MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rio mayor: be sure when you arrive in Brazil it's not England or London

Mayor Paes slips of the tongue are quite famous according to Rio's media

Those travelling to Brazil imagining they have arrived in England or those coming to Rio imagining to be in London “will undergo a frustrating experience” said Eduardo Paes, mayor of Rio do Janeiro, one of the cities to host the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

 However, the crude admission of Mayor Paes was quickly left aside when he added that “I have not doubts that Brazil is better that England and Rio better than London”.

The mayor made the confession during the inauguration of the television transmission center for the World Cup that takes off on 12 June with Rio do Janeiro hosting the final match.

“Rio is not a city that hides its poor people as happens in other places”, said Paes. “In the last decade we lifted 30 million people out of poverty and we are undergoing a fantastic renewal of our infrastructure”, he added.

But Paes statements come at a moment when Rio and other Brazilian host cities of the World Cup are delayed as well as the supportive infrastructure: obsolete airports, unfinished highways a collapsed telecommunications system plus two stadiums yet to be FIFA tested, are some of the challenges to face when visiting Brazil for the Cup.

It is estimated that some 3.7 million people from overseas and locally will be traveling around Brazil to follow the World Cup.

Mayor Paes 'confessions' or 'slips of the tongue' are not new: in August last year he said it was 'shameful' for Brazil to host the Olympics and criticized the lack of a federal government sports policy.

However Paes, who does not belong to the ruling coalition headed by Dilma Rousseff's Workers Party has been repeatedly questioned from different quarters for alleged corruption and waste of public monies precisely in the infrastructure works for the World Cup.