"There's an Awful Lot of Money in Brazil" A pretty positive viewpoint on Brazil from ABC TV - video and transcript at http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2011/s3249884.htm
FIFA itself is to blame on a lot of that. World Cup stadiums cant start to be built UNLESS cities know they will be chosen to host the event. Cities cant build a $500 million stadium only to discover they wont host any match! and FIFA took too much a long time to decide which cities would host 2014 games. That way, how could Brazil even start to make World Cup preparations before it was chosen (even if it was the only candidate), since stadiums and city preparations can only be started after FIFA decides which CITIES will host the matches? in São Paulo, they could use the Morumbi or Pacaembu. stadiums, just reforming them. But noooo... FIFA took like ONE year AFTER the cities had been chosen, to decide they didnt want Morumbi anymore... so São Paulo needed a stadium built from scratch...