Different Weights of a Measure: Controversy in the Choice of São Paulo Arena for 2014 World Cup

Abstract

The option for financing the construction of Arena Corinthians to host some matches of the 2014 World Cup in São Paulo, since that São Paulo’s arena was chose first and that the project of constructing of the Arena Palmeiras was in a more advanced stage, has not gone unscathed by the black-and-white club rivals or by the press and society. Based on this, the research question was: what arguments anchor positions contrary to the choice of Arena Corinthians as a World Cup stadium in 2014? We accessed three discursive positions (rival clubs, society and the media), through interviews, direct observation and documentary data submitted to a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. Because this is a study of an inductive character, we identified in the politics identity by Laclau and Mouffe’s a way for interpreting the results. Our findings reveal a discursive formation indicating politicization in the selection of São Paulo Stadium selection process, in the form of club playing rivalry as identity politics. Such rivalry between the clubs, added by the difference of efforts taken over by São Paulo and Palmeiras, seems to have prevented the formation of an equivalence chain contrary to the proposal of the Arena Corinthians, while the black-and-white club seems to have built an empty signifier around his discourse while avoiding political and technical discussions, but tacking their interests with organizers and governments.