Brazil have taken an enormous step to realising their 2014
World Cup ambitions after the first of 12 new stadiums was announced open this
week.
The Castelao Arena, in the city of Fortaleza, was
inaugurated in an opening ceremony attended by President Dilma Rousseff. The
project comes in on schedule and cost an approximate £153.5m to fully renovate a
40-year-old stadium, which has hosted international matches since the 1980s.
It was all smiles and laughter at the opening ceremony and
the President used the opportunity to congratulate Brazil’s capability of achieving
success both on the football field and in building stadiums, yet there are
still major concerns some projects will not be finished.
The Maracana Stadium – Brazil’s historic arena that will
host the World Cup final in 2014 – is slightly behind schedule, while the Arena
da Amazonia in Manaus is still very much a construction site.
Meanwhile FIFA general secretary, Jerome Valcke, recently
claimed one of Brazil’s host cities has just 17,000 hotel rooms for a
45,000-seater stadium, while a report by the Brazil Audits Office claimed a
multi-million-pound rail infrastructure project in another city would not be
complete until after the World Cup.
However, many Brazilians will claim this is just
scaremongering from the media and tactics by FIFA to get the government into
more decisive action. The Castelao Arena’s completion proves Brazil is on track
and just about on budget to host football’s largest tournament in 18 months’
time.
Granted, there is still work to do and the Castelao itself
looks bare without the billboards, flags and vibrant supporters that will
eventually fill its terraces. But faith should be put in Brazil to host a
successful World Cup. South Africa did it in 2010 despite greater pressures
from the international community, so there is no reason to believe Brazil
cannot better that success.
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