By Andrew Warshaw
April 12 – Brazil’s iconic Maracana stadium, plagued by setbacks since the start of reconstruction work, will stage its first test game on April 27 between teams representing two of Brazil’s greatest players – Ronaldo and Bebeto – and featuring some of the workers who helped rebuild the famous venue.
“It is our way of saying thank you to the workers,” Andre Lazaroni, Rio’s secretary of state for sport, told delegates at this week’s Soccerex conference in Manchester.
Last month FIFA confirmed that the Maracana, originally built for the 1950 World Cup, would finally be ready to stage Confederations Cup matches and Lazaroni pledged it would once again become “a temple of football”.
The first “real” match at the refurbished venue will be a prestige friendly against England on June 2 but Lazaroni confirmed: “The first event is a closed event on April 27 just for the workers and their families.”
“Brazil is growing, it has problems but a future, we are improving and a chance to show the world that we can do big things and enjoy a great legacy,” he said. “We are working on security and we want to change the image of the city.”
Not everything is as upbeat as the picture he is painting, however. Plans to privatise the Maracana complex and its surroundings have upset local residents, many of whom have been displaced.
On Thursday, 300 people rallied outside the Rio state government building to protest waving banners proclaiming ‘Maracana is ours’ and ‘Out with (Sergio) Cabral’, the name of Rio state governor.
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