FIFA President Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter with Brazil President Dilma Rousseff with the World Cup trophy after talks on World Cup 2014 preparations at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
Zurich: Problems with Brazil’s World Cup venues are under control with just 100 days to go before the first match kicks off, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said yesterday.
“One hundred days; It’s a long way to go, and it’s a short way to go if there are still problems,” the Swiss told fifa.com in a video to mark the occasion.
“But now all problems are under control and it will be in 100 days an exceptional good start for an exceptional competition.”
Brazil is racing against time to complete stadiums, airports, communications infrastructure and transportation systems as the June 12 opening day approaches.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said at the weekend that the world body faced a huge challenge following delays in building stadiums.
The Sao Paulo stadium that hosts the opening match is not due to be ready until May while other stadiums in Curitiba and Manaus remain unfinished.
One survey in February showed the number of Brazilians who favoured hosting the tournament had fallen to an all-time low, with many criticising it as a waste of money.
Support has waned since protests broke out in June last year against poor public services and the high cost of building stadiums, but Blatter was confident Brazilians would embrace the Cup when the time came.
Brazil, said Blatter, was “the country of football, and they will receive this competition with open arms and full of their heart”.
“The Brazilian spirit of the game and the Brazilian ability to play football makes this World Cup very, very special,” he added.
“Now everybody is expecting in Brazil that Brazil will bring home this World Cup. I am sure it will be a great, great success.”
Brazil, who last hosted the tournament in 1950, are the only nation to have won the Cup five times and also the only ones to have played in every finals.
Brazil celebrated wildly after being chosen to host the World Cup, a chance for the “sleeping giant” of 200 million to show its growing sporting, but also economic, prowess.
Seven years on, with just 100 days left till kick-off, the host nation is racing against the clock to be ready for the greatest sporting show on Earth starting June 12. Stadium delays and security concerns fueled by protests at corruption and poor public facilities have served to dampen the initial enthusiasm both of Brazilians — fans and government alike — and FIFA.
For former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, hosting the extravaganza for the first time in 64 years was a dream ambition — a chance to erase the nightmare of a 1950 final loss to Uruguay.
But just as importantly he saw it as a chance to project the country onto the forefront of the world stage. Half of the 12 stadiums missed FIFA’s December 31 deadline to be ready and three suffered fatal accidents and five have still to be delivered.
A huge revamp of Brazil’s chronically saturated airports and transport upgrades have also fallen way behind schedule in a country known for a sunny disposition where things happen late if they happen at all.
Add threats of fresh public protests against the cost of staging the event — around $11bn — and there is no shortage of negative headlines for current President Dilma Rousseff in what she hopes is a re-election year.
“One of the negatives regarding the organization of the World Cup in Brazil is improvisation,” says Jose Carlos Marques, professor of Sao Paulo University’s (Unesp) Sports Observatory.
“It’s a cultural issue to believe that everything can be done at the last minute, without planning but that all will be resolved through Brazilian hospitality and warmth,” Marques said.
The protests at the cost of the event have seen marchers chanting “there will be no Cup” in the streets as they demand more public investment instead in areas such as transport and education.
Last year saw more than a million people hit the streets in Brazil’s biggest demonstrations in a generation.Agencies
