Half-price tickets for the World Cup could lead to legal battle, warns rapporteur.

Agency Brazil - President Dilma Rousseff's veto of one of the articles in the General Law of the World Cup, aimed at maintaining half-price ticket sales for students, opens the way for a legal battle between the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and student organizations. This assessment comes from Congressman Vicente Cândido (PT-SP), who was the rapporteur for the matter in the Chamber of Deputies.

"What could cause more problems is the veto of the suspension of half-price tickets in states and municipalities. The agreement with the entities remains, and they will not take legal action or litigate against FIFA to demand half-price tickets because the issue of membership cards, which is part of an agreement, is maintained. But [the veto] opens the door to litigation and demands for half-price tickets," warned Cândido.

With the veto, the congressman emphasized, FIFA will have two options: adopt half-price tickets for students, assuming the costs of this operation, or negotiate the suspension of the benefit in states and municipalities. "Despite the possibility of litigation, I believe in an agreement. There are fewer actors now, and the agreement with the UNE [National Union of Students], which represented all student organizations, is secured," the Workers' Party member considered.

The congressman said he was consulted about the vetoes, but expressed surprise at the suppression, at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Attorney General's Office, of two articles (48 and 49) that dealt with rules for issuing visas. "What surprised me was the veto suggestion made by Itamaraty, because it was a text exhaustively discussed with the ministry. They had the wrong information and still insisted," he criticized.

Regarding the other vetoes, Vicente Cândido assessed that the president acted correctly to improve the text approved by Congress. Approved last month by the National Congress, after consideration by deputies and senators, the General Law specifies, among other aspects, conditions for the sale of tickets and rules for the facilitated entry of tourists. It also establishes criteria for the protection and exploitation of commercial rights and conditions under which the transmission and retransmission of the World Cup must be carried out.