By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – Brazil’s iconic Maracana is once again facing problems after a warm-up event at the revamped venue was cancelled.
An initial exhibition game took place last month in the stadium, being used for this summer’s Confederations Cup, and a follow-up was scheduled for Tuesday this week.
But that was called off for unspecified reasons by the Rio authorities who own the ground, meaning that the upcoming prestige friendly against England will be the only time it is used before the June Confederations Cup, the World Cup warm-up event, when the Maracana is due to stage three games.
The Rio government issued a statement saying that instead of the May 15 event, there would be a series of simulations of the facilities “to optimise the necessary tests, focusing on the technical aspect”.
But that will do little to convince the doubters about the readiness of the Maracana which has constantly been behind schedule and has been FIFA’s main concern as it undergoes a complete overhaul costing 900 million reais (£289.2m). Workers are now racing against the clock to meet the latest deadline of May 27 for the stadium to be delivered to FIFA for final inspection.
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