Silva promises improvement in Brazil's 2014 World Cup preparations

By David Gold

May 6 – Brazil’s preparations for the 2014 World Cup will speed up towards the end of this year, according to the country’s Sports Minister Orlando Silva, who is seeking to improve the country’s image amid sluggish preparations for the tournament.

Work on most stadiums is behind schedule with work on the venue set to host the tournament’s opening game, Sao Paulo’s Itaquera, still yet to begin.

Silva said: “FIFA has been systematically following Brazil’s preparations and knows the effort the country is making to comply with all the demands.

“I believe that as we move from 2011 into 2012 the perception of Brazil will change because work on the stadiums at that stage will be very different.”

FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Brazilian legend Pélé are just two of the high profile figures to have been critical of Brazil’s progress, and Silva also admitted that the Itaquera would not be ready for the 2013 Confederations Cup.

The Maracana, Brazil’s most iconic stadium and the venue of the 1950 World Cup final, as well as the stage for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, requires a new roof, delaying its completion.

The Rio de Janeiro stadium is set to host the World Cup final.

President Dilma Rousseff last month decided to turn renovation and running of airports to private companies as Brazil struggles to increase its air capacity to account for the volume of visitors set to travel to the country in the coming years.

Silva said that this, as well as a 700 million reais (£264 million) investment in the ports of venue cities, had been well received by FIFA.

“It’s an investment of 700 million focused on passenger terminals,” he said.

“With this investment we’ll have adequate tourist terminals for the World Cup.

Silva also added that the total cost of various private and public investments for the World Cup would come to near 47 billion reais (£18 billion).

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