FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 - Case Study Example

FIFA World Cup Brazil Event that has a Significant Tourism Role The event concept The FIFA World Cup, commonly referred to as the World Cup,is an international football competition organized by the Federation Internationle de Football Association (FIFA). In this mega football event, senior men’s national teams who are the members of FIFA are contested. The FIFA World Cup is organised every four years, and Spain is the current champion. As per the current tournament format, 32 teams compete for the world champion title over a period of about a month, a time period generally termed as World Cup Finals. There is a qualification phase before the World Cup Finals to determine which teams qualify for the tournament. Till now, 19 World Cup championships have been awarded to eight different national teams including Brazil, Italy, West Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, England, France, and Spain. Each World Cup is hosted by a different country, and the FIFA has a set of stated prerequisites for hosting the World Cup with regard to infrastructure and other facilities. While analysing the event typology, it seems that the FIFA World Cup is a sporting event which is broadcasted across the globe. The FIFA World Cup is the world’s most widely viewed sporting event; the final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup has been watched by an estimated 715.1 million people (Dwivedi, 2011, p.6.75). Brazil is the most successful team in the history of the FIFA World Cup winning a total of 5 titles. The last World Cup was held in South Africa in 2010 and the 2014 World Cup will be hosted by Brazil. 2. Aims and objectives of the event Before the beginning of the FIFA World Cup, Olympic football tournament had been the only international tournament or world football tournament. With the founding of FIFA in 1904, there were serious discussions on arranging an international football tournament between FIFA member nations outside the Olympics. However, these efforts had not been successful for the next two decades. With the FIFA President Jules Rimet’s great efforts and dedication, discussions again started in late 1920s to organise an international football tournament outside the Olympic framework and as a result in 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to organize its own world championship. FIFA choose Uruguay as the host country for the inaugural World Cup tournament which was held in 1930. The general aim of the World Cup is “to touch the world, develop the game, and build a better future through a variety of ways” (FIFA.com). Since tourism is a potential way to build a better future for an economy, it can be stated that the aims of the World Cup reflect the tourism role that the event has. The wider tourism concept represents people visiting domestic places and international destinations as part of enjoyment and new information gathering. As each Word Cup is hosted by different countries, people travel internationally to attend this event, and therefore this popular sporting event fits the wider tourism strategy. Although the ultimate aims of the World Cup have not changed over the time, FIFA sets specific aims and objectives for each World Cup so as to address contemporary issues and needs. The FIFA World Cup complies with other events in terms of common objectives because all sporting events are aimed at developing a peaceful world. Brazil’s tourism strategies pay particular attention to sustainable tourism growth addressing the needs of the environment as well as the community. According to the Brazilian government’s national tourism plan, the country is expected to become the 3rd world tourist economy by 2022 (Resonance, n.d.). The Brazilian tourism industry expects to increase the number of foreign tourists visiting the country in a year from 6.2 million to 7.9 million by 2016 (Ibid). Undoubtedly, the 2014 FIFA World Cup would popularise the hot tourist destinations of Brazil and assist the country to meet its targets for 2016. In addition, sustainability has been set to be the goal of 2014 World Cup, and this goal is on par with the Brazilian tourism strategies (FIFA.com). According to a study conducted by Harry H. Hiller, a mega event will be of a fixed duration and on a short term basis (as cited in The Pulse, 2007). In addition, the event must have high profile popularity and there must be a worldwide interest linked to the event in addition to sustainable and measureable economic outcomes (Ibid). It is clear that the FIFA World Cup meets all these criteria and hence it is a mega event. The Rio 2016 would also fuel the growth of the Brazilian tourism industry by attracting foreign visitors. Brazil is an emerging economy and is expected to be one of the major world powers within the next few decades. The country has a well developed infrastructural landscape and sufficient human capital and other crucial resources. Furthermore, Brazilians are extremely interested in sporting events, and the consumer demand is favourable in the Brazilian market environment. These are the main reasons why Brazil has been chosen to be the host for both FIFA World Cup 2014 and Olympics 2016. 3. Identifying the key stakeholders and their roles In olden days, organisations planned its operations in the perspective of shareholders because traditional academic literature held the view that shareholders are the real owners of a business, and therefore increasing shareholder values must be the only objective of businesses. The stakeholder theory was introduced as an alternative model to the shareholder centric theories, and it replaced many wrong assumptions associated with the shareholder approaches. The stakeholder theory states that an organisation’s stakeholders are not actually limited to shareholders but also include customers, suppliers, employees, banks and other financial institutions, government, political parties, and the general public (Heath & Norman, 2004). This theoretical approach combines resource-based view as well as market-based view, and company’s specific stakeholders are identified by considering the views of the company. The stakeholder theory is applicable to sporting events too. A stakeholder of a sporting event can be an individual or organisation whose activities and attitudes would affect the success of a sports team, event participants, or the entire sporting event. Through an effective stakeholder analysis, it is possible to identify the stakeholders of a sporting event and their relative importance and influence. In this way, the stakeholders of the 2014 FIFA World Cup may include participants, spectators, governing bodies, financial stakeholders, and the community. Evidently, participants have a prime role to play in this mega sporting event as they are the fundamental stakeholders of the World Cup. Success or failure of a football team can really influence the team as a whole and the participants individually. Therefore all the 32 teams competing for the title can be considered as the key stakeholders of World Cup. Similarly, spectators constitute a potential stakeholder group of the 2014 FIFA World Cup as they can significantly influence the financial success of this sporting event. The World Cup Finals may not bring expected financial outcomes if there are no audiences to watch the event. While analysing the governing bodies, it seems that FIFA, Brazilian Football Confederation, Brazilian government, and the Brazilian tourism department are the key stakeholders of the World Cup. They combine their efforts to organize this mega sporting event successfully and to make considerable financial gains. These stakeholders are responsible for the flawless management of this sporting event (Lopes & Paulo, 2014.). It is obvious that a mega sporting event like the FIFA World Cup cannot be organised without the strong support of financial stakeholders such as sponsors. Currently sponsors such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Adidas support the World Cup financially so as to advertise their brands (2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil). Hence these financial stakeholders are particularly interested in the success or failure of this mega event. Finally, the community is also an important stakeholder of the World Cup because this sporting event can influence the community’s living standards. At the same time, active participation and co-operation of the community is essential to make this event successful. While considering the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it is certain that public, private, and third sectors in the Brazil can make strategic use of this sporting event as part of tourism development and urban regeneration. The public sector mainly includes the Brazilian government and government bodies like tourism department. The Brazilian government, particularly tourism department, can strategically use this event to enhance the country’s tourism sector growth. The government owned tourist centres may offer concessional rates and other appealing facilities to foreign visitors to meet the country’s target of total number of foreign visitors by 2016. It is clear that people from different countries around the globe would travel to Brazil to watch the World Cup Finals. If they become interested in the Brazilian tourist destinations, they may again visit the country in future or recommend their friends and relatives to visit Brazil. Similarly, private and third sectors can also benefit from this mega sporting event. There are many hotel chains, resorts, amusement parks, and other amenities operating under the Brazilian private sector. Using improved promotional tactics, the Brazilian private sector can take advantages of the great tourist exposure it would obtain from the World Cup. In addition, the transport sector can also generate more revenues during the time of the World Cup because people coming from overseas would increasingly depend on the Brazilian transport sector to meet their travelling needs. It is recommendable for public, private, and third sectors to deliver high quality services to foreign visitors so as to promote the popularity of the Brazilian tourist industry. 4. Characteristics, motivations, and behaviour of audiences As discussed already, FIFA World Cup is the world’s most widely viewed sporting event, and people around the globe travel to the host country to watch the event. It is important to note that all the people who go to view this event are not football fans but they also include domestic and international tourists. In order to understand what motivates people to go to this mega sporting event, it is vital to analyse some relevant fan theories of motivation. There are a number of motivational theories that can evaluate fan behaviour in sport events. According to Sloan, these theories could be categorised as salubrious effects theories, stress and stimulation-seeking theories, catharsis and aggression theories, entertainment theories, and achievement-seeking theories (p.27, cited in Milne and McDonald). Among these, salubrious effects theories, stress and stimulation-seeking theories, and entertainment theories are particularly relevant to understand what motivates the spectators of the 2014 World Cup Finals. In the words of Sloan, the salubrious effects theories reflect that individuals tend to involve in sports activities when they are motivated by increased physical and mental well-being and pleasure (p.27, cited in Milne and McDonald). To make it clear, rich people, highly reputed professionals, corporate personnel, and celebrities may go to this event as they are always highly exposed to increased levels of mental stress and lifestyle health problems like obesity. Such people may not necessarily be football fans but they just go to the event to have an enjoyable time and refresh their mind and body. Today organisations, particularly IT sector firms and other corporate enterprises provide opportunities to their employees to watch this type of mega sport events with intent to refresh their workforce. According to Sloan, stress and stimulation-seeking theories suggest that “when levels of risk, stress, and arousal fall below desired levels, organisms will seek opportunities to increase arousal intensity” (p.27, cited in Milne and McDonald). It is obvious that a notable percent of the modern people, specifically adolescents, follow a sedentary lifestyle, and hence they are hardly exposed to the situations of risk and stress. Evidently, the level of arousal will be below desired levels in these people. They see this mega sporting event as an opportunity to increase their arousal intensity and to mingle with people coming from different cultures. Finally, “entertainment theories are concerned with attractions to sport based on the aesthetic and moral representations derived from the meaning of the sports event” (Milne & McDonald, 1999, p. 27). Referring to this theory, majority of the people would go to Brazil to watch World Cup Finals so as to obtain entertainment; they would be football fans or supporters of competing teams. Undoubtedly die hard supporters will certainly go to watch the matches of their favourite teams, and this trend should be viewed in the light of a theory called basking in reflected glory, which states that people are interested “to identify themselves with the success of a team” (Mays, 2012). Past evidences suggest that a significant percent of World Cup viewers are not either football fans or supporters but they are domestic and global visitors travelling around to enhance mental pleasure. Hence many people including newly married couple may plan a pleasure trip to Brazil during World Cup Finals. 5. Impacts, outcomes and legacies of the event The 2014 FIFA World Cup will have environmental and socio-economic effects on the Brazil. While everyone is excitedly waiting for this mega event, FIFA officials and the Brazilian government worry about the possible negative environmental impacts of the event. As the event has been scheduled to conduct at different venues in Brazil, the fifth largest country, spectators, participating teams, and officials may increasingly depend on air travels. Air travels will result in the emission of greenhouse gases. FIFA admits that the air travels during World Cup Finals would release an estimated 2.72 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (FIFA World Cup 2014). Using the greenhouse gas calculator on the US Environmental Protection Agency website, it is estimated that a month long FIFA World Cup 2014 would produce as much as CO2 as 560,000 passenger cars release in a year (IIbid). In addition, increased plastic usage may also hurt the environment. However, the event has many potential positive socio-economic impacts. To illustrate, the Brazilian government has already invested R$22.46 billion to ensure adequate infrastructure and effective organisation (Sustainable Brazil). It is estimated that this mega sporting event would bring an additional R$112.79 billion to the Brazilian economy. Economists estimate that there will be a flow of additional R$142.39 billion in the country from 2010 to 2014, generating 3.63 million employment opportunities per year and R$63.48 billion of income for the population (Ibid). This positive economic trend will inevitably influence the domestic consumer demand. The event can also affect the social life of people as it influences people’s average income and spending habits. CO2 emissions and other environment impacts estimated by FIFA and other official agencies may not reflect the actual facts. FIFA may not be willing to reveal actual environmental impacts of a World Cup so as to avoid strong protests from the general public and environmental advocates. For instance, the carbon footprint for the South Africa World Cup 2010 was estimated at 2.75 million tons of carbon dioxide (Think Green, Live Clean, n.d.). According to expert opinions, the real rate was much higher than this. Similarly, CO2 emission for the World Cup 2014 is estimated at 2.72 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by FIFA. This figure indicates CO2 emissions from air travels only. However, it is to be noted that road transport and rail transport will also lead to CO2 emissions, and therefore the actual emission rate may be much higher. In addition, FIFA keeps silence on possible water pollution and air pollution issues that would result from this month-long tournament. Finally, excess consumption of petroleum products and other non-renewable resources associated with this World Cup tournament is yet to be studied in depth. While evaluating the history of the FIFA World Cup, it seems that the World Cup has not been fully successful in spite of its substantial positive impact on the global economy. This high profile tournament has strong corporate sponsors like McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Adidas. In addition, the tournament attracts roughly 3.6 billion viewers from beginning to the end. Therefore, FIFA does not need to worry about the financial success of the tournament. However, the environmental impacts of this mega sporting event have been notably increasing over the years, and therefore the World Cup often fails to meet its sustainability objectives. Sustainability has been set to be the prime objective of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. However, it is not possible to achieve this objective when there is an estimated 2.72 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The measurement of the socio-economic and environmental outcomes of the World Cup Finals by the FIFA is not often reliable because FIFA would not like to reveal the negative effects of the tournament to its stakeholders. 6. Conclusions and recommendations From the above discussion, it is clear that 2014 FIFA World Cup can significantly contribute to faster tourism growth in Brazil. This mega sporting event would greatly assist the Brazilian tourism sector to attract more foreign visitors and to boost tourism operations in the country. Furthermore, this event can improve the infrastructural landscape of Brazil, which in turn is inevitable to promote tourism development. However, it is not possible to organise a mega sport event like World Cup due to several management difficulties. Hence, today this type of high profile tournaments are widely managed by event management teams because they have all the facilities and skilled workforce to manage an event successfully. To illustrate, Olympics organisers rely on event management teams to perform their opening and closing ceremonies wonderfully. It is suggestible for the Brazilian tourism industry to arrange well trained tourist guides to meet the travelling and other needs of foreign visitors who may not be much familiar with the geographical structure of the Brazil. As the event has been scheduled to conduct at various places across Brazil, spectators, team members, and other officials may depend more on air travel. In this situation, it would be recommendable for the Brazilian government to offer flights at concessional rates so as to effectively confront with private aviation sector and meet passenger interests successfully. Last but not least, it is vital to improve the law enforcement system in Brazil because street robbery and other violence activities in the country have gained widespread popularity recently through social networking websites like Facebook (Fox News Latino, 2014). Under this circumstance, it is advisable for the government to form a special task force to fight such atrocities and thereby establish a peaceful living situation to keep the foreign visitors satisfied. References Dwivedi, R. 2011. Civil Services Prelims Paper I 60 Days. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. FIFA.com. FIFA World Cup. Available at http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/worldcup/ [accessed 25 April 2014]. FIFA World Cup Brazil. ‘Sustainability the goal for Brazil 2014’. [online] available at: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2011/m=9/news=sustainability-the-goal-for-brazil-2014-1519701.html [accessed 25 April 2014]. FIFA World Cup 2014. ‘Environmental Effects of the FIFA World Cup 2014’. 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[online] available at: http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Sustainable_Brazil_-_World_Cup/$FILE/copa_2014.pdf [accessed 25 April 2014]. Read More