World Cup stadium won't be ready until May

[Jar Jar Binks]

World Cup stadium won't be ready until May

By Miles Chambers
Mar 8, 2014 12:00:00 AM

The Arena Pantanal, which is already well behind schedule will less than 100 days to go until the tournament, has delayed its expected completion date by a month
World Cup stadium Arena Pantanal will not be ready for usage until May, according to the governor of Brazilian state Mato Grosso.

Fifa had originally set a deadline of December 21, 2013 for all of the stadia to be completed and ready for the tournament this summer, but six of those grounds were not built in time. However, they were expected to be finished before the end of April.

The Cuiaba venue's seating construction is still under way and now looks set to drag on until a month before the World Cup kicks off on June 12.

Silval Barbosa, who governs the region, blamed construction company Kango Brasil for the additional delay but says he has promised that the Pantanal will be ready by Fifa's last deadline five weeks before the tournament begins in Sao Paulo.

"The company assures me that there will be a delivery of all units by the end of the month," the Mato Grosso governor told Brazilian media.

"If they do not have time to finish in March, they will have until the deadline of May 6 to get them all installed."

The governor insists, though, that the test event on April 2 can go ahead without all of seating fitted.

Arena Pantanal - which Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke claimed would be ready by February late last year - is expected to have a maximum capacity of 42,968 and was originally due to be completed by the end of 2012.

The stadium, which lies close to the Bolivian border, will play host to four games: Chile v Australia, Russia v South Korea, Nigeria v Bosnia & Herzegovina and Japan v Colombia.