Yeah, it's absurd. E dai?

Someone in the government finally noticed that stadiums in Brasilia, Manaus, Natal, and Cuiabahaha are going to have no post-World Cup uses and will be a perpetual drain on state coffers until they are demolished. It's only R$2 billion for construction and about R$24 million a year to keep them standing. No biggie. Oh, but then let's throw in Fortaleza and Recife, just because no one will be able to afford R$60 tickets and we have a half-dozen stadiums with no post-Cup usage. Sinto como um papagaio, sempre falando a mesma coisa.

In Rio, OGlobo was kind enough to point out the other day that not only will the Maracanã be closed through the end of 2012, but will likely have highly restricted use until after the 2016 Olympics. Why? Because the state will have to give the stadium over to FIFA through the end of the World Cup and then to the IOC through the end of the Olympics. Last night Fluminense played in Volta Redonda, two and a half hours away. Flamengo is charging R$50 for bleacher seats in the Fechadão. In Minas Gerais, the closing of the Minerão is forcing Galo and cruzeiro to play 70-100 km from Belo Horizonte, with predicatable declines in attendance. Though the phrase doesn't really translate into Portuguese, Brazilians are going to find out what it's like to be someone's bitch (with apologies to the biatches out there).

Fortunately there's a small movement afoot to restore some pride. Marcos Alvito of the History Department at UFF is organizing a meeting to restore some respect. It will occur on October 10 at the Bar Dezoito, across from Gate 18 at the Maracanã. More information is available here: http://respeitamofutebol.wordpress.com

In my last post, I noted that the Medidas Provisorias that created the APO and BRASIL 2016 expired because the Senate did not vote on them in time. A new version of the MP rolled off the presses this week, #503. This MP creates anew the APO, which will be the umbrella organization for all Olympic projects. This parallel government will have tremendous power and around R$30 billion to play with. The head of the APO will be the current Secretary of Sport, Orlando Silva, who appointed the indicted head of the PAN 2007, Ricardo Lyser to had the private company BRASIL 2016. O papagaio falou de novo?

In other Olympic news, the Tribunal das Contas da União has fired some shots across Nuzman's bow, asking for an accounting of the approximately R$100 million of public funds that went into the Rio 2016 bidding process.