FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke will begin an inspection visit to Brazil amid a series of concerns about the country’s readiness for soccer’s 2014 World Cup.
Valcke will visit three host cities after Brazil’s sports minister said the country needed to speed up construction pace on five of six stadiums that have to be completed by December.
Monday’s visit also comes just days after government concerns with price hikes of hotels listed on FIFA’s website, something that could prompt an investigation into the FIFA-appointed agency in charge of accommodation.
Valcke is making his first visit to Brazil since the Confederations Cup, the World Cup warm-up tournament. He will check preparations in three of the 12 host cities – Sao Paulo, Curitiba and Manaus. The cities are among the six that have to finish their stadiums by the December deadline established by FIFA. The other six venues were completed, despite many delays, just in time for the Confederations Cup.
FIFA has made it clear it won’t tolerate the same problems. Only four stadiums were completed by the original deadline.
Valcke’s first stop is in Sao Paulo, host of the World Cup opener on June 12. There had been concerns if the stadium was going to be ready by December, but constructors picked up the pace and the Brazilian government said it’s not worried anymore.
That is not the case for the other five venues, and the delays prompted Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo to say last week that the host cities were “facing a tight deadline” and there was a need “to improve the pace in most of the stadiums” to make sure they are completed this year.
Four of the stadiums were less than 80 per cent finished, including in Curitiba and Manaus. The secretary-general’s trip will end after a local World Cup organising committee board meeting on Thursday in Rio.
FIFA and the government want the stadiums ready so local organisers can host the necessary test events before the World Cup. FIFA usually wants at least three test events at each venue, but that wasn’t possible in most of the Confederations Cup stadiums.
Brazil is facing a scramble to get its notoriously crowded and shabby airports into shape, with experts saying there is no room for error.
Upgrade work in nearly all sites isn’t expected to be finished before March. Deadlines have already been pushed back at several airports, and further delays could make it hard to handle the expected 600,000 international visitors and almost three million Brazilians expected to travel during the month-long tournament.
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