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It makes the FA Cup decider at Wembley look mild mannered. Rio’s Maracanã is a cauldron of football passion like nowhere else on earth - a shrine for football-worshipping Brazilians. 

It will be the centre stage for next year’s World Cup and then it will be the venue for the customarily overblown and over budget Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. 

So the old wooden bench seats have gone and after a makeover estimated to cost half-a-billion dollars, it’s been tarted up for its big global close-up. The capacity’s been reduced to make it all the more comfortable for the big-ticket punters heading here for the World Cup in 2014 and paying as much as $1000 a seat.

Meanwhile in the shadow of the Maracanã the little primary school of 12 year old Felipe Rothier and his classmate is earmarked for demolition. Felipe suffers a muscular disease that contorts his body and his mother Thaissa struggles on a small income.

‘We love soccer. The wish to see the World Cup is very big here in Brazil, but the bad things are being disguised so that the truth’s not shown.’ THAISSA ROTHIER

Many Brazilians have extremely mixed feelings about the super-showcases of sport heading their way. They love the idea but hate the price-tag. They’re so sensitive about the cost and its impact on their daily lives, more than a million people spilled into the streets to rage against a small jump in bus fares. Detractors believe the billions of dollars being hurled at venues and other Games and Cup development is being bled from vital public services like hospitals, schools and transport.

‘We doctors see patients under inhumane conditions, sitting in the emergency ward for two to three days... elderly people, feeling sick and sitting on a chair for 2 or 3 days’. JULIO NORONHA, Rio Emergency Doctor

North America Correspondent Lisa Millar travels to this most exuberant of countries and finds a Brazil at odds with itself. Thrilled about the spectacle and the world attention ahead but deeply concerned that the Cup and the Olympics are epic productions the country just can’t afford. 

Rio stadium/Crowds/Game in progress

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00:00

MILLAR: In a football mad, football-obsessed Brazil, this is headquarters.

00:19

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00:24

MILLAR: This is Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã.

00:29

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00:32

MILLAR:  Bizarrely, after a massive expensive upgrade, it now seats fewer people than it used to, but that’s so those who can afford to come here for next year’s World Cup can watch in comfort.

00:40

Thaissa in crowd cheering

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00:52

MILLAR:   Fans of local side Flamengo, Thaissa Rothier and her son Felipe are thrilled we sprung for their tickets. They could never afford the $40 entry fee, it’s 10% of her monthly wage.

00:58

Game in progress

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01:12

Millar in stand with Thaissa and Felipe

MILLAR:  “Thaissa, so what’s it like being here, watching your favourite team?”

01:17

THAISSA ROTHIER: “It’s a big thrill to see your team winning and the joy of having Felipe here watching his team winning…”

MILLAR: “And it’s better even that they’re winning?”

THAISSA ROTHIER: “It’s great. I’m so happy.”

Game in progress

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01:33

Thaissa cheers

MILLAR: Thaissa is typical of so many football worshiping, sports loving Brazilians. They’re conflicted. Thrilled their country’s hosting the World Cup and the Olympics, but angry basic services – education, health, transport – are being crushed to pay for it all.

01:40

Crowd/Game in progress

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01:58

Thaissa interview

THAISSA ROTHIER: “What makes me angry is the money spent on the World Cup when this money could be invested in health and education. They’re demolishing schools to build stadiums – spent a billion – more than a billion – in the works on the Maracanã.

02:08

Crowd at stadium

I don’t think that’s right because Brazil should be mainly for Brazilians and not for foreigners”.

02:25

Millar to camera in stadium

MILLAR:  “In less than a year people from around the world are going to be sitting in these seats cheering and clapping. Protesters are threatening to disrupt the World Cup, but the backers of this mega sporting event are hoping this kind of passion will drown out the anger and frustration”.

02:32

Mayor Paes

[addressing the Mayor of Rio] “Are you confident that Rio is ready for the world stage?”

02:56

Super:
EDUARDO PAES
Mayor, Rio de Janeiro

MAYOR EDUARDO PAES: “We are already on the world stage I mean. The ABC would never be here if it was not because of the World Cup and the Olympics and we are not ashamed of what we are. I mean we never said that we are a perfect country, that things were all solid here. Brazil has grown, so we raise the bar so people are asking for more and that’s what we’ve got to deliver”.

03:00

Rio GVs

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03:20

MILLAR: Vibrant and sparkling, it’s hard not to be swept away by Rio de Janeiro.

03:26

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03:32

MILLAR: There’s an infectious energy to Brazil’s second largest city. No surprise they call Rio – Cidade Maravilhosa – the marvellous city.

03:41

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03:52

MILLAR:  And it’s undergone a massive multi-billion dollar makeover to accommodate the sporting spectaculars heading its way and to appease the demanding and fussy global sporting bodies, soccer’s FIFA and the International Olympic Committee. Nationally, the Cup and the Olympics are expected to cost Brazil in excess of 33 billion dollars.

04:03

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04:25

Felipe and Thaissa at home

THAISSA ROTHIER: “Let’s change clothes for school Felipe”.

MILLAR:   But for Thaissa and Felipe who suffers a muscular disease, Rio has become tougher and more uncertain.

04:31

Felipe getting ready for school

Felipe’s getting ready for school, a school that may not be there when the world descends on Rio. It’s in the shadow of the Maracanã and it’s earmarked to go under further development.

04:43

Walking to bus stop

THAISSA ROTHIER: “He loves his school, his friends – he’s been studying there for six years”.

05:01

MILLAR: Felipe’s school is only a few kilometres away but the trip has become a marathon. There’s the wait…

05:10

“You spend a lot of time waiting for the bus Thaissa?”

THAISSA ROTHIER: “Yes, this is the reality of public transport and they wanted to put up the fares by twenty cents!”

05:17

MILLAR: ...and when the bus does finally arrive, it’s pretty clear we’re not in for an express run to our destination.

05:29

Felipe, Thaissa and Millar on bus

THAISSA ROTHIER: “I don’t think it’s right. If the price is to go up the quality has to improve – and the quality doesn’t improve. Our public transport is shameful”.

05:36

MILLAR: “What’s so wrong with the public transport in Rio?”

THAISSA ROTHIER: “Buses are poor quality.

05:43

People are risking their lives when they catch the bus, because there’s no maintenance. There are not enough seats for everyone and you wait forever for one to come”.

05:50

Millar on bus to camera

MILLAR: [on the bus] “Well we waited about 20 minutes for the bus, but this ride is now taking twice as long as it should because of the traffic jams. So not only is the bus system much criticised by everyone in Rio but the traffic doesn’t help”.

06:04

Protest footage

Discontent about government priorities had been brewing for a while but it was the planned hike in bus fares - a few cents - that sparked a fire. The increase was quickly reversed but the wave of anti-government anger couldn’t be stopped. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets. Many of the protesters were middle-class Brazilians. It was a venting of rage not seen in years.

06:22

JANINE AMORIM: “The problems here in Brazil have been going on for a long time with regard to the carelessness,

06:53

Janine

the negligence with everything that is public – public education, public health, public transport is abandoned as well.

06:59

Protest footage

So I thought it was very important really for people to go to the streets at that moment to demand a better administration of public money, less corruption,

07:14

Janine

because corruption in Brazil happens too much. It is excessive and there is no punishment”.

07:28

Protest footage

07:39

Looking at footage on laptop

MILLAR: Like many Brazilians, Janine Amorim and her 14 year old son Victor were taking part in protests for the first time in their lives. Janine’s a photographer and she captured some startling images of an outpouring of anger.

07:48

JANINE AMORIM: “I was a bit scared when the police arrived with rubber bullets and tear gas”.

08:08

Stills of protest

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08:17

MILLAR: The crowds marched through Rio, mostly peacefully, but there were angry clashes with police who were accused of a violent overreaction.

08:24

Police at protest

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08:32

Janine

JANINE AMORIM: “I think they’re already dealing with it with a lot of savageness

08:36

Stills of protest

because I don’t think the government would like or wants people to know about the real political situation in the country. People won’t accept any more the way our politicians are administering public money

08:42

Janine

or administration of anything in general”.

08:59

Still of protest

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09:03

Millar and Janine riding bikes

09:08

MILLAR: The 39 year old mother of two lives in a beach suburb about an hour’s drive from Copacabana. Not that she drives. A car and the running costs are too expensive, so to get to the markets it’s a bike ride through a rapidly growing neighbourhood near the Olympic Park.

09:12

“How many people live here?”

JANINE AMORIM: “Two thousand, three thousand… maybe more. In the last 20 years a lot of people from here live here. Here my apartment with three bedrooms, $2,500”.

MILLAR: “A month?”

JANINE AMORIM: “Yeah, expensive”.

09:30

MILLAR: “Expensive for Rio”.

JANINE AMORIM: “Yeah”.

MILLAR: “Do you pay more now?”

JANINE AMORIM: “Yes... because of tax”.

09:54

MILLAR: “Oh so the tax is going up... there’s more tax?”

JANINE AMORIM: “Yes”.

10:01

Market

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10:05

MILLAR: Food is also more expensive. A trip to the market costs Janine double what it did a year ago. Half the family’s income is spent on rent, leaving about $300 a week for everything else.

10:16

Buying snacks

A snack and a cup of sugar cane juice bought at a street stall for around three Australian dollars is a cheap option.

10:37

Eating snacks

10:45

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10:58

Stills of hospital

MILLAR:  Among the more dramatic examples of Brazil’s public funding crisis is the state of its hospitals. You won’t see much of Brazil’s recent prosperity in evidence here, some wards are positively Third World. Brazil is now a top ten global economy, but ranks way down the list, forty-fifth, when it comes to health spending.

11:03

Hospital exterior

DR JULIO NORONHA: “This is not a ghost hospital nor a post war ruin. This is a working hospital

11:28

Millar with Dr Noronha on street outside hospital

with both hospitalised patients and outpatients”.

MILLAR: Dr Julio Noronha has worked in Rio’s public health system for 35 years. A specialist, he was head of emergency at this federally funded hospital, Bonsucesso, for almost two decades. The emergency department now operates out of makeshift containers, meant to be temporary when they were installed three years ago.

11:39

“How do you feel when you look at this

12:07

and this is your workplace, how does that make you feel?”

DR JULIO NORONHA: “We’re forced to get used to what we have. It’s a Brazilian way of managing things – and getting used to things that are wrong!

But this is wrong, because if we were more aggressive and demanding we wouldn’t accept working in a pigsty”.

12:24

Hidden camera footage inside hospital

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12:41

MILLAR: We’re not allowed inside. Brazil’s public health administration is well aware of claims the system is suffering to pay for the sporting spectaculars. This is what we and other hidden cameras have recorded in Rio’s public hospitals.

12:47

DR JULIO NORONHA: “You saw patients there sitting on chairs - one of them receiving blood on a chair. What we have there are people piled up on top of each other. There was a lack of beds, medical personnel, specialised doctors to carry out treatment and there is a lack of adequate space to put patients after treatment. Often there’s a lack of basic resources to undertake basic tests – blood tests, haemograms, glucose, urea –

13:05

Dr Noronha/Hidden camera footage

that results in patients being under those conditions – inhumane conditions – for longer than necessary”.

MILLAR: We’re told of desperate shortages of the basics – gauze, syringes and of one patient being offered a wheelchair – missing a wheel. The doctors are overworked and worn down.

13:42

Dr Noronha

DR JULIO NORONHA: “We doctors have become more brutalised because we see patients under those inhumane conditions, sitting in the emergency ward for two or three days, feeling sick and sitting on a chair for two to three days.

14:13

Doctors are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome working under these circumstances. This has increased by more than 25% among doctors working in public hospitals”.

14:35

Doctors in union meeting

MILLAR: Meeting with union colleagues, they despair over the amount of money being spent on stadiums, estimated to be as high as 13 billion dollars, at least twice what World Cup host South Africa spent three years ago.

DR JULIO NORONHA: “There is no lack of money in the country that’s for sure. What

14:49

Dr Noronha

we’re lacking are serious politicians with the firm belief to do the right thing for the people and not steal”.

15:13

Football game

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15:25

MILLAR: Brazil’s conflict over spending priorities runs across classes and political divides and even onto the football pitch itself.

15:31

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15:40

MILLAR:  That’s where you’ll find unlikely critics like superstar Edmundo De Souza.

15:44

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15:49

Edmundo

EDMUNDO DE SOUZA: “The poor kids have this dream of playing football and the first toy we get when we are kids is a ball –

15:57

Football game

and we get the kids from the neighbourhood together to play. It really is a national passion”.

16:06

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16:14

MILLAR: He’s a former World Cup player, now a commentator, but he believes it’s right to be questioning the cost and consequences of accommodating the greatest shows on earth.

16:20

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16:31

EDMUNDO DE SOUZA: “I think it’s very cool to have great stadiums. I played soccer for 20 years and we didn’t have these stadiums available today in Brazil.

16:35

Edmundo

But it’s also necessary to have schools, hospitals, public services, because that’s right. Maybe we have started with the biggest national passion and I believe and hope that in the future we can also have hospitals of excellence and top level public schools like in Europe”.

16:45

Football game

MILLAR: “How did you feel then when you saw the Confederation’s Cup being targeted by protesters in the last month or so, how did that make you feel?”

EDMUNDO DE SOUZA: ‘I thought it was cool, it was fair. Brazilians often suffer and suffer in silence.

17:16

Edmundo

We have soccer, we have carnival and here in Rio we have nice weather so we can go to the beach anytime of the year… have fun. We’re very happy people. So some people abuse that when they’re in power. I think the protests were good, but at the wrong time. We should protest during the whole year and not only when the world is focusing on Brazil”.

17:37

Helicopter over Rio

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18:09

MILLAR: When Brazil bid for these mega-sporting events its economy was booming. In many ways it mirrored Australia’s boom. A resource-hungry world had discovered Brazil’s mineral riches and the country’s giant agricultural industry began to feed a hungry, growing world like never before.

18:17

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18:36

Rio. Street shots.

MILLAR:  The growth was so spectacular tens of millions emerged from abject poverty and a relatively prosperous middle class exploded. Foreign Correspondent came to take a look at the phenomenon and met a charismatic go-getter named Eduardo Paes.

MAYOR EDUARDO PAES:  “I think it’s the Brazilian moment.

18:43

File footage. Interview Mayor Paes. Super:
June 2011
EDUARDO PAES
Mayor, Rio de Janeiro

I mean it’s a rich, fantastic country that has always been in our history, we’ve always been, you know, like we’re going to be the country of the future, this future would never come, I think we’re there”.

19:01

Beach shots

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19:12

MILLAR: From the Rio mayor’s vantage point, a developing economy was now ready to take its place among first world nations. The World Cup and Olympic Games would be the graduation ceremonies.

19:16

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19:28

Mayor Paes

MILLAR:  “Mayor when Foreign Correspondent caught up with you a couple of years ago you said, when things went right they went right fast. Well you could say the opposite is true now, when things go bad they go bad fast”.

19:33

MAYOR EDUARDO PAES: “I don’t see these protests as a bad thing, you know? I mean I see them as an opportunity, you know, to get things better, to make the changes that are needed.

19:45

I think governments, different levels of government including the City of Rio, we have to be more transparent, we have to discuss more with the people. You know, I mean if we decide to do a hospital somewhere, I mean we’ve got to go there and discuss more. The things that we’re doing in the city there’s got to be more participation of the people and again improve the quality of services”.

19:56

Samba school. Couples dancing

MILLAR: Mayor Paes is an irrepressible spruiker for his city and he’s managed to dodge a lot of the flak that’s hit other prominent political identities.

20:21

Miller with Paes

[on dance floor] “Thanks for inviting us along. What a day”.

MAYOR EDUARDO PAES: “You’re going to love it. This is the heart of Rio. This is what Rio is”.

20:31

MILLAR: Maybe it’s the fancy footwork he’s picked up on the dance floor. He’s brought us to the city’s oldest and most respected Samba school, Manguiera.

20:41

Band plays

20:51

Like a lot of the city, the school’s been revamped and today they’re celebrating with Samba en masse.

20:56

Millar dancing

No point in being a wallflower.

MAYOR EDUARDO PAES: “I think Brazil did miss an opportunity with the World Cup. I think there’s a big difference between FIFA and IOC.

21:05

Paes

I mean what the World Cup, what FIFA wants is just stadiums and they don’t care about what’s going to happen to the city, to the country and I think Brazil did not use the opportunity in a proper way.

21:20

The Olympics in Rio has always been about legacy, about transformation of the city. So I do agree with people when they say I mean the World Cup it’s representing lots of money being spent on stadiums. I mean it’s nice to have nice stadiums but this is not something you can call a legacy. So I do believe that the Olympics is something much, much better and there’s more legacy”.

21:32

Millar with Thaissa

MILLAR: “What do you think of Eduardo Paes, the Rio Mayor?”

22:02

THAISSA ROTHIER: “I think that he’s not the Mayor of Rio. He doesn’t know the real Rio. He may be Mayor for the higher classes, the middle class, but in reality, he doesn’t know”.

22:06

Rio high rise/Stadium

MILLAR: There’s not a pocket of this sprawling, complicated city that has escaped the impact of hosting the ultimate double header.

22:21

Aerial gondola above slum

A gondola ride floats across stretches of the once notorious favelas, Rio’s sprawling slum communities. They were infested with gangs and crime but they’re being cleaned up ahead of the Olympics. So much so that in some parts of the favelas, property values have climbed dramatically as locals chase up prices in newly desirable corners.

22:30

Janine talking photos.

And around Janine Amorim’s neighbourhood, the scale of development makes your head spin as hotels, apartment buildings and development associated with Olympic Park head skyward.

22:55

Janine

JANINE AMORIM: “I think people here are not so concerned anymore about partying, carnival or soccer. I think the mentality is changing, so I think people are aware of the long term consequences… what is going to happen later”.

23:11

Thaissa, Felipe and Millar walk to school

MILLAR: And as sports facilities spring up at least one little school isn’t coming down after all. The pressure from protestors has paid off in one corner of Rio. Thaissa Rothier hears exciting news while we’re with her. The government is backing down and Felipe’s school won’t be demolished.

23:31

Thaissa

THAISSA ROTHIER: “We were able to change by showing the truth. Justice was one. The school belongs to the children”.

MILLAR: You and I

23:59

had some fun together at the football, but we also rode the buses and I could see that life can be pretty difficult for you at times, but I sense that you are torn. You still love your football but you’re unhappy about

24:08

what’s happening to your country.

THAISSA ROTHIER: “The lack of services is too great for us to host the World Cup. The love Brazilians have for soccer… we love soccer! The wish to see the World Cup is very big in Brazil. But the bad things are being disguised so the truth’s not being shown”.

24:21

Kids running down bank to football pitch

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24:49

MILLAR: It’s a hot and dusty pitch, but you can’t beat the location. It feels like we’re on top of the world and anyone’s welcome to play. But who knows what kind of reception the rest of the world will get come kick off time next June.

24:59

Kids play football

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25:19

MILLAR:  Proud and passionate, especially when it comes to football – Brazilians wonder how long they’ll be counting the cost of this chase for sporting glory.

25:26

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25:35

Credits:

Reporter: Lisa Millar
Camera: Rob Hill
Editor: Garth Thomas
Brazil Production Support: Beto Mello, Paula Gobbi, Bluma Gamerman
Producer: Vivien Altman

25:47