The building of the Arena Amazonia in Manaus has been the subject of a sarcastic political joke in John Oliver's June 8 rant for his HBO show. Referring to the massive, 42,000 seater stadium, he dubbed the stadium as "the world's most expensive bird toilet" for the fact that the construction of the facility would only serve at least four matches for FIFA World Cup.
Even if authorities have said that the stadium could be put to use for local games after the World Cup, football matches in Manaus could attract a thousand people at most, which would not make it an economical decision to host a local match there, the Guardian said. Moreover, the remoteness of the stadium would not necessarily benefit Manaus.
Brazil has been pitching Manaus as "the Paris of the Tropics," in which adventurous travelers can consider traveling to what the state government has been dubbing it as an eco-luxury destination en route to the famous Amazon. The British paper said that the whatever truth left in Manaus' tourism campaign has long been gone since the 19th century. Over twice the national average of the inhabitants living in Manaus are reportedly in slums, and one out of four houses do not have access to running water.
Indigenous communities in Manaus are also shunned from the stadium considering the fact that the facility is modeled from a pattern of a tribal basket made by locals, the Guardian said.
Awyató, who is the chief of this outpost of the Sateré-Mawé tribe, said, "For the indigenous communities and favela dwellers, it's hard to see so much money spent on the stadiums when there is such hunger and poor health, and that money didn't need to be spent. I feel like Fifa and Brazil have robbed our culture - all of us tribes people feel that way. If they wanted to use our imagery, they should have included us. They know we love football, and they've insulted us. I blame the government more than Fifa because they're Brazilian and so should have been watching out for us. Instead, they have turned their backs on their own people. We respect the government's laws, but they don't respect us. Our ancestors owned all this land up here in the first place. How much would it have cost them to respect us and include us? Nothing."
