By Andrew Warshaw
April 23 – On his latest four-day inspection visit to Brazil’s World Cup host cities, an anxious FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has made it abundantly clear yet again that time is running out to complete the necessary construction work – not least at the Sao Paolo venue where the tournament begins.
Speaking to reporters following a visit to the Itaquerao stadium, where the opening match between Brazil and Croatia takes place on June 12 and which stages five games in all, Valcke said there was “not a single minute” to lose.
There is only one FIFA-scheduled test event planned for the stadium before then – and it won’t even happen in front of a full crowd. As many as 18,000 seats will reportedly be left empty for a game featuring league sides Corinthians and Figueirense on either May 17 or 18.
“There is not a single minute we can waste, because there is still a lot of work to do,” Valcke said after checking the construction work at the Itaquerao. “”I can tell you it will be very a tight schedule over the next few weeks. It will be ready but it’s a tight problem we have in front of us. We are running against time, but yes, the stadium will host the opening game and, yes, we will organise the opening game and all the other games in this stadium.”
Although Brazil has had almost seven years to get ready, with just two months to go before the opening match three stadiums are still unfinished and much of the promised infrastructure improvements is still way behind schedule. FIFA originally set a December deadline for all 12 World Cup stadiums to be ready but only half of them met the target – those used at last year’s Confederations Cup.
Work at the Itaquerao was significantly delayed last November after a crane collapse and killed two workers. Earlier this year, another accident killed one of the workers helping install the 20,000 temporary seats that will be needed for the opener.
Valcke also admitted there are still “potential issues” with several other stadiums, including Curitiba and Cuiaba. After visiting the former, he said there was “still lots to do inside and outside” and was especially unhappy that 27,000 seats were yet to be installed, with a test scheduled for May 14. “We have to make sure all is working on the 14th of May because there will be no other choice,” Valcke said.
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