World Cup Build-Up in Brazil Includes Tear Gas

It's hard to take in all the atmosphere from the penthouse suites that FIFA's poobahs have booked in Brazil.

But more than a slice of it is toxic.

And that's not including the tear gas.

The Brazilians might not like being termed as a third-world country, but it seems many like what the first-world greed of FIFA is doing to their econcomy even less. Kajillions spent on new sporting palaces for one month's spotlight are squeezing budgets elsewhere.

Instead of hospitals, schools, security, and transportation, the Brazilian government is underwriting the cost of massive stadiums that will have almost no practicality just over a month from now.

There are other stadiums that, as of this week, still aren't ready for World Cup matches.

And there's definitely a noisy portion of the populace that's not ready.

But as HBO's John Oliver so brilliantly explained, FIFA doesn't really care. Its tentacles have a tight grip on world football's heart strings, and as usual, emotions rule the short-sighted day.

The issue isn't the event itself, it's the corruption that puts the World Cup in parts of the globe that aren't ready to handle it. Feasibility studies are over-ridden by bribery time and again.

Not that long ago, Brazil was being hailed as a new economic engine on the international scene. But swindlers like Sepp Blatter & Co have stunted this nation's growth to the extent that now its own football leagues are jeopardized by a lack of revenues.

The irony is that all this is about to be swept aside in the name of national pride. It's the same national pride that the protestors are concerned about preserving.

Good luck with that.