did without a sea of cynics. Brazil today is where South Africa was in 2009. Infrastructural work is behind schedule and there is nothing to suggest the rioting will end with the Confederations Cup.

The rioting in Brazil today is not Fifa’s problem. It is a Brazilian problem and only Brazil will solve it. It is an issue that can’t be addressed by external deliberation. Corruption in Brazil did not start when the country won the bid to host the World Cup in 2007. There is nothing to suggest it will end when the final whistle is blown to conclude the 2014 World Cup.The protestors are smart; they picked the ideal moment to have their voices heard. You can be sure their cause would have died a silent death had they demonstrated at any other time. Now, with Brazil hosting a tournament that is attracting global attention, their concerns can be heard by the government. Still, that is an issue to be handled internally.Those doubting the readiness of the country must know that Fifa events rarely fail. In fact Fifa-sanctioned events never fail. 

The World Cup is Fifa’s cash cow. It will succeed without a glitch.There are crooks in Fifa; of that we know. But they never mess with the World Cup. They always get it right. By the time they endorsed the decision to have the tournament staged in Brazil, they had mapped a way of making the tournament a success.The damage to Brazil today is obviously not welcome. But such occurrences make a host nation prepare for a tournament of that magnitude with no room for error. That is the silver ling.