Brazil to miss FIFA deadline for World Cup stadiums

Reuters: More than half a million tickets have been sold for the Confederations Cup in June, but host nation Brazil has yet to finish the main stadiums to be used in the dress rehearsal for the 2014 soccer World Cup.

On the eve of yet another FIFA deadline, Brazil has delivered only three of the six venues for the eight-nation warm-up starting in two months.

World soccer’s governing body FIFA had demanded that all six stadiums be ready by this past December but construction delays forced it to extend the deadline until 15 April. Even with that extra time, all the stadiums will not be ready.

The cities of Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza and Salvador have complied with the timetable and delivered their stadiums, while Recife will open its Arena Pernambuco on Sunday, one day ahead of the final FIFA deadline.

In Brasilia, 5,000 workers toil around the clock to finish the Mane Garrincha National Stadium, bolting seats into concrete galleries and draining the field where rolls of grass have still to be laid for the pitch. The US$ 500 million colonnaded arena in the centre of Brazil’s modern capital is the most expensive of the 12 venues that will host the World Cup.

Brazil will face Japan here in the opening game of the Confederations Cup on 15 June, the first test of the South American nation’s ability to organise two rapidly approaching global sporting events, next year’s World Cup and the Olympic Games two years later.

Building delays and cost overruns are threatening to turn the two events into an international embarrassment for Brazil instead of showcasing its arrival as a major economic power.

Brazilian officials, however, maintain that all will be fine. Opening Salvador’s Fonte Nova stadium last week, President Dilma Rousseff said five-times world champion Brazil will prove to be unbeatable on and off the sports field by ‘exceeding expectations’ in organising the global soccer tournament.

The biggest problem is with the venerable Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s largest stadium built for the 1950 World Cup. The arena is scheduled to hold the final match of the tournament on 30 June but is still undergoing finishing touches to a US$ 400 million refurbishment, its third costly overhaul in 12 years.