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News / 23 augustus 2013

World Cup tickets for sale: who profits?

_Cup_Brazil.jpg

Last week, the first tickets for the World Cup in Brazil went on sale. A total number of around 3.3 million tickets will be available, costing between $90 and $990 each. But who will benefit? Recent demonstrations in Brazil have revealed that the World Cup in 2014 is not all good news, as the majority of the Brazilians seemed to have believed for a long time. Our colleagues from CASA, a Brazilian small grants organisation focusing on environmental issues and sustainable development, are looking for practical ways to turn the tide and make a positive contribution.

 

Fair and green World Cup

“People in Brazil are much more aware of the huge amounts of money being spent on the event, of evictions and other human rights violations and of the unequal distribution of profits”, says Ana Campbell, project manager at CASA. “Until now though, there has not been a great deal of attention for the environmental damage caused by the World Cup or for ways to make this a real fair and green World Cup. How can we promote green initiatives around the event? How can we see to it that the benefits generated by the event also reach the poor? How can we make people understand that we will all profit from protecting the environmental wealth of Brazil?”

 

Local action

To find some answers and practical solutions, CASA organized an event from 23 until 25 august. Projects from different local organisations and groups in Brazil, all in some way involved with or affected by the World Cup, were selected by CASA.  One group from São Paulo, for example, is planning to make a documentary to raise awareness among citizens and the government about the importance of transparency in the planning of public urban infrastructure and to show the social and environmental impacts caused by major events like the World Cup 2014. Two groups from Rio de Janeiro have joined together to look for solutions to improve their environment and plan to restore the Restinga Lagoon border. An important part of this project is to tell their stories to the communities involved to get them involved and motivated.These are just two out of the fourteen projects selected by CASA.

 

Romario

The meeting was titled ‘A Copa do Mundo em Meu Lugar’ (‘The World Cup in my place’) and focused on communication. “The question is how to tell your experiences in such a way that our audience not only understands the problem, but is also motivated to take immediate action. That was the main theme this weekend”, says Campbell. “We originally invited Romário de Souza Faria who, like many celebrities and athletes in Brazil, is supporting the protests to attend the opening of this weekends’ event. Although he couldn’t make it this time, we will certainly invite him on future occasions. His presence is very important to us; it would give much more visibility to the great work of the small local groups and organisations we work with."

 

Both ENDS will give regular updates about the work CASA does around the World Cup.

 

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