One million people took to the streets as Brazil’s golden shirted football players participated in the Confederations Cup, a tournament intended as a curtain raiser.
The idea of Brazil losing the right to host next year’s 2014 FIFA World Cup became a real possibility this summer after protests broke out across the country over the rising cost in the standard of living and the amount of money being spent on a sporting event when millions are still living in poverty. Celebration of the world’s biggest sporting event has been short-lived for its citizens.
One million people took to the streets as Brazil’s golden shirted football players participated in the Confederations Cup, a tournament intended as a curtain raiser.
“With regard to the World Cup, I want to clarify that the federal money spent on the stadiums is in the form of financing that will be duly repaid by the companies and governments that are exploiting these stadiums,” said Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff. “I would never allow these funds to come out of the federal public budget or to damage priority sectors such as health and education.
“It is also imperative that I mention a very important topic that has to do with our Brazilian soul and our manners. Brazil, the only country to have participated in every World Cup and a five-time world champion, has always been very well received everywhere,” she added.
“We must give our friends the same generous welcome we have received from them – with respect, love and joy. This is how we must treat our guests. Football and sport are symbols of peace and peaceful coexistence among peoples. Brazil deserves to, and will, host a great World Cup.”
2014 World Cup, FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke has terse in his response to suggestions that the tournament, which comes two years before the country hosts the Olympic Games, had been given to a country that should be upgrading its social infrastructure not its stadia.
Speaking at the FT/IFA Business of Football Summit in Rio de Janeiro, he said the $3.3 billion (a fraction of the $120 billion budget for the 2022 tournament in Qatar) price ticket was well worth spending.
“We need a big setting for the opening ceremony and the final. The rest is up to the country to provide at their discretion. FIFA is not asking countries to host the World Cup, countries are bidding for it. We issue a tender and that has requirements. We have asked for new technology to be included, that is true. But there seems to be this feeling that when it is for the FIFA it is always bad. Building and renovating stadia and upgrading infrastructure needs large sums of money and a big workforce.”
Brazil is using the World Cup and Olympics to upgrade its essential infrastructure such as roads and rail to make its economy for efficient. It is also using the promote the country as private investment golden egg and announced plans to raise $66 billion to fund its road and rail projects. However high taxes, red tape and run-down infrastructure make Brazil an expensive place to do business.
The construction machinery industry has been one of the undoubted beneficiaries from Brazil’s spending so far. There is now a long list of companies that are using the country as a firm foundation to tackle the Latin American market.
As it searches for private money, the onus rests on the government to buy equipment. For instance, March saw it place an order for 1,000 backhoes from JCB in a deal valued at $60 million. JCB and Manitowoc have both opened facilities in the last year and are joined by an all-star line-up of companies in the market including: Caterpillar, CNH Global, JLG Industries, Komatsu and Volvo AB. Other companies such as Bobcat, Dynapac Compaction Equipment, Liebherr Group, Proton, Randon Construction, and Sany Group.
XCMG has also invested in a $200 million manufacturing facility, “catching the opportunity of the infrastructure construction of World Cup and Olympics to expand the sales system and technical support in Brazil”.
One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the need to reduce infrastructure construction time, says analyst Research and Markets.
The construction equipment market in Brazil has also been witnessing an increase in the adoption of construction equipment on a rental basis. However, the increased cost of construction equipment could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.
According to an analyst from the Engineering team at Research and Markets, despite the advantages of the effective deployment of construction equipment, the high price of construction equipment hinders its adoption among small and medium-sized enterprises.
“Therefore, some construction equipment vendors have started offering equipment such as forklifts, backhoes, and wheel loaders on a rental basis. This allows cost-driven organisations in Brazil to opt for the latest technology construction equipment at minimal cost, thereby improving their operational productivity. Therefore, the availability of construction equipment on a rental basis encourages customers to use a wide range of construction equipment.”
What Qatar can learn
With Brazil now less than a year away from hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup, there is a definite sense of anxiety over whether the country is truly ready to host the event. The protests that have engulfed Brazil have shone a harsh spotlight on the problems the country faces, and will continue to face, as the World Cup approaches.
From a strictly construction point of view, there have been allegations of corruption, poor build quality and a lack of understanding of what it takes to build the stadiums and infrastructure to internationally accepted standards.
While organisers and the Brazilian government remain confident that all the issues will be ironed out ahead of the World Cup, there are valuable lessons that can be learnt from their struggles, which can be applied to Qatar as it gears up for its own considerable challenge in 2022.
Keeping that in mind, we spoke to the one man who is quite possibly, the best placed to judge both countries’ preparations in a fair and balanced manner.
Jan Schoenig is the Siemens programme manager for the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar, and prior to his current role, was heavily involved in the preparations for the Brazilian World Cup. Furthermore, he has extensive experience in developing stadium technology, having been involved in global sporting events over the last eight years.
“It’s a bit early to say, there’s still nine years to go,” he says “But all what I see is perfect. They have already established a programme office, they already have the stadiums partially assigned to architects and they even have a vision for transportation, which is going to be tendered soon.”
“I’m very optimistic that it’ll be totally different to the way things were done in both South Africa and Brazil, where things were done at the very last minute,” Schoenig says.
The advantage that Qatar has, compared to Brazil and South Africa, is that the people in charge of the World Cup have taken a long, hard look at what went wrong during the preparation process in those two countries, and have resolved not to allow the same mistakes to happen again. One of the biggest challenges facing any country while preparing for major events like the World Cup is dealing with the bureaucracy that comes from all the various sectors of government trying to work alongside each other.
Qatar will be no different, which is an unfortunate truth. The government will play a massive role in developing the stadium and assorted infrastructure, but in an effort to mitigate any confusion and hold ups, the Supreme Committee for Qatar 2022 has appointed Clifford Chance, the international law firm to be an advisor for its technical program.
Amongst its duties, the law firm will advise on the development of the main ‘iconic stadium’ for the FIFA event, which will seat more than 85,000 fans.
Richard Parris, the managing partner of Clifford Chance’s Doha office, says that the law firm’s expertise in procurement for major sporting events will allow it to assist Qatar in its preparations.
Furthermore, he adds that Clifford Chane’s ability to mobilise an international team and its experience in Doha helped it win the mandate for the event.
“We are delighted to have been appointed by the Supreme Committee on this landmark infrastructure program for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and we are excited to be working on a project of this magnitude.”
“It is also a privilege to be working on a high profile project such as the Iconic Stadium which will set the benchmark for stadium development.”
Andrew Longmate, general counsel for the Supreme Committee, adds that “The 2022 FIFA World Cup is a prestigious and high profile event. It is essential that we work with suppliers who are best in class and can deliver a quality service.”
It is this attitude that gives Schoenig hope that the Qatar World Cup will be a completely different experience for him, compared to the one in Brazil.
“In Brazil, they’re struggling in a lot of areas because they believe that it could have been done differently,” he explains.
“We had a conference recently, where a contractor expressed surprise at all the FIFA requirements, and I thought ‘It is publically available! You can download it!” So there shouldn’t be any kinds of surprise!”
“He was complaining about the number of parking spaces FIFA requires, that is well stated in the booklet! This is what happens when companies that haven’t done it before (get involved), they think ‘oh it’s just another building and we’ll apply it just like we do in the shopping malls’ and go for it, and then they’re struggling with all these ‘surprises’,” he points out. And this is where he says Qatar can learn its most important lessons for its World Cup.
“These two countries are very different, but from the stadium perspective, there is definitely something (the can share). They (Qatar) need to choose partners who have done it before. FIFA requirements are specific, the requirements for the World Cup are high in quality, and the reliability has to be there,” he warns.