For better or for worse, Football is coming home in just a few days.
The yellow & green of Brazilian football is synonymous with the Beautiful Game. Pele, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and the names and football supremacy goes on and on. The one-named maestros with a ball. Stopping time, with no space, to punch, curve and bend the ball beyond the outstretched arms of the keeper.
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For me, it was my the first jersey I ever bought. Yellowy-gold, with green trim and five stars stitched over the national football team crest.
I have no links to the Brazilian team – my heritage is Spanish, Turkish, Italian, Canadian. But there was something about the purity of the way they played. To me, it was like watching Gretzky in his office behind the net, with the puck seemingly on a string. The Brazilian players seemed to skate down the pitch, gliding into the box and then, as if there were no defenders, slide it in into the netting.
Last night we were on our flight to Sao Paulo, a 10.75 hour journey that is a dream come true. Not only am I going to a World Cup, but it is in the spiritual home of football.
But let’s get real. This tournament of the Cup of Cups may not be a dream. As the doors open on the aircraft Tuesday, we will be stepping into a powder keg.
Striking workers, people rousted from their homes, groups hell-bent on bruising this event while all the world is watching.
A man walks in front of mural covered in graffiti featuring Brazil's Neymar which has been modified to make the Barcelona striker look like a member of the Black Blocs, which have been active in Brazil's ongoing protest movement against the World Cup, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, May 27, 2014. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
And why not? The country has spent $11 billion to host this spectacular event. Money the country can ill afford to put out, especially as corruption, inefficiency and misplaced priorities surface hours before the first match.
So, as transit workers demand a 12 per cent pay increase, the multi-millionaire footballers begin arriving. The perfect storm of sports and politics – one that I have a front row seat to watch.
