They are all against the arrival of the World Cup

“Swap Neymar for Van Persie?” The World Cup kicks off in less than 2 weeks and São Paulo has only started turning yellow and green in the last couple of days. The supermarkets, bars and restaurants have recently started to put out their flags and decorations, but the people themselves are the ones who are the biggest stragglers. I have now counted two cars with a small Brazilian flag flying on the roof. The houses and apartments have mainly retained their grey concrete colour.

They hope for Brazil's quick elimination

Despite this, the World Cup is very much alive here, but not because of the football. I have been living in São Paulo for four months now and in the hope of learning the language, I chat with many people. What is striking during these conversations is that it does not matter whether you ask the taxi drivers, the security at the apartments, the lawyers or the architects: they are all against the arrival of the World Cup. And they all mention the same four reasons why: corruption, hospitals, schools and infrastructure. Corruption here is a major problem and the most frustrating thing is that the population sees little of their tax money in return in the form of social services such as more hospitals, better schools and good infrastructure. Instead, they get expensive stadiums and unclear expenditure of public money.

If Brazil were to become world champion, there is a big chance that the country would still end up be in a dazziling buzz. The fear of many is that a large part of the population will vote for Dilma (the current President) again in the elections next October. "Because if things go well in football, then everything is fine". Which would mean that little would change and that all the protests would turn out to have been for nothing. That is why the hope is often expressed for Brazil to be eliminated early on in the tournament, although if I ask a Brazilian to take a position: Brazil against Argentina in the final? Then of course they will be very happy if the seleção canarinho (the yellow canaries, reference to the yellow gold coloured shirts of the Brazillian football team) win.

It is clear, the people are not happy about hosting the World Cup. The only ones for whom the World Cup really lives in a positive sense are the children. And then especially to find Neymar, Messi and van Persie. Not the real footballers, but the football sticker pictures, to complete their albums.

Jeroen van Gennep, São Paulo