The World Cup party has started – but what about the protests?

The first thing to say is the party has started. We’re based a few hundred metres from the stadium and you can hear what people here think about the World Cup.

There were indeed protests today – no one knew quite how big they would be, and in fact they turned quite ugly. A few journalists were hurt, but they were fairly small and isolated.

Given the widespread demonstrations of the last year, People have been wondering if – indeed when Brazil would start to embrace the World Cup, and it wasn’t really until last night that the streets around the stadium here in Sao Paulo began to be festooned in green and gold. Walking around here late last night there were impromptu samba bands on the street, and people drinking pretty late into the night.

The stadium began to fill up mid-afternoon ago, indeed the opening ceremony has started and Brazil are taking on Croatia in a few hours time.

This is, after all, the spiritual home of the beautiful game.

Follow Keme Nzerem on Twitter: @nzerem_c4