K minus 16 days - Brazil the Hosts

It is less than three weeks to go for the kickoff and Brazil is supposed to be brimming with World Cup activity, considering how football crazy the nation is. The South American nation is hosting the biggest event for the second time, after 1950 and expectations were huge all over the world ever since they were announced as hosts back in 2007. They had seven years to prepare for the footballing carnival, but its 2014 now and Brazil seems to be overwhelmingly underprepared to host the cup. With Olympics to follow in 2016 at Rio, it's highly alarming

FIFA's organization of the World Cup is clockwork right from host bidding, host selection and announcement, marketing, sponsorships, qualification process, venue selection, ticketing, media management and stadium preparation, but they need similar kind of effort from the hosts for the tournament to be flawless. This includes infrastructure development, travel and tourism, hospitality, security and their end of marketing process. Brazil seems to be failing at multiple counts at this scenario

The major concerns regarding the World Cup hosting could be summed up as follows

Although FIFA could ignore all the internal scuffles leading to the tourney, one thing they couldn't afford is the underprepared stadiums. FIFA initially required just eight stadiums to be sufficient to host the cup, but the organizers from Brazil insisted they need to have twelve locations to involve all parts of the country in the fiesta. FIFA complied although reluctantly, but Brazil failed to deliver the finished stadiums to them within the deadline, despite multiple extensions. The situation is so pathetic that the venue of the opening gala, Sao Paulo's Corinthian Arena still needs a test event two weeks from kickoff. Some of the planned upgrades like the roof had to be left out of the scheme until the end of the World Cup. Curitiba and Cuiaba were deemed to be fit but just so

Ever since the Brazilian government went back on its announcement that no public money would be spent on the infrastructure specific for the World Cup,  Brazilians went on rampage, literally, pretesting the need to spend so many tax billions on the tourney which would have no long serving benefits to the nation. 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup witnessed thousands of protestors on the streets, unprecedentedly shunning the game in process

Even the Brazil National Team is not spared of this backlash as witnessed when the protestors grouped up at their training facilities to demonstrate their dissidence

Although the security for the World Cup is going to be satisfactory for the players, organizers, media and dignitaries, the same can't be said regarding the fans who are to travel the picturesque country during the month long event. Brazilian cities are historically violent and the ongoing protests would make it worse for the tourists who visit the nation during World Cup

Brazil is completely underprepared to provide for the hordes of fans who are going to turn up for the month long event and the hotel room prices have already skyrocketed in the build up. Even those who could afford couldn't find a reasonable place to stay due to lack of adequate boarding facilities

The Brazilian's seems to be taking advantage of the situation as huge number of makeshift lodgings mushroomed all over the venue cities, mostly in slums, to provide for the visiting fans. Security at those locations is going to be a concern too

To make the matters worse, Brazil team, the favorites of the tourney, is not one of their bests in their history of World Cup participation. The team is devoid of big stars, although Neymar and Thiago Silva turns out to be favored by fans but injury to one of them would spell doom to the team. And nothing could stop the protests from escalating to unbearable levels in such a scenario. Even FIFA would be praying for Brazil to reach the July 13 final in order to make the tourney even moderately successful

Despite all these concerns, the gala is bound to go on, but Brazil 2014 is on course to be one of the badly hosted World Cups in FIFA history. It would be strongly advised to witness the tourney from the comforts of one's home to enjoy it the most