White Elephants

When faced with the choice between prophets and human rights ethics and good conduct in Brazil in two thousand and fourteen, FIFA did what it always does. It put profits first, screw the consequences. I'm Connor Powell. This is episode ten, White Elephants. If you travel inland a thousand miles or so on the murky waters of the Amazon River, they're likely to catch a glimpse of the three toed sloth, an animal so slow algae literally grows all over its body.

You might encounter charismatic and talkative Gold and bluem maccause, by the score their voices loud as hell, you will, without a doubt see the massive pink nose river dolphin and incredibly social mammal is excited to see you as you are to see it. But there's another species out there, an invasive one. It's the great white elephant. They've pushed people by the thousands out of their homes in trampled

the fragile budgets of local governments. The Amazon, which sits mostly in the soccer moutination of Brazil, is the size of Spain, France, Italy, Sweden and Greece combined, teeming with wildlife found no worlds. A massive river runs through its rainfalls, and it's in Brazil where this white elephant infestation grows, from the remote city of Manaus to the cattle town of Cuieba to the nation's capital of Brazilia. The white elephants arrived in two thousand and fourteen, raised and then

abandoned by the organization known as FIVA. The twelve state of the art stadium is built or refurbished, are turning into wide elephants, proving too costly to maintain. The white elephants of Brazil are not like the native creatures that make the Amazon such a rich envirobrant place. No, these needy beasts are state of the art soccer stadiums made of concrete, steel and glass, built to satisfy FIVA's punishing requirements for host countries to live up to World Cup standards.

This brand new stadium is the jewel in Manoa's is crown, designed in the shape of a traditional basket, the seats are the colors of amazon in fruits. At a cost of three hundred million dollars alone, the arena of the Amazon and the middle of Brazil's tropical rainforest was supposed to transform Annouse, a sleepy river city for the better. Some see the lavish temple to football as an investment

that will attract tourists into the area. No expense was spared, and that's in part because construction was a logistical nightmare. Thousand seeds stadium was built hundreds of miles away from Brazil's nearest population center and besieged by months of torrential downpource. At help save time, parts of the stadium, like the roof,

for being built in other locations. Mannouse is so remote that it's almost impossible to reach by car, which is why officials had to have the stadium materials brought in by boat, most of it prefabricated in Portugal. Undred tons of steel had to be barged up the Amazon River. Despite the astronomical cost, The arena of the Amazon hosted just four World Cup games before it was basically abandoned.

Aside from a few Brazilian national team matches, a handful of birthday parties, and the occasional evangelical Christian revival, it is sat largely empty ever since the two thousand and fourteen World Cup. The Manous economy just can't support a stadium of the size FIFA demanded with all of its sky boxes and luxury suites. Manawas doesn't have a first league football team, and most of the locals can't afford

tickets to the games. As officials and Manus search for new uses for the stadium, the white Elephant deteriorates under the heat and humidity of the Amazon. One loose tongue civil servant even suggested this could become a holding zone for prisoners en route to more permanent jails. You heard that right, turn a world class soccer stadium into a prison. And yet the stadium in Manouse isn't even the worst

example of Brazil's wasteful spending to meet FIFA's demands. Everything about Manega Ainsia Stadium is big, a towering presence in Brazilia. At a cost of nearly eight hundred million dollars, it was the most expensive stadium the country, built for the two thousand fourteen World Cup. These days, there's very little football being played at the world's second most expensive stadium. In fact, it mostly says empty. Like in Mannouse, there's no first division soccer team to bring in fans to

fill the seats. The occasional football exhibition matches are not enough to sustain the five million dollars a year to maintain the stadium, and like in Manouse, Brazilia's officials are struggling to find ways to pay for the upkeep. Officials expected this stadium to be full, and at least one way it is, but not how they had hoped. The parking lot has been turned into a giant storage area

for buses to turn. And white elephant refers to the ancient fable when a rare and prized white elephant is given as a gift by the king, the recipient is blessed. After all white elephants are sacred. The monarch favors you. Then you come to understand the curse. You can't afford defeat an elephant, and you can't give it away. It serves no practical purpose, and it's starting to eat you out of house and home. FIFA's gift of white elephants to Brazil has proven to be every bit the curse

it was in the ancient tales. And what does it tell you when someone who knows all the downsides of the white elephant curse shows up at your door with an albino packadern and worse tells you it's gonna make you rich. Sounds like a grift right well. When FIFA arrived in Brazil with designs for extravagant stadiums, it promised the country they enjoy riches and glory if they built them. Of course, FIFA does what is best for FIFA always.

After the tournament, FIFA fat, with swollen bank accounts, walked away from Brazil, leaving the country to clean up its financial mess. If you want to understand how FIVA's insatiable appetite for profits hurts real people in real places, then sit back and you'll hear the tale of the two thousand and fourteen World Cup in Brazil and the Curse of the White Elephants, the gift that keeps on taking. The lines outside of sal Pollo's Arena Corinthians were unbearably

long and disorganized. Now with the full kick off, long queues of ticket jacks, thousands of excited fans, many dressed in the iconic black with white striped jerseys of the homeside Corinthians, jostle as overwhelmed ticket takers struggled with the surge of bodies. Eventually, the queues got so bad that

they were simply let through. With a little more than a week to go before the opening match of the two thousand and fourteen World Cup, FIFA had demanded the Brazilian Soccer Confederation stage a league match at the new stadium to iron out any issues, of which there were many.

For instance, the roof wasn't finished. Despite pumping in more than three billion dollars yes, I said three billion dollars into the building of new stadiums, Most of Brazil's new and renovated arenas were over budget and way behind schedule. We saw a stund which last month was still being built. It seemed near a completion, but not near enough, as was clear once week I went into the arena and

I was stunned. That's Andrew Downey, veteran foreign correspondent and lifelong soccer fan who, as you might have noticed by his accent, is from Scotland. Until recently he lived in Brazil and covered the run up to the two thousand and fourteen World Cup. One of the big reasons for Brazil hosting the World Cup was the Brazil needed more

and better infrastructure for the World Cup. You need you know, roads and airports and trains and busses and all that kind of stuff, and it was a chance to modernize. And so the opportunity for Brazil in this World Cup was to add that infrastructure that would benefit the population because it was public money that was being used, and that was one of the great attractions of this World Cup. The government said, we will start building this infrastructure. This

is our chance to upgrade and upgrade quickly. Downey was at that dry run match that day in June to see firsthand what years of FIVA's demands and the Brazilian government's promises looked like in practice. He navigated the long lines and remembers the chaos and clutter and then new still unfinished stadium. There was still lots to do, but one part was absolutely finished and that stuck out as

much as anything. There was this enormous, enormous, welcoming nedial foy inside the stadium and it was the most beautifully appointed thing you've ever seen, and I was just thinking, why is all this so necessary? Like the foyer, the luxury suites were not only finished, it looked like they were plucked straight out of the taj Mahal. It was what the lords of soccer expected, what they demanded of

so called FIFA quality stadiums. I remember walking into the toilets and it was like walking into the toilets at the Four Seasons because everything was marble. You know, I'm from Scotland, you know, I grew up watching my team Hibs in the eighties and nineties and not remember when you went to the toilet, the toilet was a wall at the back of the stadium, right. I've obviously got suggested that you should have that in the World Cup venue, but I just thought, is it really necessary for the

Fruitball stadium to have model bathrooms? Where these new marble bathrooms and the majestic foyer really necessary for a month long tournament, Downey wasn't the only one asking whether marble

bathrooms and the majestic foyer were worth the cost. For months, in the soccer mad nation, where the cliche soccer is like a religion is used without irony, Brazilians have been protesting the reports of financial excess and corruption to struggle to satisfy FIFA's stadium standards, and impressed the global soccer community was ripping Brazil apart. On June two thousand and thirteen, as the sun set over Rio de Janeiro, the lights of its fame mark and a stadium came on, illuminating

the pitch. Ahead of the Confederation's Cup match between Tahitian Spain, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians marched through the city streets towards the stadium. They weren't heading for the game. The streets have been filled with protests for weeks, some turning violent. Brazil is a place with protests. Crowds have invaded the streets to voice that discontent with the government. The protesters

came from different backgrounds. Rebellious students were joined by middle class professionals, left wing activists joined by traditional stay at home mothers. Together as a group, they moved closer. Police dressed like characters out of a Marvel's Avengers movie, went into battle with newly purchased riot helmets and plexiglass shields. They opened fire with a volley of rubber bullets and tear gas. These clashes between police and protesters had been

on repeat, night after night after night across Brazil. The trigger. The government had jacked up bus fares to cover the costs of construction for the sleek, new modern stadiums FIFA required for the two thousand and fourteen World Cup. The government has spent more than eleven billion dollars getting ready. It had begun peacefully, with about one thousand protesters moving towards the stadium, demanding that the government spent more money

on health than education rather than sporting events. People to say, we are fit up, we want changes. That's Carlos Vanier, a professor of urban and regional planning at the Federal University of Rio de Janeira. Veneer, was one of the protesters, marching with his family. As the protests grew, he remembers so too did the brutality of the police response. The police, he said, we're under pressure from the Brazilian government and FIFA to protect the stadiums and the soccer facilities. Donny

was there too, and he confirms Veneer's account. You would have these big matches and outside Colomba from the stadium, you would have tens of thousands of people on the streets and the police would come in. The police would fire Robert bullets and the police would fire tear gas and it was a uh, it was a big deal. The more the police trying to reign in the protest from Porto Allegra to sell Paolo to Rio, the more they grew. The repression provoked more anger and more people

talk to the streets. These things are happening on a daily basis, and it was it was it was scary, to be honest. Chris Gaffney is an American researcher, academic, and yes protester. He became the English speaking international voice of the protest movement. And I remember sitting very clearly on put of neither put as a dentity of Vatagus and being shot at by the police with concussion grenades or a bullets, and being chased on motorcycles and having to run through the streets of Rio to try to

find a way home. The smell of tear gas was just like my cologne for the day. The contrast between old and new was painful. Brazil's inadequate and aging infrastructure, underfunded hospitals, and crowded schools, they all looked even more tired and beaten down in the light of the glistening

new World Cup stadiums. It was so obvious that the basic needs of the people were not being attended to, and that FIFA quality stadiums were the priority, but FIFA quality hospitals were not, in that FIFA quality schools were not, And so this kind of FIFA standard or FIFA quality came to represent the bending over backwards in fealty to the desires of a Swiss non profit who managed to make four billion dollars in the four year cycle that

led it that finished in two thousand fourteen. And so people saw this and were disgusted and took to the streets and were violently repressed by the very same mechanisms that were designed to secure the World Cup. Here again is Carlos Venier. The main slogan that many movements at that moment used is we want fair World Cup which that way to say we once soccer. We do not want spending billions of dollars on this. We do not

have corruption of these, we want fair World Cup. The violence and anger in the streets of Brazil couldn't have been further from the optimism and joy just six years earlier, when FIFA President Sepp Ladder stood on a stage in Zurich and in front of the world, ripped open his white envelope to announce with five World Cup titles and

a booming economy, Brazil seemed like a natural pick. There's no nation more passionate about soccer, and the South American giant hadn't hosted a World Cup since n Best known for its endless beaches and yearly carnival, these days, Brazil is developing a new calling card. It's economy, which most of the world's economy is stagnant, Brazil's is growing at seven percent. Sal Polo's stuck market is shattering records since the discovery of new offshore oil fields, the Brazilian oil

industries booming. Brazil's president at the time, the left leaning Louis and Nazio Lula da Silva, often called just Lula for short, was one of the most popular politicians in the world, and he was eager to show that progress Brazil had made under his leadership. With low inflation, a shrinking inequality gap, and a religious deal for soccer, Brazil was a sporting nation on the rise. Nearly eight percent of Brazilian supported hosting the World Cup, with only ten

firmly against it. On Lula's watch, Brazil had also been selected to host another international sporting event, the two thousand and sixteen Olympics. Journalist dave's Iron, who wrote Brazil's Dance with the Devil, a book all about Brazil's preparations for the World Cup and the Olympics, says Lula, backed by the nodding heads of fee Fund, the International Olympic Committee, promised that these world events would further transform the rapidly

developing nation. This idea of bringing in the World Cup and then subsequently in the Olympics in two thousand and sixteen came with it so many promises about how this was going to be great for Brazil. It was gonna be great for Brazil economically, it was going to be great for Brazil socio politically, and it was going to be great for Brazil in terms of its global standing among the nations of the world. So it was all built on this idea that it was going to help

while the opposite took place. As they say on Wall Street, markets go up and markets go down. By two thousand and thirteen, Brazil's booming economy wasn't just going down, it was crashing. A Latin America's large as economy is showing signs of a slowdown. And this is a difficult to watch. You see a very promising economy slowing down quite radically. To make matters worse, Lula had been termed out of office. Dilma Russaf, Lula's former chief of staff, was left to

manage Lula's legacy and the economic crash. The money he remarked to build the new World Cup infrastructure began to rapidly disappear, Sucked up by construction and corruption, Brazil was forced to raise taxes, cut basic services, and borrow from international markets to pay for the ever increasing costs. There was a wide spread I can go to that all this money was being spent for FIFA and for football

rather than being spent on ordinary Brazilians. It was two thousand and thirteen, and RUSSAF tried to thread the political pandering needle as protesters flooded Brazil's streets. She condemned the violence, but she said she also supported the protesters right to demonstrate and called for dialogue. What Dilma Russof didn't do was pushed back against FIFA. You know, the guys who were insisting not just on new stadiums, but particular style

of new stadiums, with marble atriums and luxury suites. Scaling back the extravagance was not something FIFA would even contemplate. Meanwhile, resources for promised improvements through roads, subways, and airports related infrastructure that would benefit more than just soccer were redirected to help me FIFA stadium construction deadlines. The gap between what Brazilians have been promised and what they were seeing being built for FIFA only widened as the protests grew.

FIFA did what it normally does stayed quiet, But behind the scenes, FIFA did not adjust or reevaluate their demands. What FIFA wanted FIFA was going to get. There are all sorts of like a death by a thousand cuts sent the economy into a downward spiral. And yet FIFA doesn't care if your economy is in bad shape. They want their FIFA quality stadiums. Dave's Iron says FIFA's indifference

and greed had real world consequences. They felt like they needed to push ahead, which led to cost cutting, which led to corruption, which led to a lot of dissatisfaction among the people who felt like their needs were being ignored while stadiums were being built. The first punches were thrown seconds after the final whistle blew. The full row of green stadium seats came curling through the air and

onto the pitch. Countless other pieces of trash and debris, some one fire came raining down from every part of the stadium. It was two thousand and nine. Hundreds of supporters of the Brazilian side Quarter Chiba storm their home pitch. Hackey clothed police officers swung their batons wildly and fired rubber bullets trying to be back the enraged soccer hooligans.

The chaos erupted after core Achieva's shocking relegation to Brazil's domestic second division, meaning for non soccer fanatics, they had the worst record and so they got booted down to a lower division, their fans went ballistic. It was the very type of soccer violence Brazilian lawmakers had hoped to end when they banned the sale of alcohol and stadiums six years earlier. In two thousand three, the Brazilian government banned alcohol from stadiums because of the enormously high death

rate amongst fans. Those stamping out all of the violence completely was proving to be difficult. That ban on alcohol had saved lives and helped reduced violence, But as the two thousand and fourteen tournament near Brazil's ban on alcohol and stadiums became a flashpoint of intention for World Cup organizers, Jerome Vodka, the General Secretary of football's world governing body, has urged the Brazilian government to approve a law which

allows the sale of beer at World Cup venues. For more than twenty five years, the red Budweiser logo had adorned nearly every corner of FIFA's World Cup advertising. The King of Beers is one in a massive cavalcade of advertisers whose commercials bombard TV sets during World Cup matches.

Brazil's ban on alcohol and stadiums threatened FIFA's money making machine, and the only thing worse than the loss and advertising for FIFA would be the loss of lucrative in game beer sales, and FIFA wasn't about to let that happen. Just listen to FIFA's General secretary Jerome Valc, I'm sorry to say, and maybe I look a bit arrogance, but that's something will not negotiate to. I mean there will be and the MusB a spot of the of the law, the fact that we have the right to sell beer.

Brazil had enacted this band in two thousand and three, faced with a staggering level of soccer violence and preventable deaths, It's hard to argue this law wasn't completely reasonable. And yet FIVA, a nonprofit who stayed admission is to grow and protect the game of soccer, not to earn money, demanded Brazil removed the band, which, of course Brazil ended

up doing. Beer would be sold at World Cup games, but at least if FIFA was going to make money off of beer sales, Brazil could count on tax revenue and profit sharing is part of its hosting duties right well, and they're going to make money as well as all money this FIFA makes the money. This is where the controversy is. The country usually doesn't make money. FIFA, the organization of the World Cup, is who makes the money.

Despite spending north of three billion dollars on FIFA required stadiums, ending public safety laws aimed at preventing alcohol related violence, Brazil wasn't guaranteed a penny for hosting the World Cup tournament. That is, FIFA and its FIFA subsidiaries that are fully exempt from any text whatsoever levied at whatever level, state level, municipality level, all sorts of texas, consumption, texas income, texas, you name it, its all exempt. Remember, the rules of

the game are rigged by FIVA for FIFA. So not only is FIFA blessed with a tax exemption as part of its hosting requirements, so are all FIFA's corporate sponsors. In two thousand and fourteen, Brazil spent fifteen billion dollars to host the World Cup. FIVA earned nearly five billion dollars from World Cup advertising deals and sponsorship agreements. Brazil's cut zero the final insult FIFA security demands. FIVA, of course, understood the hazards of combining alcohol and a fan base

with a history of soccer violence. Drunken hooliganism has been an issue in world soccer for decades, but add to the mix a population worried about a crashing economy and angry at the bejeweled stadium springing up amidst a crumbling infrastructure, and the two thousand and fourteen World Cup was beginning to look like a powder keg ready to explode. As soccer fans lined up to inner Rio's Maracana Stadium July two thousand and fourteen for the final game, the images

were dazzling. Argentinian fans wore the classic light blue and white striped jerseys. Germany's fans don white and red Adiita's tops with black trim mixed in, where the bright, almost electric yellow kits of host country Brazil standing in stark contrast all the bright colors where the drab al of green military uniforms of the Brazilian security forces. Come Sunday,

Rio de Janeiro may look like an occupied city. Troops, military police, firefighters and National guardsmen are being deployed, largest ever in the city's history. The site of troops standing along roads and at intersections, and heavily clad riot gear became the persistent image of the tournament, and everything was only amped for the final match, which was played under

a draconian security blanket. Israeli drones flew above the stadium, American provided bomb busting robots patrolled outside, while German anti aircraft tanks kept watch over the skies. No one can accuse Brazil of scrimping on security for soccer's biggest event. The country total nearly one billion dollars in security costs, five times what South Africa spent during the two thousand

ten Cups. You've surely noticed that since the terror attacks of two thousand and one, security at large gatherings, including public sporting events, has become increasingly militarized. But Brazil and FIFA security set up in two thousand and fourteen, while state of the art was something all together different and unheard of in world sport, Brazilian authorities are leaving nothing to chance. One hundred and seventy thousand security forces will

be mobilized throughout the country. There are now more security forces on the ground in Brazil than the United States deployed at the height of the Iraq War. Brazil, a country with no international enemies or history of domestic terror had created a full on World Cup army, an army whose weapons were trained not on some foreign enemy, but on the very people the World Cup was supposed to benefit.

This massive security force was never about stop in a terror attack or even solving Brazil's stunning lee high murder rate. It was required by FIFA to pacify Brazil's own population, which had grown increasingly hostile to the soccer organization and the Brazilian government. By the time the first game kicked off in two thousand and fourteen, Brazilian public opinion had swung wildly against the World Cup, where once it was eight in favor when step Ladder announced the winning bid.

More than sixty Brazilians believe hosting the World Cup is bad. When you have Brazilians protesting soccer, you know something went very wrong. As journalists Dave's Iron points out, if you need a US military sized army to keep security during a soccer tournament in a nation of soccer fans, then yes,

something has gone seriously wrong. It was slowly instituted in preparation for the World Cup like terrific surveillance, a tremendous surveillance and as well as you know things like you know, water cannons and concussion grenades like it's it's not just about the weaponry, it's about a plan in a mode of attack against your own population. It wasn't just the massive spending on FIFA stadiums that angered the Brazilian public, though that was a big part of it. And it

wasn't just the appearance of troops. It's what the military actually did. In the lead up to the World Cup. Brazil's newly created heavy handed security force was trained by

who's who of international security conglomerates. They included Academy, which you'll know by its former name Blackwater, the infamous private security company used during the Iraq War, and the Israeli firm Raphael Advanced Defense Systems, which has long provided the backbone for the Israeli blockade around Gaza and its military

occupation of the Palestinian West Bank. These firms didn't just provide secure already, they paved the way for the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Brazilians and entire neighborhoods for the World Cup. One such slam Rio's huge Mari Favela complex was recently pacified after an operation involving hundreds of men, tanks and helicopters, and by pacified they mean removed from the safety of its bunker in Zurich. FIVA's leadership pushed for all of this additional security. It was

unlike any other sporting event. Ever, FIFA brings with it debt, displacement and the militarization of public space. It takes two to tango, and what FIFA looks for is willing nations. They're willing to, you know, march to the beat of FIFA's drum. In Brazil, FIFA found a willing partner. That partnership, however,

enriched FIFA and ripped apart Brazil. Here, Chris Caffey, what do we have at the end is you know, sixt or four games of football and a country that is now in economic samples Today, the high speed train that connects Salpallo's largest airport to its city center is rarely late. The modern metro is a much needed addition, but the project itself was anything but on time. It first opened

in April of two thousand and eighteen. It was originally one of the many infrastructure projects promised as part of Brazil's World Cup bid. It was supposed to be ready when the tournament kicked off in two thousand and fourteen, but the high speed rail line was ditched as money was diverted to key World Cup infrastructure projects like stadiums, especially those empty, crumbling white elephant stadiums that now in

fast places like Manaus in Cuioba. The fact that the train line to the airport was completed even four years later makes it unique. Dozens of other promised infrastructure projects from Brazil's original World Cup plan, from roads the train lines have yet to be built and probably never will be. When Brazil was awarded the World Cup by FIFA back in two thousand and seven, the country had dreams of glory, confident it would win a record sixth championship and show

the world the progress Brazil had achieved. It was a narrative FIFA was all too willing to inflate and encourage. FIFA's demands for its World Cup, and let's be very clear, every tournament is FIVA's and not the host nations brought out the worst in Brazil after months of civil unrest, a ton of unfinished public works projects, a new draconian security system, a fifteen billion dollar price tag and Brazil's seven to one thrashing at the hands of Germany and

the World Cup semifinal. The two thousand and fourteen World Cup is anything but glorious and what are the long term consequences? Today? Brazil has been ravaged by the COVID nineteen virus, Its economy has crashed and stagnated, and its right wing government led by Yair Bulson Nario, is sending signals it will use Brazil's new robust security apparatus built

under the direction of FIFA, to stay in power. No matter what, You've heard a lot about the bad and world soccer under FIFA, decades of corruption and generations of abuse. It might make you wonder if there's any reason to be hopeful. The answer is yes, absolutely yes, and it starts with a team of outsiders who pushed to be treated as equals. Could the answer to FIFA's corruption be women's soccer? That's coming up next on The Lords of Soccer.

The Lords of Soccer, How FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices media production in conjunction with I Heart Radio. The series was written and executive produced by Gary Scott and me Connor Powell special thanks to Giselli Rossi for helping me with the trickiest of the Brazilian names. If I screwed up, It's on me, not her Logan Heftell and Katie mcmurrn provided the sound design with assistance

from j. C. Swaddick and Jake Blue Note. Alec Cowen is our associate producer and Jeffrey Katz was our story editor. Our fact checker is Alexa O'Brien and thanks to Miles Gray, who produced the series for I Heart Radio. If you have any comments or questions, please reach out. You can find us on Twitter. I'm at Connor M. Powell and Gary is at Gary Robert Scott and if you have any stories about FIFA, let us know. If you like what you hear, please give us a shout out at the hashtag Lords of Soccer