Two months before Brazil hosts the Confederations Cup, only three of the six stadiums are ready, Reuters reports.
Recife’s venue is set to open on Sunday, joining Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza and Salvador in FIFA’s good books. But the governing body had already extended the construction deadline from last December to April 15.
So it can’t be happy at the sluggish progress - and with 550,000 tickets sold for the June tournament (featuring Spain and, uh, Tahiti) that’s a dress rehearsal for next year’s World Cup finals, spectators are entitled to feel concerned.
FIFA has given up hoping that everything will be spot-on by June. “Not all operational arrangements will be 100 per cent,” general secretary Jerome Valcke said last week, while insisting the competition will be “fantastic”.
If the Confederations Cup is a true test of Brazil’s ability to host the biggest sporting event on the planet, then at the moment the country looks in serious danger of flunking. Of course, things have a habit of coming together at the last minute, and the World Cup is still 14 months away.
But the notion that the construction of buildings holding tens of thousands of spectators may end up being rushed? That’s a little worrying.
FIFA is insistent that all 12 World Cup stadiums are ready by December. Anyone who’s attended a World Cup knows what a vast logistical operation it is, and that FIFA likes the tournament to run with all the precision you’d expect of an organization based in Switzerland.
But even if the venues are all smart and shiny by the big kick-off, that’s only one piece of the pie. There’s got to be adequate infrastructure for fans to arrive, stay in and travel through Brazil. And that’s a very real concern, too. And not something that FIFA can do much about, in truth. Stadiums, yes. Light-rail lines and new airport terminals? That’s a little beyond even FIFA’s ultimate influence.
Here’s a link to a video with a construction update that certainly whets the appetite - if you imagine the giant skeletons teeming with people, color, noise and passion in a little over a year’s time.