Strange things are happening in Brazil. Six months before the 2014 World Cup, the Minister of Sports, Aldo Rebelo, announced that he would resign in December to run for the post of governor of the state of Sao Paulo. “I’m going to leave the ministry. I think it will be at the beginning of December, when the stadium handover cycle will be completed,” the person concerned simply explained to the Brazilian press, as if he were saying that “he was going to do his shopping for the week.
The Brazilian Minister of Sports therefore wants to look elsewhere. He is just waiting, to return the keys to his office, until the 12 World Cup stadiums have been “delivered” to FIFA, as required by the latter on December 31, 2013. Even more surprising: Aldo Rebelo has made the announcement to the press, before having officially notified its decision to the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff.
To a journalist who asked him if this would not complicate the final preparations, he replied jokingly: “that would greatly overestimate my function and my role. At least 19 Worlds took place without my participation.”
Aldo Rebelo is a member of the Communist Party of Brazil – an ally of the ruling Workers' Party (PT) – which has already designated him as a pre-candidate for governor of the state of Sao Paulo. In accordance with Brazilian law, candidates for the October 2014 elections must have renounced all public responsibility by April 2014 at the latest.
In October 2014, three months after the World Cup, Brazilians will vote to elect their president, all of the deputies, the governors and some of the senators.
The resignation of the Minister of Sports will not profoundly change the preparation of the Football World Cup nor, in the longer term, that of the Rio Games in 2016. But it maintains the vagueness which seems to reign in the country six months before the most important sporting event in its history. Brazil was confronted last June, in the middle of the Confederations Cup, with an unprecedented social revolt against the quality of public services, the corruption of the political class and the billions spent on organizing the World Cup. Does Aldo Rebelo prefer to leave the square before another earthquake? To be continued.
