People dressed as flowers take part in the opening ceremony of the 2014 FIFA football World Cup at the Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo on June 12, 2014. AFP
The 2014 Fifa World Cup begins on Thursday as hosts Brazil open the tournament against Croatia.
The month-long tournament sees 32 nations compete for a place in the final in Rio on Sunday, 13 July.
The opening match will be preceded by a ceremony in Sao Paulo that pays tribute to nature, people and football.
“Let me tell you the time has arrived. We are going together. This is our World Cup,” said Brazil coach Luis Felipe Scolari on Wednesday.
Brazil kicks off the World Cup on Thursday hoping to unite the football-mad country after a chaotic seven-year build-up plagued by violent protests.
The 32-team extravaganza gets under way in the teeming mega-city of Sao Paulo, where the host nation’s beloved ‘Selecao’ faces Croatia at about 5:00pm (1500 GMT) before 61,600 supporters and a worldwide television audience of several hundred million.
Thursday’s Group A match signals the start of a month-long football fiesta taking place against backdrops which showcase Brazil’s breathtaking diversity, from the picture postcard beauty of Rio de Janeiro to fading colonial grandeur of Manaus, deep in the Amazon.
After years of apathy and simmering resentment at the tournament’s record $11-billion price tag, Brazilians were grudgingly embracing World Cup fever in the final hours before the big kick-off.
Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari urged compatriots to unite behind his players as they launched their bid for glory.
“To all Brazilians I want to tell you the time has arrived. This is our World Cup,” Scolari said in an eve-of-tournament rallying cry.
The popular Scolari, who masterminded Brazil’s last World Cup win in 2002, said his team were seven matches from immortality.
“The first step is Croatia,” he said. “After that we have six steps that we want to go up if we want to win the World Cup.”
As the last of the 32 teams who will contest the greatest prize in football arrived in Brazil, mounting evidence of World Cup fever was visible.
Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue has been illuminated in the colors of all nations taking part while Brazilian flags fluttered from cars, bars and apartments as excitement built.
In Rio de Janeiro, some of the 600,000 foreign fans travelling to Brazil thronged the famous Copacabana beach, staging impromptu football matches.
Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio was among the overseas multitude jetting into the country, taking in the tournament from the luxury of a mega-yacht offshore.
Twelve government leaders or heads of state will be among the VIPS at Thursday’s opening ceremony.
But even though more Brazilians are sporting the yellow jersey of star forward Neymar, discontent continues to bubble.
For the World Cup, a vast security blanket is being deployed, with 150,000 soldiers and police on duty along with 20,000 private security officers.
Brazil’s leader Dilma Rousseff warned that her government will not tolerate a repeat of last year’s protests.
Source: Prothom Alo
