Brazil assures FIFA that Sao Paolo and Rio will be ready for Confederations Cup

By David Gold

March 31 – FIFA has been assured that São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro will be ready to host games at the 2013 Confederations Cup by Brazil Football Confederation President Ricardo Teixeira (pictured).

Teixeira was responding to FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s comments earlier in the week about the slow progress Brazil was making in its preparations for the 2014 World Cup.

Blatter had said: “If you make a comparison between the state of play in South Africa and Brazil three years before the World Cup, Brazil is behind Africa.

“It shouldn’t be said but it’s a fact.”

With stadiums still not even under construction in São Paulo or Natal and sluggish progress being made elsewhere, Blatter had said that at the current rate neither the proposed Itaquera stadium in São Paulo or the Maracana in Rio would be ready to host games in the 2013 tournament.

Brazil’s airports have also been struggling to cope with the volume of flights they are having to deal with, and are being forced to cancel and delay flights almost daily.

The problems prompted Brazilian legend Pélé to proclaim that Brazil was “running the risk of being red-faced in the way it is managing the World Cup.”

Teixeira insisted that the state of Rio had confirmed that the Maracana was on schedule, and said: “We have the guarantee from those involved that it will also be delivered in time.”

Andres Sanchez, President of Corinthians, the club who would play at the Itaquera, said that work on the stadium would begin by May at the latest.

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