The same consolidation of power is happening now for the first time in Olympic history. Carlos Nuzman has been in charge of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) since 1995 and is also the president of Rio 2016. According to Alberto Murray Neto, a Brazilian lawyer whose grandfather was the previous president of the COB, Brazil’s terrible Olympic record is directly attributable to Nuzman. Much in the same way that the CBF has eviscerated the national leagues to bolster their own interests, the COB has taken billions in government funding to subsidize a narrow set of stakeholders.

The institutional framework for the 2016 Olympics is just as tortured as the 2014 World Cup, but even more laden with bureaucracy. Brazil has no significant tradition of Olympic sports. All federal funding for Olympic sports has to go through the president of the COB. This creates a situation in which the presidents of the federations have to curry favor with Nuzman in order to get access to money. According to the former president of the Brazilian Ice Hockey Federation, they are forced to use the same accountant as the COB, eliminating transparency and tightening the chain of command.

The absence of an effective public policy for sport means that the only Olympic sports in which Brazilians are competitive are of the super wealthy (yachting) or of the poor (fighting). With the notable exception of volleyball and some gymnasts, there is almost nothing in–between. The middle classes do not practice Olympic sports; there is no national development system and very few public recreational facilities. In Rio, for example, there are only four public tennis courts. During a ceremony to dedicate sport facilities in a poor area of Rio in 2010, an aspiring tennis player told then president Lula that he wanted to become a tennis player. Lula told the kid “not to pursue such a bourgeois sport.”

Much like hosting the Olympics, being good at Olympic sports is a mark of distinction in the international community. The production of world-class athletes is an indication of wealth, ample leisure time, and scientific achievement. Sport has long been used as a diplomatic tool on the global stage. Brazil has the sixth largest economy in the world and more than 200 million people, yet has never placed higher than 16th in the medal table.

Nobody is expecting Brazil to win a pile of medals in 2016, either, and perhaps that is for the better. Though its infrastructure is better off than it was a generation ago, Brazil doesn’t have basic sanitation, education, health care, or recreational facilities for the population at–large. Football might have served as smokescreen at the World Cup, but fewer Brazilians will be distracted in 2016. So when the government willingly spends billions on Olympic facilities, with no equivalent investment in the recreational facilities of its citizens, it bloody well better have a use for them afterwards. Sadly, this is unlikely to be the case. We know because we have gone though this all before.