Through the duration of the World Cup, Road to Brazil 2014 Editor Alec Herron accounts his experiences of working as a Translator for BBC Sport….
Following a long shift for our driver Paulo yesterday on the trip to Ouro Preto, we decided to give him the morning off and walk the 20 minutes from our hotel to the Mineirao stadium.
The day was thereon spent inside the FIFA Media centre, a huge temporary structure right in the guts of the stadium usually reserved for maintenance and delivery vehicles. It is an impressive layout of 800 seats each with individual desk space, a lamp and super-fast ethernet internet access. However, with two days before kick off, we’re amongst the no more than 10 journalists using the room.
While presenter Simon and Engineer Adam began to refine the broadcast detail for the Greece v Colombia game on BBC 1 tomorrow – my allegiances clearly lit yellow, not just for my love of Latin American countries but for my severe dislike of the Greek’s anti-football that won them Euro 2006, I took the opportunity to research restaurants in the World Cup Host Cities we will visit in the coming weeks: Manaus, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. I also searched for a great morale-building exercise, deciding on a trip along the Rio Negra, in the Amazon city of Manaus later in the tournament.
A little empty at the Mineirao Media Centre.
Walking around the areas of the stadium open to the media, I noticed that a large proportion of the FIFA staff both on the technical broadcast and venue management side of operations, are English. As we get to know them, it turns out some are previous BBC staff, which I take as a testament to the high-standard of BBC Sport production.
World Cup starts without a bang
We had booked a table at the ‘Bezerra e Cia’ restaurant and bar opposite our hotel, a lovely little place with friendly staff who’ve made every effort to welcome us to Brazil, as Brazilians nearly always do. We got there one hour before the big kick off, Brazil against Croatia, World Cup opening match in Brazil, what a huge day! We were surprised to find that apart from a family of four including a very uninterested child and an elderly couple celebrating Valentine’s Day, we were the only people in the bar.
A few car horns rang around the neighbourhood echoed and most of the local business had green and gold decorum adorning their entrances, but the atmosphere wasn’t what I had expected of such a momentous day for the country. I had expected every inch of every bar to be squeezed in with anxious Brazilians cheering on their side. It seemed most people most people had stayed at home, perhaps watching quietly, but certainly not showing their excitement if it was there.
A tantalising game began well but fizzled into a slog and the obligated Brazil side got their opening victory. After the match we moved on to Avenida Fleming – one of Belo Horizonte’s busiest strips of bars and restaurants. There we discovered we really had been in the wrong part of town, as the crowds buzzed from Brazil’s opening match win. Good-spirited chants flew back and forth between sets of supporters from local sides Cruzeiro and Athletico Mineiro, while the Colombian contingency, in town early for Saturday’s showdown mixed with the locals, particularly the local female population.
Taxi drivers are the same everywhere
Producer Graham arrived back from the airport with Simon’s co-commentator for Saturday’s game, former Ireland international Kevin Kilbane. After a lovely meal at steakhouse ‘File’, I organised two taxis back to the hotel. The first to leave hadn’t arrived back to the hotel when I got home in the second. By telephone I spoke to the driver and he told me he had taken them to a different hotel, with a similar name. Once back, I argued that the error was his and that I had clearly stated the correct hotel name. After a few minutes of testing my Portuguese and my ability to keep calm, we negotiated the price in half.
Road to Brazil 2014 