Brazil's sports minister Aldo Rebelo has stated that the FIFA Confederations Cup and FIFA World Cup will be secure events despite protests.
The Confederations Cup, which is seen as the warm-up to next year's World Cup, has been overshadowed by anger at the country's expenditure on hosting the two events. A number of demonstrations have taken place in recent days, with violent scenes outside the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro and in the capital Brasilia keeping the Confederations Cup in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
But despite the furore Rebelo was keen to stress that the security of the two tournaments will not be jeopardised.
"Those demonstrations are not being organised by the poorest," he said.
"Those demonstrations are promoted by the middle class. They are taking advantage of the World Cup to publicise their demands, which has some legitimacy. But the government will not allow that this can do any harm to the security of the events."
Rebelo recently praised the efforts of the organisers and aired his view that the Confederations Cup would be a celebration for all involved.
"After a huge effort on building new stadiums, preparing the security plan, boosting the telecommunication network, public transport, airports and so on, now we are up to delivery what our nation expects and the rest of the world as well during this very important tournament organized by FIFA," he said. "Brazil will deliver a huge football party."
