Brazil’s national football squad reported to World Cup training surrounded not by adoring fans, but by protesters echoing the concerns millions of Brazilians are expressing – that the cost of the games is taking much needed money away from health, education, and infrastructure.

The bus carrying the team was mobbed by striking teachers protesting low pay, crowded classrooms, and a lack of basic resources at their disposal – things like running water and chairs.  Despite a heavy police presence, the teachers slapped stickers bearing their slogans onto the bus as it left the hotel in Rio de Janeiro and made its way to the mountain top training facility.  More protesters were already waiting there.

Just over two weeks remain until Brazil will play the opening match against Croatia in Sao Paulo on 12 June.  Some of the more hard-core protesters are vowing to disrupt the Cup.  One banner read, “There will be no World Cup, there will be a strike.”

“It was just a minor problem,” said Brazil assistant coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.  “I’m sure that everyone will be supporting the national team.  Nobody is going to be against it.”