Is Brazil ready?

It is fun to be a Brazilian fan at the moment. The national team just won the Confederations Cup for the third time in a row and with what a sensational performance by Neymar, and the biggest event in the sport, the World Cup, is coming to Brazil in 2014. But as the celebrations for the win wear off, the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the body that governs world soccer and the World Cup, has voiced concerns that the country might not be ready for the show next year.

 “When we started the competition [to select a 2014 host nation] there was some uncertainty on what would happen,” said FIFA President Sepp Blatter to BBC.

Some of the issues were infrastructure-related: Four of the six host stadiums for the Confederations Cup were completed shortly before the beginning of the competition, well behind schedule. But what soccer authorities were worried about was mostly the social upheaval that had the world watching Brazil closely for half of the month of June.

Brazilians took to the streets and protested to demand more spending for social programs and to demand better education and health care for the betterment of their country’s condition. FIFA and the World Cup were among the targets, as demonstrators said that the government had spent more than necessary in bringing the competition to Brazil, instead of devoting that money to improving the life of Brazilians.

 With all said and done, everyone is looking forward to this senasational event after the unforgettable 2010 experience, which saw Spain conquer the world, who's turn will it be now??