Brazil ’14 WC Organising Chief Play Down Preparation Fears

After FIFA president Sepp Blatter again criticised the slow pace of preparations for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, denture the president of the 2014 FIFA World Cup organising committee Ricardo Teixeira tried to play down fears that stadia at Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo could miss out on staging games during the tournament.

Blatter said on Monday that Brazil’s preparations were “not progressing very quickly” and warned that the venues in Brazil’s two largest cities were running the risk of not being involved at the 2013 Confederations Cup, the official warm-up tournament for the World Cup.

However Teixeira, Brazilian Football Confederation chief, insisted he had been guaranteed by the state of Rio that the famed Maracana stadium, which is due to host the World Cup final, was scheduled to meet its reconstruction deadline.

With regard to the Sao Paulo stadium, a project for which local club Corinthians is still looking for private investors, he added: “We have the guarantee from those involved that it will also be delivered in time.”

Work on almost all of the 12 World Cup venues in the country is thought to be behind schedule, while there are also concerns over improvement work at airports in Brazil.