Backheel Breakfast: Brazil’s World Cup stadiums are bigger white elephants than you thought

Everyone knew that some of Brazil’s World Cup stadiums would become white elephants. This is what happens when you put together an ambitious 12-site World Cup, not caring that many of the stadium sites are in cities that do not have major professional football or other large field-using teams.

Less than a year later, many of the stadiums are not in use at all. The national stadium named after Garrincha in the capital Brasilia is literally a parking lot for buses. Most of Brazil’s big clubs predate the planning of Brasilia, and all of them predate the city becoming a giant metropolis. Even though four million people live in the metro area, there are only three professional clubs, and none of them play in Brazil’s top three divisions.

The stadiums in Cuiaba, Natal and Manaus are also essentially useless, with no big club to fill dates in the stadiums. Meanwhile, the government that paid for these things is still struggling to find basic education, transportation and health care.

Inter’s president says they’ll do everything to sign Yaya Toure. (Football Italia)

Yaya Toure, by the way, spoke about how racist abuse can break players. (BBC)

There were fights at a Man City-Man United Under-21 game. (Guardian)

Gigi Buffon took some time out of his day to trash Alex Ferguson. (ESPN FC)

American vets Zak Whitbread, Oguchi Onyewu are available on frees and could interest MLS clubs. (MLS)

Some Madridistas are making a point of supporting Iker Casillas on Wednesday. (AS)

If some England fans keep up their IRA chants, they could get banned from the World Cup. (Telegraph)

Firefighters had to be called to Chris Smalling’s house because his hot tub started on fire. (Mirror)

James Yorke on Mehdi Benatia’s errors and why they’re not necessarily his fault. (Stats Bomb)

Doug Sibor with a long oral history of the birth of MLS. (Complex Sports)

Ian King asks where QPR go from here. (Two Hundred Percent)

The section in which nothing should be taken seriously.

Juventus would like to sign Edinson Cavani, but they’re haggling over wages. (Gianluca Di Marzio)

Everyone wants Christian Benteke and his agent is sounding out offers. (Mirror)

Petr Cech is talking to Besiktas. (ESPN FC)

Bayern won, but Barcelona did enough to advance.

You can watch highlights of Santa Fe’s Copa Libertadores win over Estudiantes here. (FootballManiaChannel)

Real Madrid vs. Juventus (2:45 p.m.) - Juve have a one goal lead, but Madrid have an away goal.

Cruzeiro vs. Sao Paulo (6:30 p.m.) - Sao Paulo are the favorites after winning the first leg 1-0.

DC United vs. Orlando City (8 p.m.) - Orlando look like they’ll be in a fight for the fifth and sixth spots all season.

Santos Laguna vs. Tigres UANL (8 p.m.) - The first round of the Liga MX playoffs. Tigres were runners-up last season and have the No. 1 seed this time around.

Corinthians vs. Guarani (9 p.m.) - Surprisingly, Corinthians lost the first leg 2-0 and are in trouble.

Internacional vs. Atletico Mineiro (9 p.m.) - A 2-2 first leg draw favors the hosts in this one.

Pachuca vs. America (10 p.m.) - Defending champs America actually have a worse goal differential than the lower-seeded team.