Deadline for three World Cup venues extended by FIFA

COSTA DO SAUIPE, Brazil: FIFA said yesterday that three of 12 World Cup finals venues would be delivered beyond its December 31 deadline.
World football’s governing body indicated ahead of Friday’s draw in the northeastern resort of Costa do Sauipe that the stadiums at Sao Paulo, Curitiba and Cuiaba would not meet a deadline it previously insisted was set in stone.
Delivery of the stadiums at Curitiba and Cuiaba is now expected for February, just four months before the World Cup starts.
FIFA does not have a date for when the Sao Paulo arena will be ready following last week’s tragic accident when two workers were killed after a crane collapsed and damaged part of the stands.
FIFA said it would not allow the deadline to be extended having tolerated similar delays ahead of last June’s Confederations Cup dress rehearsal, when several venues missed the deadline for that tournament.
Sao Paulo “will be ready,” FIFA President Sepp Blatter told a press conference.
Blatter said he made his optimistic assessment on a new report.
“We have just received a report. There are some small delays in construction of stadia. But so small that with one exception (Sao Paulo) we can say everything is ready,” said Blatter.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, said the stadium in Curitiba, which has been lagging behind schedule more than the other venues, would not be ready until the end of February.
“Curitiba is the one where we are facing the most problems and won’t be delivered before the end of February 2014. 
“We will be ready to get the stadium by the end of February 2014,” Valcke said.
The Arena Amazonia in Manaus, in the heart of the tropical rain forest, is also still under construction, as is the one at Cuiaba.
Meanwhile the countdown to Friday’s World Cup draw but football’s world governing body kept everyone in suspense by saying it will only reveal the composition of the draw pots on the day itself.
FIFA is keeping the exact draw mechanism under wraps for now but the 32 participating nations will be drawn in eight groups of four, each containing one seeded nation.
The seeds are hosts Brazil, defending champions Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.
Pot two has seven teams for the time being, including the five-strong African contingent, with pot three containing, among others, the United States, Australia and Japan.
Pot four consists of the nine non-seeded European teams, one of which will have to be assigned to pot two.
FIFA based its seeding according to its rankings as of last October 17, prior to the playoffs.
Pot 1 (seeds): Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland.
Pot 2: Chile, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon.
Pot 3: USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia.
Pot 4: Holland, Italy, England, Portugal, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, Russia, Franceafp