Freshly returned from the Olympic Games in London, Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo spoke with reporters via conference call from Brasilia to talk about plans and construction for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Rio Games.
Q: Could you tell us what specific lessons you learned from London?
Rebelo: First and foremost, one lesson is that we need to control and monitor the budget for the Games very well. Also, we learned that we need to pay close attention to issues such as urban mobility, transportation, telecommunication, safety and security, volunteering and others—all issues that are essential for the success of the Games.
Q: There’s been much criticism obviously from within FIFA about the preparations for the World Cup. If there are insufficient hotels for an Olympic Games in Rio, can there be sufficient infrastructure support for an event like the World Cup, which is obviously across all over the entire nation? Otherwise, when will the stadiums be ready?
Rebelo: The biggest fear within the hotel sector is not the shortage of accommodation, but actually of oversupply of accommodation. The fear in the hotel sector is that there will be too many rooms offered in comparison to the demand, and because of that, there will be a decrease in prices. As for the work for the World Cup, both in terms of stadium infrastructure as well as the urban mobility work, are on schedule; both of them. There is no secret to organizing a World Cup or an Olympic Games. There is lots of work to do, and we are working a lot.
Q: Will there be enough money to complete all of the projects necessary for both of these events, and where will it come from? The government’s intention with the World Cup is that it will be paid for with private investments. Is that still a realistic goal?
Rebelo: All public funds, which have been allocated for the preparation of the Olympic Games of 2016, are already assured funds, and all resources have been allocated to budget as appropriate and will continue to be allocated appropriately for budget until 2016. The World Cup includes private enterprise. It is a private enterprise and there are loans from the government for stadiums, so they are loans that are based on market rules and these loans are being managed by large scale private investments. In fact, the estimate is that the private investments that are being made for the World Cup will probably go beyond the initial estimates that they would be, particularly due to the favorable conditions of the Brazilian economy (SBD GLOBAL).
