{"id":14742,"date":"2014-05-02T15:42:24","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T18:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=14742"},"modified":"2015-12-23T23:09:23","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T02:09:23","slug":"the-2014-peoples-cup-kicks-off-in-santa-marta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=14742","title":{"rendered":"The 2014 People\u2019s Cup Kicks Off in Santa Marta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>This past Sunday, the Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics<\/a>, in partnership with the National Association of Women\u2019s Football, organized the first of four soccer\u00a0events\u00a0constituting this year’s\u00a0People\u2019s Cup. Four women\u2019s teams and four men\u2019s teams took part, representing groups negatively impacted by the approaching mega-events in Rio de Janeiro. The matches took place on a field at the top of Santa Marta<\/a>, the favela famously receiving the first UPP unit in 2008 and featured in Michael Jackson\u2019s 1995 video \u2018They Don\u2019t Care About Us<\/a>\u2019. As in the first edition<\/span>\u00a0in 2013<\/a>, representatives of favelas from different parts of the city made up the teams.<\/p>\n

As with last year’s Evictions Cup, the People’s Cup aims to raise awareness of the ways in which Rio’s people are being impacted by mega-events’ preparations, particularly\u00a0forced evictions<\/a>. According to the Popular Committee,\u00a0more than 100,000 people have been forced from their homes<\/a> since 2009. Other impacts are highlighted this year with the participation of the\u00a0National Front of Fans<\/a>, who campaign against the increasing exclusivity of Brazilian football, and the United Movement of Street Vendors<\/a>, representing those restricted from their work by FIFA-imposed limits on vending during the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Despite light rain and technical issues with Santa Marta’s funicular tram, many local and international on-lookers and journalists\u00a0were present from the kick-off match between the girls of Santa Cruz<\/a>, West Zone,\u00a0and Crici\u00fama,\u00a0North Zone. Along the pitch, teammates got louder as the game progressed and the girls from Chatuba in the Baixada Fluminense<\/a> warmed up by singing and dancing. Children played on the pitch between matches; others climbed on rooftops to take in the view of Rio de Janeiro. The atmosphere was contagious; a DJ played famous funk<\/a> songs, to which the women\u2019s teams danced. Later, residents of Santa Marta played samba.<\/p>\n

\"All<\/a>The music was interrupted by announcements reminding us of the causes that brought participants together in Santa Marta. This day of \u201ctruly popular sport\u201d highlighted that the right to housing<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and work<\/a> is more important than the right to speculation<\/a>. This year\u2019s event is organized in four stages, each time in a different community, to highlight that the negative impact of the World Cup is being felt citywide.<\/p>\n

Bruna Maria, 18, and Maiara, 21, represented Chatuba and said they like living there and would leave their community for nothing. They were at the event because people are facing threats of\u00a0eviction\u00a0not only\u00a0in central favelas like Santa Marta, but in distant ones like Chatuba as well. They cited security<\/a>\u00a0and education<\/a> as the major challenges of their community, but health<\/a> is the most important, as residents need to go to other parts of town for medical services.<\/p>\n

\""Rio<\/a>Stefano Novais, 22, a chemistry student and one of the players on the National Front of Fans’ team, said soccer\u00a0is \u201cnot just about what happens on\u00a0the pitch, but about the impacts outside.\u201d He said the People\u2019s Cup is important because of the discussion of social rights during the event. Indeed, he claimed that on television the World Cup is presented as only having positive and touristic impacts, whereas in reality people are suffering, being removed for World Cup infrastructure. The National Front of Fans is present at various events protesting the World Cup; their main agenda is to guarantee popular access to\u00a0Brazilian football.<\/p>\n

Jo\u00e3o Pedro and Yuri, both 19 and Stefano\u2019s teammates, took part in the event because of the privatization of\u00a0the Maracan\u00e3 stadium<\/a> and access to the World Cup being closed to all but the privileged. When asked about their favorite football player, they replied Rom\u00e1rio, who has embarked on\u00a0a political career vocally denouncing the Federation of International Football Associations<\/a> (FIFA). They fear the \u201cmodernization\u201d of stadiums and thus the alienation of football fans. They claim that true fans do not want shopping malls in stadiums, but rather want to conserve traditional Brazilian football culture.<\/p>\n

\"Chatuba<\/a>There is one change they were happy about though: girls\u2019 participation in football in Brazil, despite the lingering preconceptions. Ingrid, 17, from Crici\u00fama, a favela in Tijuca, was confident about her team\u2019s chances of victory; they have been invited to more events since they won last year\u2019s People\u2019s Cup. Bruna Maria and Maiara from Chatuba have been playing since they were young\u00a0girls and stated that the event is great\u00a0for the visibility of women\u2019s football.<\/p>\n

Marcio, 42, playing on the street vendors\u2019 team, said the World Cup could be an opportunity for a better situation for street vendors<\/a>, who are\u00a0banned from selling close to stadiums during the World Cup in order to give priority to the interests of event sponsors. Jean Vitor, 18, who sells belts, enjoyed this Sunday\u2019s event and his first time in Santa Marta. He just hopes vendors will not be pulled off the streets.<\/p>\n

Stefano, from the National Front of Fans, is in favor of a People’s\u00a0World Cup which could explore Brazilians\u2019 passion for football in a just way, respecting human rights<\/a>. The winners of Sunday\u2019s event were Crici\u00fama among the women\u2019s teams and the National Front of Fans among the men\u2019s teams. The back of the latter\u2019s shirts read \u201canother football is possible.\u201d Vitor Lira, a guide and activist from Santa Marta and one of the organizers of the event, declared at the close of Sunday\u2019s event that soccer is indeed about \u201cintegration, not segregation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas This past Sunday, the Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics, in partnership with the National Association of Women\u2019s Football, organized the first of four soccer\u00a0events\u00a0constituting this year’s\u00a0People\u2019s Cup. Four […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":14776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,1736,1290,1333,1329],"tags":[460,1184,190,1183,221,189,11,1197,26,165,1259,5,10,383,66,1173,207,957,167],"writer":[1182],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-1736","9":"category-civilsociety","10":"category-event-reports","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-baixada-fluminense","13":"tag-chatuba","14":"tag-comite-popular","15":"tag-criciuma","16":"tag-favela-culture","17":"tag-fifa","18":"tag-forced-evictions","19":"tag-greater-rio","20":"tag-housing-rights","21":"tag-maracana","22":"tag-mega-events","23":"tag-olympics","24":"tag-real-estate-speculation","25":"tag-santa-cruz","26":"tag-santa-marta","27":"tag-soccer","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-street-vendors","30":"tag-world-cup","31":"writer-jessica-goodenough"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14742"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=14742"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=14742"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=14742"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=14742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}