The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil generated various controversies, including demonstrations, some of which took place even before the tournament started. Most centred on officiating, with referees coming under criticism for their performances. Furthermore, there were various issues with safety, including eight deaths of workers and a fire during construction, breaches into stadiums, an unstable makeshift staircase at the Maracanã Stadium, a monorail collapse, and the collapse of an unfinished overpass in Belo Horizonte. The most notable disciplinary case was that of Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez, who was disciplined after biting an Italian player, defender Giorgio Chiellini, during a game.
Before the tournament Protests
Prior to the opening ceremony of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup staged in Brazil, demonstrations took place outside the venue, organised by people unhappy with the amount of public money spent to enable the hosting of the FIFA World Cup. Both President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff and FIFA President Sepp Blatter were heavily booed as they were announced to give their speeches at the 2013 tournament's opening, which resulted in FIFA announcing that the 2014 World Cup opening ceremony would not feature any speeches. Further protests took place outside other matches during the Confederations Cup as part of wider unrest and rioting in Brazilian cities, seeking to express disenchantment with the government's financial management of the country.
The weeks preceding the 2014 World Cup, as well as the first days of the tournament, featured further unrest and protests across the country against the spending. Unlike at the Confederations Cup, however, security forces managed to prevent any protests from reaching the stadiums.
While covering a protest for CNN during the 12 June opening game, reporter Shasta Darlington and producer Barbara Arvanitidis were injured. Arvanitidis was directly hit on the wrist by a tear-gas bomb while they were reporting the indiscriminate use of riot weapons.
Blatter said that the protesters "should not use football to make their demands heard", and that the public expenditure on staging the tournaments was on "items that are for the future, not just for the World Cup". President Rousseff responded with a public address in which she stated, "The federal money spent on the stadiums is in the form of financing that will be duly repaid by the companies and governments that are exploiting these stadiums."
A mural by street artist Paulo Ito became a global viral phenomenon in the month before the World Cup. The spray paint and latex work depicted a black child sobbing at a dinner table, with nothing on his plate but a football. Ito intended the mural to focus on the FIFA issue, but worldwide it was often interpreted as a general attack on President Rousseff and the Workers' Party, an idea that Ito called simply "stupid".
Former Brazilian footballer and now political figure Romário labelled the tournament "the biggest theft in history", saying that he believed its real cost would exceed R$100 billion (£26 billion/€32 billion/US$45 billion). He called for a deeper investigation into the widespread misuse of public funds, which he identified as the reason for the continuing protests. Nevertheless, he was criticised by the ruling Workers' Party for receiving R$1 million to appear in two TV advertisements which promoted the World Cup.
Directly before the tournament, President Rousseff reiterated her assurances of the previous year that all the implemented public works had long-term benefits for Brazilians.
Budweiser bill After numerous deaths in football stadiums, Brazil passed a law in 2003 outlawing alcohol sales in stadiums. FIFA demanded that Brazil allow alcohol sales at the World Cup because Budweiser, a major World Cup sponsor, was the "Official Beer of the FIFA World Cup", a role it had played since 1986. In response, Brazil passed a law paving the way for alcohol sales in the World Cup, nicknamed the "Budweiser Bill".Brazil Moves To Ease Soccer Beer Ban, As World Cup Spat With FIFA Grows , NPR (7 March 2012).Brazilian Senate approves ‘Budweiser bill’ ending dispute with FIFA over World Cup sponsoring , Merco Press, (10 May 2012).
Seeding of France There was some controversy before the draw when FIFA decided upon their allocation of the draw pots. Only eight sides were seeded for the World Cup draw: the hosts plus the seven sides ranked highest in the October 2013 FIFA World Rankings. The remaining 24 unseeded sides were allocated to three pots based on their geographical locations. However, there were still nine unseeded European sides, which meant that one European side had to be allocated to Pot 2, which otherwise consisted of African and South American sides. A similar situation arose with the 2006 World Cup seeding, and on that occasion the lowest ranked European side at the time of the draw, Serbia and Montenegro, were placed in the alternative pot.
For the 2014 draw, FIFA decided that the European team in Pot 2 would be drawn there randomly. France would have been the lowest ranked side, and many thought, based on the 2006 precedent, that the rule change benefitted them.
Many officials, fans, and journalists complained, pointing out that a Frenchman, FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke, suggested the change, and suspecting that another influential Frenchman, UEFA president Michel Platini, helped approve it. Instead, Italy were drawn into Pot 2 and ended up in a difficult group. The next day, a headline in the Italian sports periodical Corriere Dello Sport read, "2014 World Cup draw: What a scandal!".
Group stage Brazil vs Croatia During the opening match of the World Cup, Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura faced heavy criticism for his referring performance between the Croatia and the host team Brazil as several decisions favoured the host nation.
In the 71st minute, Croatian defender Dejan Lovren put his hands below Brazilian striker Fred's arms in the Croatian penalty area, after which Fred fell down. Nishimura awarded Brazil a penalty kick which Neymar converted for their second goal in their 3–1 win. The call was condemned by various sources, including former top-level FIFA referees, newspaper writers, players from other teams and fans in Nishimura's home country, saying that Lovren's contact was minimal and that Fred went down on his own. Twelve minutes later, the Croatians had an equaliser controversially disallowed for a supposed foul by Croatian forward Ivica Olić on the Brazilian goalkeeper Júlio César.
Earlier in the game, in the 26th minute, Neymar elbowed the Croatian midfielder Luka Modrić, after which Neymar was shown a yellow card. At that time Croatia were leading the game 1–0. Many critics agreed that Neymar's punishment was too lenient and that Neymar should have been shown a red card.
Renowned former top-level FIFA referee Markus Merk questioned FIFA's appointment of Nishimura in the opening match, labelling the refereeing as "embarrassing". Massimo Busacca, the head of refereeing development at FIFA, defended Nishimura's penalty kick decision and insisted that Dejan Lovren's contact was significant enough.
Mexico vs Cameroon: Giovani's two disallowed goals In the Group A game between Mexico and Cameroon, Mexican midfielder Giovani dos Santos had two goals wrongly disallowed for offside in the first half. Replays showed that he was in line with the second to last defender for the first, while the ball came from a deliberate play by a Cameroonian player for the second. Following the game, which Mexico won 1–0, Amy Lawrence of The Guardian described the tournament as having "incompetent officiating", and called for FIFA president Sepp Blatter to allow team managers to challenge two decisions per match with video review, a possibility that Blatter discussed before the tournament. On 20 June 2014, FIFA announced that they had removed the Colombian assistant referee responsible for the incidents, Humberto Clavijo, from further officiating at the tournament.
Brazil vs Mexico Both Brazilian and Mexican fans abused each other with homophobic chants during the match.
Spain vs Netherlands: Behaviour of Diego Costa Much attention ahead of the tournament had focused on the switch of Brazilian-born striker Diego Costa to Spain. Costa returned to his native land for his World Cup debut, only for his new team to lose 5–1 to the Netherlands in their opening game in Group B. Jeers and insults were heard from the local fans throughout the match. Costa also noticeably headbutted his opponent Bruno Martins Indi during the game and was subsequently substituted by his coach Vicente del Bosque for striker Fernando Torres.
Germany vs Portugal
In the Group G game between Germany and Portugal, there were some contentious decisions by the Serbian referee, Milorad Mažić.
In the 12th minute, Mažić awarded Germany a penalty as the Portuguese defender João Pereira held back the German midfielder Mario Götze, and gave Pereira a yellow card for the foul. The Portuguese players, including a very agitated Pepe, surrounded Mažić in protest. Germany's Thomas Müller scored the penalty to give Germany team a 1–0 lead. The penalty call was questioned by Portugal's coach Paulo Bento, who called it "forced". The Daily Telegraph'''s Mark Ogden labelled it "another example of questionable refereeing at this World Cup as contact appeared slight, certainly not enough to force Götze, who made the most of the challenge, off his feet".
In the 37th minute, Portuguese defender Pepe headbutted Thomas Müller, and was shown a straight red card. The former World Cup referee Brian Hall condemned Müller for using theatrical action to "gain unfair advantage" by "tricking the referee". The situation turned out to be the match's biggest talking point with observer reaction generally centred on the condemnation of Pepe's actions and whether Müller overemphasised the initial contact.
In the 75th minute, Mažić failed to award a penalty kick to Portugal, prompting much irritation from the players. Germany ended up winning 4–0, with Müller scoring three goals. In his post-match comments, Bento said Mažić showed "bias" on both occasions, adding, "I am not saying it was only the referee's fault. We also made mistakes but the circumstances of what happened in the first half made the rest of the game difficult for us...The sending-off was forced on the player. I don't know if it was because of Pepe's reputation. It depends what sort of a reputation you think Pepe has."
Cameroon vs Croatia: Assou-Ekotto headbutts his teammate Much attention was given to apparent action of Benoît Assou-Ekotto to headbutt his Cameroonian teammate, Benjamin Moukandjo. The incident was seemingly missed by officials but was captured on playback. Assou-Ekotto later attributed this to frustration. Cameroon's Alex Song also earned a red card by elbowing Croatian forward Mario Mandžukić in the back in the same game.
Italy vs Costa Rica: Chiellini kicks Campbell In the Group D game between Italy and Costa Rica, Costa Rican forward Joel Campbell was kicked by Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini in the penalty area while looking for a goal, but Chilean referee Enrique Osses failed to award a penalty, enraging Costa Rica's coach Jorge Luis Pinto. Shortly afterwards, Pinto decided to charge at the referee's assistant, with Costa Rica's staff and substitutes following his lead. Former World Cup referee Graham Poll later tweeted, "HUGE moment in this match, how have Costa Rica not got a penalty?! Joel Campbell gets behind the Italy defence to race through on goal before he is clumsily brought down by a push from Giorgio Chiellini." Nevertheless, Costa Rican midfielder Bryan Ruiz scored a goal within a minute, which was eventually the game winner for Costa Rica as they won 1–0.
Argentina vs Iran