In spite of confusion, Brazil will allow sale of alcoholic beverages during World Cup

The FIFA president, Joseph Blatter, is already in Brazil for a meeting with president Dilma Rousseff. They will try to iron out a confused scenario. Or, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, a confusion in the penalty area (“confusão na grande área”).

FIFA has a commercial agreement with Budweiser. So, Bud is sold at FIFA World Cup games. However, in order to put a damper on hooligan violence at soccer games, Brazil has long prohibited the sale of any alcoholic beverages in its stadiums. When Brazil presented itself as a candidate for the 2014 World Cup it agreed to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages during the games (this is known as Agreement  #8, under what are called commercial rights, where “Brazil guarantees FIFA that there are and will not be any legal restrictions or prohibitions on the sale, publicity or distribution of food or beverages in stadiums or other locations during competitions.”)

The problem is that the law prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages in Brazilian stadiums has to be changed by Congress (because the law prohibiting the sale, the Fan Statute (“Estatuto do Torcedor”), was made by Congress). In order to make the change, Brazil has drawn up specific legislation for the World Cup, which is known as the General Law of the World Cup (“Lei Geral da Copa”).

Yesterday there was definitely confusion about the General Law in the Chamber of Deputies when members of the executive branch (specifically the minister of Institutional Relations and the Presidential Chief of Staff) reportedly told Congress that Agreement #8 did not exist. Party leaders, under pressure from the evangelical caucus and others (including restless and discontent members of the government’s own vast majority), changed the text of the General Law so as to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages. That would have been a severe defeat for the government.

But then, last night, kind of during extra or injury time as it is called in soccer (” os acrécimos”), deputy Vicente Cândido (PT-SP), the man responsible for the wording of the General Law (“relator”), revealed that there had been a misunderstanding, that there was an Agreement #8, and that he would present a final text of the General Law allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages in Brazilian stadiums during the World Cup.

The General Law still has to go to a vote and that could be something like sudden death (“morte súbita”).