More Brazil stadiums face late handover
Thursday 05 Dec 2013 7:46a.m.
The construction of the Beira-Rio Stadium in Porto Alegre (Reuters file)
Three more venues for next year's World Cup will be delivered past FIFA's December 31 deadline, Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo says.
World football's governing body FIFA backtracked on Tuesday after months of insisting it would not extend the deadline for all 12 Brazilian host arenas to be completed.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Sao Paulo's Arena Corinthians would get more time following last week's crane accident, which killed two construction workers.
FIFA also gave more time for Cuiaba and Curitiba as both venues struggle to complete work.
Adding to the woes on Wednesday, Rebelo said stadiums in Porto Alegre, Manaus and Natal would also be handed over past deadline, owing not to laggardly construction, but to the agenda of President Dilma Rousseff.
"There are delays but they will not be significant. What matters is that we are ready to go in January," Rebelo said in the northeastern Bahia state resort of Costa do Sauipe.
He partly attributed the delay to Rousseff's crowded Christmas and New Year agenda.
He added that Curitiba had suffered from funding problems - but would be ready in late January rather than late February as stated by FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke on Tuesday - while Porto Alegre was experiencing overlay construction delays
"But these stadiums will be delivered with a good time for the pre-World Cup tests," said Rebelo, who said Rousseff would oversee delivery of the six as yet incomplete venues.
"There is nothing to compromise the delivery of the stadium" at Curitiba, Rebelo insisted, adding he had talked to governors and agreed a postponement to late January.
"We need to do FIFA test events - accessibility, safety, electrical, food courts, entrances and exits. But in January, we will definitely have time to hold all these test events," Rebelo said.
He joked that the World Cup was rather like a marriage.
"At 100 per cent of weddings I've seen the bride arrived late. I've never seen one arrive on time - but never saw a marriage that didn't go ahead," said Rebelo laconically.
AFP
