Roy Hodgson's men open their World Cup in Manaus in June, where people in the remote city will give them a warm welcome
If England's players and fans were in any doubt that they are going somewhere exceptional for their opening match of next year's World Cup, they need only check out the emergency equipment on the nearly four-hour flight from their base camp in Rio de Janeiro to Manaus.
There, along with the usual oxygen masks and largely redundant life jackets, they will find orange, cellophane-wrapped jungle survival kits containing insect repellent, signalling mirrors, water-purifying tablets, knives, distress flares and a survival manual.
The precautions are an indication of the wilderness surrounding the remote city in the Amazon where they will play Italy on 14 June, at the start of a campaign that will take them on a journey of 10,000 miles in the group stage alone.
That journey will take them from the UK to the beach resort playground of Rio de Janeiro in the south-east, up into the northern heart of the world's greatest forest, then down to Latin America's most populous metropolis and across to the art nouveau city of Belo Horizonte in the former heart of the Brazilian gold-rush.
Without a doubt, the group-stage venue that will generate the most excitement, consternation and soul-searching is Manaus, the capital of the vast state of Amazonas and the bridgehead for colonisation and exploitation of the one of the world's last great natural realms.
It is also the most controversial of World Cup venues, since it poses unprecedented climactic and logistical challenges not just to the players next year but to the construction teams that are struggling to put together a state-of-the-art stadium in such a remote place.
The Observer has learned that the Arena da Amazonia stadium, where England are due to kick off their World Cup campaign, is further behind schedule than previously believed and will not be finished until the end of March, less than three months before Roy Hodgson's side take on Italy.
Despite reassurances from the hosts and Fifa last week that the stadium is more or less on schedule for completion by the year-end deadline, a visit to the construction site revealed that the roof is unfinished and labourers predict that the interior will need more than 100 days' work to complete.
"We're still doing the roof. The basic structure should be ready by the inauguration ceremony in January, but the interior and fittings won't be done until the end of March," said Antonio Silva, a site manager. "Only then will it be ready for Fifa."
Underscoring his point, giant cranes were swinging huge steel girders across to welders on the lattice steel roof, while cement mixers and earth movers moved back and forth below them. The level of construction activity was at the same intensity all the way around the ground, which did not look remotely like it would be ready by new year.
Nonetheless, it is a spectacular site. Designed to look like a traditional Amazonian basket, the stadium bears a striking similarity to Beijing's Olympic Bird's Nest – though the setting could not be more different than that densely populated Chinese city.
Manaus is the capital of Amazonas state, an ocean of trees covering an area of 1.5m square kilometres. You could fit Britain in this territory six times, but its total area is home to a population not much bigger than that of Wales.
There are many reasons for the controversy that surrounds the venue, though the one that has made the most headlines is a spat between Hodgson and the local mayor Arthur Virgílio.
Before the draw, the England manager had expressed dread at the logistical and climactic challenge posed by Manaus, which is likely to be the hottest and most humid venue during the World Cup, with average daytime temperatures in June of more than 30C and highs of more than 40C.
Possibly misinterpreting Hodgson's comments about the weather as an attack on his city, Virgílio responded on his Facebook page that he would prefer England not to come.
"We hope to get a better team and a coach who is more sensible and polite. He's one of the few people in the world who is not curious about the Amazon, who doesn't want to know Manaus," the mayor wrote. Now the two men are locked into a date that neither wanted, officials in Manaus are already in full ruffled-feather-smoothing mode, insisting that Hodgson, England and their fans will get a warmer welcome and a cooler climate than many fear.
Miguel Capobiango, the secretary of the World Cup organising committee in Amazonas, agreed that Hodgson had been misinterpreted. England would be welcome, he said.
"It will be great! We are happy to receive these teams. And it's great that England has the opportunity to play in Manaus here in Amazonas," he said.
State governor Omar Aziz insisted he was very satisfied with the draw. "It's great. We will host many European sides and stage one of the world's classic football encounters – England against Italy. Let's receive them with great hospitality and show them the high education of our people." Several local newspapers splashed their front pages with news that the Three Lions are coming.
"The heat of Manaus for England," screamed the headline of the Amazonas Em Tempo. The inside story led with news that "Manaus is going to be 'invaded' by Europeans."
Another daily, A Critica, noted that Hodgson was not the only coach who wanted to avoid Manaus. As well as the Brazilian technical director, Carlos Alberto Parraira, it quoted Jürgen Klinsmann, the manager of the United States – who will also play in Manaus – saying: "Everyone wanted to avoid Manaus. Firstly, because of the long flight, then the weather – high temperature and humidity. I don't think Manaus should have been chosen as a World Cup venue."
With that, the German manager appeared to have overtaken Hodgson as Most Ignorant Foreigner.
"That's bullshit," said Luis Vargas, a local resident and football fan. "People say this is the Amazon so it must be really hot, swarming with mosquitos and full of people with a bad education, but it's not like that. Except for the heat. That's true."
Everyone acknowledges the challenge posed by heat in a region that has only two seasons, hot and wet. England will come just as the temperatures start to approach the annual peak, which can pass the 40C mark at midday. However, one former professional footballer in Manaus said the threat posed by the climate is overstated.
"It's just wrong to say you can't do sport in Manaus. We do everything here, even marathon running," said Jair Cordero, who played for the Autoviária club in the 1980s and twice won winners' medals in the hugely popular Peladão kick-about tournament.
Talking to people on the tree-lined streets, by river beaches and next to World Cup countdown clocks showing 187 days are left until the start of the tournament, most people seemed excited to be hosting England, though they were under few illusions about Hodgson's team being ambassadors of the beautiful game.
"I like the way the English play. It is very different from us. It is more forceful. They play football as if they are playing rugby," said Marcus Alexandro, who recently moved to Manaus from Belém.
He is working at one of the five-star hotels where Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and the rest of their squad could stay. The Hotel Tropical and Atlantic Suites sit in lush grounds next to the golden sands beside the Rio Negro. The latter includes a small zoological park and animal refuge inside its grounds so that players and their wives and girlfriends who want a taste of the jungle without venturing outside their hotel can see a jaguar and alligator, watch families of capybara and red howler monkeys and hear the squawk of brilliantly coloured scarlet macaws.
The 600-room Tropical has been designated as a Fifa hotel, but the staff say they are waiting for confirmation of which team they will accommodate next year.
"We'd love to have England," said Erico Gomes, a reception manager. "Our mayor may have his opinion, but we have ours. There is not bad feeling towards England here and I hope the English players and fans will get a good impression of Manaus when they come here and see what it is really like."
In purely footballing terms, Manaus is an absurd place to host World Cup games. It is too hot, too humid, too remote and the local football culture is weak. After the World Cup, the 44,000- capacity stadium may never see another full house for a football game in a city where the average attendance for teams in the Amazonas League is fewer than 1,000. The stadium is widely tipped to become a white elephant.
Backers say no. They point out that there are many football lovers in Manaus, but – in another sign of the non-indigenous leanings of the city – the vast majority support Flamengo, Botafogo, Corinthians or one of other bigger teams from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo that get all the TV airtime. And, even if there is not enough of them to fill the stadium, it can always be used for other events, such as music concerts.
But whether or not the stadium is full and makes money is not the priority for the state and federal governments that are funding this project with public funds. The authorities in Brasilia (a capital city created to satisfy political and strategic requirements rather than economic logic or common sense) see the World Cup as a nation-building enterprise.
Although Fifa requires only 10 stadiums for a World Cup, the Brazilian government pushed for 12 so that it could spread the pork barrel spending as far around the country as possible. Reported by guardian.co.uk 11 hours ago.
If England's players and fans were in any doubt that they are going somewhere exceptional for their opening match of next year's World Cup, they need only check out the emergency equipment on the nearly four-hour flight from their base camp in Rio de Janeiro to Manaus.
There, along with the usual oxygen masks and largely redundant life jackets, they will find orange, cellophane-wrapped jungle survival kits containing insect repellent, signalling mirrors, water-purifying tablets, knives, distress flares and a survival manual.
The precautions are an indication of the wilderness surrounding the remote city in the Amazon where they will play Italy on 14 June, at the start of a campaign that will take them on a journey of 10,000 miles in the group stage alone.
That journey will take them from the UK to the beach resort playground of Rio de Janeiro in the south-east, up into the northern heart of the world's greatest forest, then down to Latin America's most populous metropolis and across to the art nouveau city of Belo Horizonte in the former heart of the Brazilian gold-rush.
Without a doubt, the group-stage venue that will generate the most excitement, consternation and soul-searching is Manaus, the capital of the vast state of Amazonas and the bridgehead for colonisation and exploitation of the one of the world's last great natural realms.
It is also the most controversial of World Cup venues, since it poses unprecedented climactic and logistical challenges not just to the players next year but to the construction teams that are struggling to put together a state-of-the-art stadium in such a remote place.
The Observer has learned that the Arena da Amazonia stadium, where England are due to kick off their World Cup campaign, is further behind schedule than previously believed and will not be finished until the end of March, less than three months before Roy Hodgson's side take on Italy.
Despite reassurances from the hosts and Fifa last week that the stadium is more or less on schedule for completion by the year-end deadline, a visit to the construction site revealed that the roof is unfinished and labourers predict that the interior will need more than 100 days' work to complete.
"We're still doing the roof. The basic structure should be ready by the inauguration ceremony in January, but the interior and fittings won't be done until the end of March," said Antonio Silva, a site manager. "Only then will it be ready for Fifa."
Underscoring his point, giant cranes were swinging huge steel girders across to welders on the lattice steel roof, while cement mixers and earth movers moved back and forth below them. The level of construction activity was at the same intensity all the way around the ground, which did not look remotely like it would be ready by new year.
Nonetheless, it is a spectacular site. Designed to look like a traditional Amazonian basket, the stadium bears a striking similarity to Beijing's Olympic Bird's Nest – though the setting could not be more different than that densely populated Chinese city.
Manaus is the capital of Amazonas state, an ocean of trees covering an area of 1.5m square kilometres. You could fit Britain in this territory six times, but its total area is home to a population not much bigger than that of Wales.
There are many reasons for the controversy that surrounds the venue, though the one that has made the most headlines is a spat between Hodgson and the local mayor Arthur Virgílio.
Before the draw, the England manager had expressed dread at the logistical and climactic challenge posed by Manaus, which is likely to be the hottest and most humid venue during the World Cup, with average daytime temperatures in June of more than 30C and highs of more than 40C.
Possibly misinterpreting Hodgson's comments about the weather as an attack on his city, Virgílio responded on his Facebook page that he would prefer England not to come.
"We hope to get a better team and a coach who is more sensible and polite. He's one of the few people in the world who is not curious about the Amazon, who doesn't want to know Manaus," the mayor wrote. Now the two men are locked into a date that neither wanted, officials in Manaus are already in full ruffled-feather-smoothing mode, insisting that Hodgson, England and their fans will get a warmer welcome and a cooler climate than many fear.
Miguel Capobiango, the secretary of the World Cup organising committee in Amazonas, agreed that Hodgson had been misinterpreted. England would be welcome, he said.
"It will be great! We are happy to receive these teams. And it's great that England has the opportunity to play in Manaus here in Amazonas," he said.
State governor Omar Aziz insisted he was very satisfied with the draw. "It's great. We will host many European sides and stage one of the world's classic football encounters – England against Italy. Let's receive them with great hospitality and show them the high education of our people." Several local newspapers splashed their front pages with news that the Three Lions are coming.
"The heat of Manaus for England," screamed the headline of the Amazonas Em Tempo. The inside story led with news that "Manaus is going to be 'invaded' by Europeans."
Another daily, A Critica, noted that Hodgson was not the only coach who wanted to avoid Manaus. As well as the Brazilian technical director, Carlos Alberto Parraira, it quoted Jürgen Klinsmann, the manager of the United States – who will also play in Manaus – saying: "Everyone wanted to avoid Manaus. Firstly, because of the long flight, then the weather – high temperature and humidity. I don't think Manaus should have been chosen as a World Cup venue."
With that, the German manager appeared to have overtaken Hodgson as Most Ignorant Foreigner.
"That's bullshit," said Luis Vargas, a local resident and football fan. "People say this is the Amazon so it must be really hot, swarming with mosquitos and full of people with a bad education, but it's not like that. Except for the heat. That's true."
Everyone acknowledges the challenge posed by heat in a region that has only two seasons, hot and wet. England will come just as the temperatures start to approach the annual peak, which can pass the 40C mark at midday. However, one former professional footballer in Manaus said the threat posed by the climate is overstated.
"It's just wrong to say you can't do sport in Manaus. We do everything here, even marathon running," said Jair Cordero, who played for the Autoviária club in the 1980s and twice won winners' medals in the hugely popular Peladão kick-about tournament.
Talking to people on the tree-lined streets, by river beaches and next to World Cup countdown clocks showing 187 days are left until the start of the tournament, most people seemed excited to be hosting England, though they were under few illusions about Hodgson's team being ambassadors of the beautiful game.
"I like the way the English play. It is very different from us. It is more forceful. They play football as if they are playing rugby," said Marcus Alexandro, who recently moved to Manaus from Belém.
He is working at one of the five-star hotels where Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and the rest of their squad could stay. The Hotel Tropical and Atlantic Suites sit in lush grounds next to the golden sands beside the Rio Negro. The latter includes a small zoological park and animal refuge inside its grounds so that players and their wives and girlfriends who want a taste of the jungle without venturing outside their hotel can see a jaguar and alligator, watch families of capybara and red howler monkeys and hear the squawk of brilliantly coloured scarlet macaws.
The 600-room Tropical has been designated as a Fifa hotel, but the staff say they are waiting for confirmation of which team they will accommodate next year.
"We'd love to have England," said Erico Gomes, a reception manager. "Our mayor may have his opinion, but we have ours. There is not bad feeling towards England here and I hope the English players and fans will get a good impression of Manaus when they come here and see what it is really like."
In purely footballing terms, Manaus is an absurd place to host World Cup games. It is too hot, too humid, too remote and the local football culture is weak. After the World Cup, the 44,000- capacity stadium may never see another full house for a football game in a city where the average attendance for teams in the Amazonas League is fewer than 1,000. The stadium is widely tipped to become a white elephant.
Backers say no. They point out that there are many football lovers in Manaus, but – in another sign of the non-indigenous leanings of the city – the vast majority support Flamengo, Botafogo, Corinthians or one of other bigger teams from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo that get all the TV airtime. And, even if there is not enough of them to fill the stadium, it can always be used for other events, such as music concerts.
But whether or not the stadium is full and makes money is not the priority for the state and federal governments that are funding this project with public funds. The authorities in Brasilia (a capital city created to satisfy political and strategic requirements rather than economic logic or common sense) see the World Cup as a nation-building enterprise.
Although Fifa requires only 10 stadiums for a World Cup, the Brazilian government pushed for 12 so that it could spread the pork barrel spending as far around the country as possible. Reported by guardian.co.uk 11 hours ago.