At least 100,000 security personnel "will be deployed across Brazil for the World Cup," according to the AFP. Andrei Rodrigues, special secretary for security & safety at major events, said that "the total number on duty during the tournament would be double that for the 2013 Confederations Cup." Rodrigues: "In June for the Confederations Cup there were 50,000 mobilized across Brazil. We estimate there will be 100,000 security professionals mobilized for the World Cup." Rodrigues said that that includes officers from the police and military, "as well as members of the National Force, an elite unit that will be ready to intervene where necessary" (AFP, 2/7). In London, James Young wrote, as the World Cup creeps closer, "winds of change continue to blow across Brazil." The feeling that "Brazilians have grown weary of the failures of their society, and those responsible for them, has lingered." Even "Brazil's footballers are angry." Hundreds of domestic players recently joined forces to form Bom Senso FC ("Common Sense FC"), "a protest group that seeks to improve their working conditions." Strike action "is being mooted." Then "there is the World Cup itself." Brazil National Team Technical Dir Carlos Alberto Parreira said, "We've missed a real opportunity to reassure people and show the world a different Brazil." Yet there is a "fine line between peaceful demonstration and civil unrest," and Brazil's "volatile state is clearly a worry" to both the country's government and FIFA, "particularly given the thuggish military police force's habit of metaphorically pouring petrol, rather than water, on the flames of protest" (INDEPENDENT, 2/9).
