Apart from the police, the construction companies and the players, there is another segment of the Brazilian population that is preparing feverishly in view of the forthcoming World Cup.

More than one million sex workers in Brazil, where prostitution is legal since 2000, will be competing for the dollars of the football fans, so it is only natural for them to go the extra mile in order to get the advantage.

More specifically in Belo Horizonte, where six matches – including a semifinal – will be held, many of the approximately 2,000 prostitutes are getting English classes.

“The language gets you ahead. We are learning the basics. They say there’ll be 200,000 tourists in Belo Horizonte so it makes a lot of sense,”says the Cida Vieira, chairwoman of the Association of Prostitutes of Minas Gerais (Aprosmig), who came up with the idea of the courses when she noticed the increased “traffic” during Copa Libertadores.

This was not the only initiative taken by 30-year-old Vieira, who was quoted widely last year in the world’s press when she announced that the prostitutes of Belo Horizonte would accept payment on credit card during the World Cup.

Prostitutes in Belo Horizonte are highly organized. They pay a monthly membership of 3.2 euros at their union EUR 3,2 which allows them unlimited free condoms while, pasted on the wall of the union’s building are notes about diseases, numbers for doctors and timetables for psychology sessions.

For those who might wonder why so many Brazilian women resort to prostitution to survive, the numbers speak volumes: illiteracy in the country averages 10 per cent, reports say 13 million are underfed and 42,785 were murdered nationwide last year.