{"id":16005,"date":"2014-06-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=16005"},"modified":"2014-06-17T00:24:17","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T03:24:17","slug":"peoples-cup-final-match-protests-mega-event-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=16005","title":{"rendered":"People\u2019s Cup Final Match Protests Mega-Event Violations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The soccer matches\u00a0of the People\u2019s Cup final began around midday on Sunday June 8 at the top of Morro do Pinto in the Port Region<\/a>\u00a0of Central Rio<\/a>. The People\u2019s Cup is a soccer\u00a0tournament of\u00a0participants whose\u00a0rights have been violated by sporting mega-events. The organizers of the championship are the Popular Committee on\u00a0the World Cup and Olympics<\/a>, in partnership with the National Association of Women\u2019s Football. The goal is to join communities and groups striving for their rights and to give visibility to the rights violations occurring as a result of Rio de Janeiro hosting the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two women\u2019s teams, both linked to Crici\u00fama<\/a>, and three men\u2019s teams played Sunday afternoon. The National Front of Soccer Fans<\/a> was busy all weekend with debates about the World Cup, so they were replaced by the runners-up from the Santa Marta event<\/a>: the Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics. The other two men\u2019s teams were from the communities of Salgueiro<\/a>, known for its samba school<\/a>, and Provid\u00eancia<\/a>, the oldest favela in Rio.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>All of the players wore t-shirts expressing\u00a0the objectives of the Popular Committee: \u201cCup in the street for rights;\u201d \u201cPublic and popular Maracan\u00e3;\u201d \u201cOut with the FIFA mafia;\u201d \u201cRights for street vendors;\u201d \u201cEnd the military occupation of favelas.”<\/p>\n

The Popular\u00a0Committee announced that the day is a playful moment but that the t-shirts and banners remind us that many people are excluded from the World Cup. They have recently published an important\u00a0report on\u00a0human rights violations<\/a>\u00a0and put a spotlight on social problems in Rio de Janeiro. Eduardo Tacto, member of the Popular Committee and president of the National Association of Women\u2019s Football, says that Brazil is the country of football; but that the sport should be managed with transparency and should not lead to evictions.<\/p>\n

The People\u2019s Cup took place in 2013<\/a>\u00a0as a one-day event. This year\u2019s edition took place in several stages in different communities to show that the repercussions of hosting mega-events are widespread and systematic in Rio de Janeiro. The approach has helped raise awareness of\u00a0what is happening in other parts of the city.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Both of last year\u2019s People\u2019s Cup winners proved victorious again: the Crici\u00fama veteran women\u2019s team and the Provid\u00eancia men\u2019s team. Aline, Crici\u00fama\u2019s n\u00b010, was named the best overall player of the tournament. She stays humble about her footballing talent and rather talks about the issues underpinning Sunday\u2019s event. She said that the day helped unite people, whereas the World Cup is only for the wealthy.<\/p>\n

The contrast between the People\u2019s Cup and the FIFA World Cup sheds light on the problematic issues surrounding soccer\u00a0in Brazil. Dominique, n\u00b07 in the Crici\u00fama junior team, mentions that women\u2019s football is less visible than men\u2019s football and that she takes part in such events to inspire other girls to play. She also says few Brazilians can afford to enter the stadiums; that the World Cup is not for Brazilians, but rather for foreigners with more money to buy tickets. Dominique says that there are other priorities in Brazil, such as health<\/a> and the support for social projects in communities, which are more important than investing in elite football.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>During the afternoon, the sound system played music to encourage the teams. People chanted “N\u00e3o vai ter copa<\/em><\/a>” (There will be no World Cup), and a stand printed t-shirts denouncing the abuses surrounding mega-events. Later, a band played songs related to the police violence favela residents face, such as \u2018Rap das armas<\/a>\u2019 and \u2018Rap da Felicidade<\/a>.<\/span>\u2019 Morro do Pinto is situated in \u2018Little Africa,\u2019 a historically significant part of Rio de Janeiro for Afro-Brazilian culture<\/a>. After the football games, festivities reinterpreted Brazilian cultural heritage to mock the World Cup organizers, through a carnival atmosphere and the quadrille dance of the Festa Junina, to celebrate the ‘marriage’ of the Brazilian government,\u00a0FIFA and corporate sponsors.<\/p>\n

Pedro, a member of the People\u2019s Committee, says that Sunday\u2019s event carries different values than those proposed by FIFA. He hopes that citizen participation and mobilization in the streets for social causes will continue during the World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The soccer matches\u00a0of the People\u2019s Cup final began around midday on Sunday June 8 at the top of Morro do Pinto in the Port Region\u00a0of Central Rio. The People\u2019s Cup is a soccer\u00a0tournament of\u00a0participants whose\u00a0rights […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":16009,"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":[1293,1736,1290,336],"tags":[255,1261,190,910,1183,221,189,25,1259,1320,1292,148,144,906,66,1173,167],"writer":[1182],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16005","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-violations","11":"tag-activism","12":"tag-central-rio","13":"tag-comite-popular","14":"tag-creative-organizing","15":"tag-criciuma","16":"tag-favela-culture","17":"tag-fifa","18":"tag-human-rights","19":"tag-mega-events","20":"tag-morro-do-pinto","21":"tag-organizing","22":"tag-port-region","23":"tag-morro-da-providencia","24":"tag-salgueiro","25":"tag-santa-marta","26":"tag-soccer","27":"tag-world-cup","28":"writer-jessica-goodenough"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16005","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=16005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16005"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=16005"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=16005"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=16005"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=16005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}