The World Cup is days away, but is Brazil ready? It certainly doesn't look like it.
With the planet's most watched sporting event kicking off on Thursday, protests and city-wide strikes threaten to disrupt Brazil's final preparations.
Additionally, there are serious concerns that some of the venues will not even be ready, while other infrastructure projects are also massively behind schedule.
Before they even see their teams battle on the fields, football fans arriving in Brazil will first have to fight their way past airport scaffolding, terminal flooding and two-hour taxi lines.
Brazil has had seven years and spent over £7bn to plan for the World Cup, but, as the images below show, with the opening of the 4-week extravaganza just days away, the country still isn't ready.
Is Brazil ready to host a World Cup?
READ MORE:
The pictures reflect a dark tale of two World Cups — one on a field and one playing out on this country's streets.
Anti-World Cup sentiment in Brazil has been bubbling for some time and the country's fervent love of football is conflicting with public anger over charges of wasteful spending, corruption, traffic jams, strikes and a litany of other complaints.
Arguably, it speaks volumes that the people of Brazil, perhaps the greatest footballing nation in the world, do not want the World Cup.
"F*** FIFA" appears to be the general message many are trying to get across in artistic protest, with residents turning to street graffiti in an attempt to get their voices heard.
Recent polling shows half the population disapproves of Brazil hosting the event at all.
"There is certainly a mood of 'we've already paid for the party so we might as well enjoy it,'" said Juca Kfouri, one of Brazil's best-known sports commentators.
"But there is also the feeling that a lot of people are ashamed. They're ashamed to wear the Brazil jersey or put a Brazilian flag in their window because of the protests, because they don't want to be associated with the exorbitant spending on the Cup."
While Brazilians furiously attempt to finish their new stadiums, the biggest remaining question is whether spectators will even be able to get to the stadium for the opening match in São Paolo this coming Thursday.
Football fans arriving in Sao Paulo were met by chaotic traffic jams and other delays on Monday after police used tear gas to disperse striking metro workers.
The partial strike on the city's metro was set to continue for at least a sixth day after local authorities left a meeting with union leaders Monday evening without an agreement.
But the metro union announced Tuesday it has decided to suspend the subway workers' strike until Wednesday.
The union is due to meet again on Wednesday to decide whether the strike - which has caused huge delays in Brazil's biggest city - would continue.
