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  • 世界杯：任意球，回传球

    2007-11-05

    [2007.11.03]Free kicks and kickbacks

    The World Cup
    世界杯

    Free kicks and kickbacks
    任意球，回传球
    Nov 1st 2007 | SÃO PAULO
    From The Economist print edition



    Football comes home to Brazil after 64 years
    阔别64年之后，足球重回故里巴西

    FOR Brazil, a country with a seemingly endless supply of footballers with magnetic feet, winning the World Cup is often fairly straightforward. Hosting it may prove harder. But this week FIFA, the sport's governing body, confirmed that the competition will take place in Brazil in 2014.
    巴西似乎蕴藏了无数拥有魔术脚法的足球运动员。对它来说，夺取世界杯犹如探囊取物。而举办世界杯可能就没这么容易了。本周，世界杯赛事的组织者——国际足联（FIFA）证实2014年世界杯将在巴西举行。

    That gives the country a chance to get even with the other big emerging economies with which it is sometimes bracketed as the BRICs. China will host the Olympics next year, India has the Commonwealth Games in 2010, while Russia has the Winter Olympics in 2014.
    这样的话，巴西将有机会赶上其它新兴经济体的脚步——巴西与俄罗斯、印度、中国并称为金砖四国（BRIC）。明年中国将举办奥运会， 2010年英联邦国家运动会将在印度举行，而俄罗斯则取得了2014年冬奥会的举办权。

    Brazil has a head start. It already has lots of football stadiums, even if many are small or crumbling. China, by contrast, has a dozen sports centres, an underground railway and an airport terminal to complete before the Olympics start. For Brazil, a bigger problem may be getting several hundred thousand foreign tourists safely to the matches in time for the kick-off. Its airports are poorly run, and roads clogged. And violent crime is a constant problem.
    巴西自有其优势。它拥有许许多多足球场，不过大都又小又破。反观中国，在奥运会开幕之前将会建好12座体育中心，以及地铁和机场。对巴西来讲，一个比较棘 手的问题是，如何在比赛开始之前及时地将成百上千的外国观众送上看台。巴西的机场经营不善，交通道路也不畅通，暴力犯罪更是老大难问题。

    Any big public project in Brazil provides opportunities for expensive pork-barrel politics in a legislature that can make high drama out of even routine spending bills. As if to illustrate what lies ahead, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's entourage in Zurich, where FIFA made the announcement, included a smattering of ministers and no fewer than 12 state governors. They will all demand a share of the spending. Contracts for big projects in Brazil have been an invitation to collect kickbacks in the past.
    在巴西，每每需要修建大型公共工程，议会就必会出台巨额的政府拨款的政策。这比例行拨款法案更让人堵心。就好像要验证上面这番话似得，在总统卢拉•达席尔 瓦（Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva）去国际足联所在地苏黎世（Zurich）的随同人员中，部长没几位，而州长却不下12位。他们都被要求分担一部分花费。大型工程的合同就是一 张收回旧日薪金的请柬。

    Some will hope that the tournament will provide a boost to the domestic game. While hundreds of Brazilian stars ply their trade in Europe, the local football league is a paragon of mismanagement. Federal prosecutors are hovering over Corinthians, one of São Paulo's biggest clubs. They want to speak to Boris Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch based in London, about whether the club was used to launder money.
    有些人希望通过举办世界杯来带动国内联赛的兴起。数以百计的巴西球星在欧洲赛场驰骋，而巴西国内足球联赛却无法挽留球迷的身影。联邦检察官紧紧地盯上了圣 保罗（São Paulo）最大的足球俱乐部——科林斯队（Corinthians）。他们想问问流亡伦敦的俄罗斯政治寡头鲍里斯•贝瑞左夫斯基该俱乐部是不是被用来洗 黑钱。

    Total pessimism is unwarranted. Earlier this year the Pan-American Games went off smoothly—albeit way over budget—in Rio de Janeiro. With the economy starting to grow faster, the country is in confident mood.
    悲观是悲观了点，但绝不是绝望。今年初在里约热内卢（Rio de Janeiro）举行的泛美运动会（Pan-American Games）虽然大大超过预算，但还是顺利地落下帷幕。随着经济增长的加快，巴西有了底气。
    Football fans will surely be pleased with the choice of Brazil. It has won the tournament five times—more than any other country. Even if its national team is currently not quite at its peak, it still performs. In its last outing it thrashed Ecuador 5-0 in Rio's Maracanã stadium. Brazilians will hope, too, that 2014 will at last expunge the memory of the last time they hosted the tournament, in 1950, when in the same stadium they inexplicably lost the final 2-1 to their tiny neighbour, Uruguay (see picture).
    球迷对巴西的选择自然是不亦乐乎。这是他们第五次取得举办该项赛事的主办权，至今还无人出其左右。即使巴西国家队并不处于巅峰状态，但其表现依然可圈可 点。在最近的一次比赛中，他们在里约马拉卡纳（Rio's Maracanã）球场以5：0的比分痛宰厄瓜多尔。巴西人也希望2014年将最终抹掉关于他们最后一次举办世界杯的记忆。那是1950年，就在同一块球 场上，他们莫名其妙地以2：1的比分输给了他们微不足道的邻居——乌拉圭（见图）。

    （译者：高炜）

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