By Andrew Warshaw
December 4 – With the eyes of the world on Friday’s World Cup draw, the last thing the Brazilian local organisers need is more negative publicity about preparations for the tournament. But FIFA has said that up to three of the 12 stadiums being used will not meet the end-of-year deadline for completion. Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba, Curitiba’s Arena da Baixada and Sao Paulo’s Arena Corinthians stadium – which is hosting the opening game and where two workmen were killed in a crane accident last month – all need more time to be built.
At a press conference in Costa do Sauipe, Bahia, following a meeting of the organising committee, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, flanked by LOC officials, tried to put a positive spin on proceedings.
Conceding there were “some small delays” he promised everything would be ready on time and was backed by Issa Hayatou, head of FIFA’s World Cup organising committee. “We will do whatever is within our reach to make this a huge success. Six months will allow us to iron out the creases,” said Hayatou. “The organisation will be ready, the political will is there.”
FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke did say, however, that no time scale had yet been fixed for resuming work in Sao Paolo. “We are not in a crisis mood, and not looking at an alternative to Sao Paulo,” he said. “We are confident they can deliver the stadium… not by the end of the year, definitely not. Curitiba is facing the most problems and clearly won’t be delivered before February 2014. It’s something we will cope with.”
Valcke then had heads shaking among reporters as he tried to explain the minutiae of Friday’s draw, which is being broadcast to 193 countries around the world. He raised a smile himself by admitting it was “not easy” to understand but stressed it was watertight and left no room for any allegations of bias towards any of the teams.
More alarming is the fact that some teams will have to travel the length and breadth of the country, sometimes in different time zones with different climatic conditions. For instance whoever plays Brazil in the opening game will face a 3,880-km flight to Manaus in the Amazon for their next match, before another 4,508-km trip to Recife for their third group game.
Brazil’s deputy sports minister Luis Fernandes said a detailed report on the crane accident in Sao Paolo would be ready by the end of this week after which there would be “intense operational planning” to meet all the guarantees that were made to FIFA.
“Trust and confidence is one single word in Portuguese which have the same meaning,” he said. “We shall deliver what must be delivered. All the partners are working together.”
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