Unlike most, if not all, other nations on earth, winning football’s greatest prize is a national duty in Brazil — anything less provokes a national outcry.

The Selecao, as Brazil’s national side is known to their ardent fans, begin their quest for a record-extending “hexacampeao” — Portuguese for a sixth World Cup win — against Croatia in the opening match at Sao Paulo’s Corinthians Stadium next Thursday (Friday morning, Singapore time).

Guided by 2002 World Cup-winning coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazil are the favourites, having beaten defending world and European champions Spain 3-0 in last June’s FIFA Confederations Cup final at the iconic Maracana Stadium.

That test event a year ago was marred by protests as Brazilians’ anger towards their government’s skewed priorities and widespread corruption spilled over, which could boil over again during the tournament.

Given the troubled build-up, Brazil need to win the World Cup more than ever. Victory would give respite and momentary justification for the US$11.5 billion (S$14.5 billion) spent to host the tournament instead of improving the vast country’s social services and infrastructure. Failure, and the team could become targets for public anger and resentment.

When FIFA awarded the hosting of the 2014 World Cup to Brazil in 2007, it was seen as the “coming out party” for the world’s fifth-biggest country, by size and population.

Not only was football returning to its spiritual home for the first time since 1950, the tournament was also seen as the moment Brazil finally announced her belated arrival. For a nation of 200 million people and vast natural resources, Brazil should be more than just a global football heavy-weight.

Yet, many Brazilians lament a golden opportunity missed and retired legend Zico, part of Brazil’s famed 1982 World Cup side, is the latest to join the chorus.

“Brazil hasn’t managed to take advantage of this opportunity. There’s been no planning and no project,” the former playmaker, now 61, told Italian daily Corriere Dello Sport.

“Brazil has had the time to plan a development of tourism, but it hasn’t made the most of that and the World Cup has brought us very few new things. Fans are sad, worried. It’s upsetting because I wanted to see my people happy. Everyone wanted it to be a big party, but there simply hasn’t been the right spirit to organise one.”

Despite having more time than previous hosts to prepare for the World Cup, Brazil’s preparations has fallen alarmingly behind schedule, with FIFA president Sepp Blatter calling it the worst.

Six of the 12 stadiums missed FIFA’s December deadline and FIFA threatened to remove Curitiba, where delays to the Arena da Baixada has been one of the worst, as one of the host cities. Much of the blame was directed at squabbling between Brazil’s three-tiered federal, state and city government over who should foot the bill.

Two weeks ago, the Associated Press revealed that the cost of Brasilia’s Estadio Mane Garrincha had tripled to nearly £535 million (S$1.13 billion) — the world’s most expensive stadium after London’s Wembley Stadium (£798 million) — with corruption to blame. Respected Brazilian investigative journalist Juca Kfouri tried to make sense of it via the country’s mentality of “rouba, mas faz”, roughly translated as “it is all right to steal if it gets things done”.

Many public projects, including 49 transport-related ones, have been cancelled, delayed or down-sized. Brazil’s two-time World Cup winner Ronaldo, now part of the organising committee, admitted he felt let down and ashamed that only 30 per cent of the promises have been delivered so far.

The World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio were also an opportunity to usher in projects to improve living conditions in the favelas, with a heightened police presence aimed at controlling the crime gangs at these ghettoes. Instead, fatalities from police clashes have jumped 69 per cent from last year, said Brazil’s Institute of Public Security.

Last month, Bloomberg reported that while the World Cup is expected to attract 3.7 million tourists and about 6.7 billion reais (S$3.7 billion) at a time when South America’s biggest country is facing a fourth straight year of gross domestic product growth below 2 per cent, the economy could be affected as the country comes to a virtual standstill during the tournament.

With Brazil set for another bout of big spending leading up to the 2016 Olympics, the red mist will not disperse quickly, presenting a political minefield for president Dilma Rousseff going into October’s elections.

All that does not seem to faze Scolari. “We have the confidence to say that we can win this World Cup,” Scolari, 65, told AP last week. “We have some of the best players in the world and when we can be tactically balanced, no one is better than us.”

A crucial factor will be their notoriously demanding and usually unforgiving fans — nearly all 200 million Brazilians are football-obsessed — which will be a double-edged sword.

Zico, writing as a guest columnist for London daily The Guardian, argued that many Brazilians see Scolari’s squad more as products of their respective European clubs than Brazil’s domestic leagues.

“A lot of people talk about what the 1982 team did on the pitch, but that side was so dear to Brazilian fans also because it featured players that supporters would see in flesh and bone on a regular basis, either at games or even on the streets. Now they basically only see the Selecao on the TV,” Zico lamented.

“It is even worse with the current side, because they did not have to play the qualifiers. There is a distance that prevents proper bonding.”

Even the Selecao in football-obsessed Brazil are not immune to criticism and hate. Goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa was publicly shunned for decades after being blamed for Brazil’s shock 2-1 loss to Uruguay at the Maracana in the 1950 decider. A few weeks ago, the bus carrying Brazil’s World Cup squad was attacked by protestors in Rio.

Of Brazil’s 23-man squad, Neymar is their only stand-out star — an indication of how much has changed for a nation that once boasted a never-ending conveyor belt of footballing “gods” such as Garrincha, Didi, Pele, Tostao, Zico, Socrates, Falcao, Romario and Ronaldo. Former Arsenal midfielder and Brazil’s 2002 World Cup winner Gilberto Silva is sceptical about having only six members of the squad with prior World Cup experience.

“We are playing at home and have lost at the last two World Cups. We have a very young team who don’t have experience in this kind of competition, which is completely different from a friendly match or the Confederations Cup,” he told BT Sport’s SportsHUB recently.

“It’s tough because for the last three-and-a-half years we have not been playing qualification matches that give you the strength and understanding of what you will face in the World Cup.”

This country of unfulfilled potential badly needs a lift. However fleeting the euphoria, Scolari’s men must win the World Cup.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The writer is deputy sports editor at TODAY.