Brasilia - Only 24 hours before hosts Brazil take on Japan in the Confederations Cup opener in Brasilia's National Stadium, football took a back seat Friday after protests erupted in several cities across the huge country.
Overnight, police made hundreds of arrests in Sao Paulo, Brazil's business capital, as well as Rio de Janeiro, after thousands of protesters blocked thoroughfares to protest higher transport fares which already outstripped typical fares in many a European metropolis.
Friday then saw hundreds more protesters gather in Brasilia itself, taking the focus away from the football as they protested urban reform and conditions for health workers.
Some 400 homeless activists burned tyres and blocked access to the stadium, one of the six host stadiums for the Confederations Cup, black smoke billowing around the venue.
“Red card for the Cup, which violates human rights,” was one banner held aloft by the Brasilia protesters, angry at what they see as a land grab by officials to prepare not just this tournament but next year's World Cup, for which the Confederations event is a dress rehearsal.
“We are militant, but not terrorists. Who is this Cup for anyway?,” chanted others as they brandished banners, including “The Cup is just a trophy for the tourists” and “250,000 people have been displaced for the Cup”.
Police did not report any arrest or injuries.
Many people are frustrated at the millions being spent on facilities for the football Ä $475 million for the stadium in Brasilia alone Ä rather than in reducing marked social inequality.
Police said the demonstrators however later ended their protest after the federal government agreed to meet their representatives.
Since being awarded the Confederations Cup, a World Cup for the first time since 1950 and also the Rio Olympics for 2016, Brazil has embarked on a massive programme of infrastructure and urban reform.
But there is a feeling among some sections of society that officialdom is riding roughshod over their own interests.
A police spokesman said the protest was organized by the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST) which is campaigning to reduce Brazil's housing shortage by staging squatters' occupations in abandoned government buildings.
“If the Cup were yours, what would you do? Would you privatise the airport or construct 500 kindergartens and schools?” read one huge banner behind which one man blew a vuvuzela horn, a noisy relic from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
One representative from an urban reform pressure group told AFP that “the government has a duty to help the people. They are from Brazil, they live in Brazil”.
A second group of Brasilia protesters were angry at the erosion of labour rights for health professionals.
“They (the government) make all kinds of promises but don't stick to them. It's been like this for years,” complained union legal officer Nilton Batista.
Two male nurses, who gave their names as Gerulio and Braulio, complained about falling purchasing power and temporary contracts.
The pair held aloft a placard bearing the legend: “If you want to improve healthcare then you have to value health professionals.”
President Dilma Rousseff used a visit to Rocinha, Rio's biggest shantytown, to defend Brazil's hosting of the World Cup.
“When they ask you what we have to gain from the Cup, in addition to the joy of football, to see Brazil play, we gain improved security, we gain all these works that are also crucial - roads and the metro,” she noted.
“They are works to improve the city. They may be for tourists for a while but over the long run they are meant to improve the quality of life of people,” Rousseff added.
But the proliferation of protests does little to help the image of a country which has been struggling to get ready for the Confederations Cup.
Football's world governing body FIFA has accepted that things will not be “100 percent ready” for the event but has warned that it will not tolerate anything less than total readiness come the World Cup, to be hosted across 12 cities.
As the transport fare protests spread to cities including Porto Alegre in the south and Natal in the north, dozens of journalists headed for the Brasilia stadium were engulfed in the protests.
There was no excuse to pass by on the other side as a tunnel supposed to connect the media centre with the stadium remains unfinished, prompting a detour through the massed ranks of protesters. - Sapa-AFP