By Andrew Warshaw
April 3 – After months of trouble-shooting and no end of efforts to stave off negative headlines, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke seems resigned to the fact that Brazil will not be completely ready to host the World Cup despite having had seven years to prepare.
Just two months before the showpiece tournament starts, Valcke was quoted as saying after a joint FIFA-Confederation of African Football conference in South Africa that the stadiums in Sao Paulo, where the opening game will be played on June 12, and Porto Alegre in the south were “where we have more work to do than in the other 10.”
“If you want me to summarise … we are not ready” because of construction delays, admitted Valcke.
The recent death another construction worker at Sao Paulo’s Arena Corinthians has again held up work, just as it did on previous occasions. “In Sao Paulo, it’s sad because a worker died a few days ago and the result is that the work has been stopped inside a stadium where there are a number of things to do,” said Valcke.
“For Porto Alegre, an agreement was made between the different parties in the city to make sure the temporary facilities would be financed, so it is now more the implementation of these decisions.”
The procrastination of the Brazilian authorities has caused constant headaches for FIFA but Valcke, who visited Brazil last week, re-affirmed there were no plans to ditch any stadiums which at one point was reported as a distinct possibility.
“There is no way we can postpone the opening game. We have a match schedule and it will go until 13 July so there cannot be any delay.”
“Maybe there will be things which will not be totally ready at the beginning of the World Cup but the most important thing for the 32 teams is the training camp and fields, all of this will be there to ensure you have football.”
“Then we have to make sure television can get the international feed [of games] and we have to have all the telecommunication systems in place for the media, all the structures you need when you move from a normal stadium to a World Cup stadium.”
“You have no choice, you have to make sure that if you are not getting 100% you have 99.99 percent.”
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