Brazil World Cup to Lay Platform for Successful Rio Olympics
Brazil’s deputy sports minister Luis Fernandes says hosting the 2014 World Cup two years before the Olympics will benefit the staging of the Games.
“Many of the initiatives will cross over such as transportation and security,” he said in an interview with Reuters.
“We had problems with the PanAmerican Games where city governments were put in control and they didn’t deliver, then the federal government had to provide emergency investment late in the day. We have learned from that and have a matrix of responsibility in place.”
Fernandes said he expected public support for Brazil’s series of mega sporting events to rise from the 2013 Confederations Cup through the World Cup and into Rio 2016.
“Hosting these events is a spur to nationalist pride. We will build a Games in the Brazilian fashion with a Brazilian flavour. We are very festive, a very strong culture, it’s a party atmosphere,” Fernandes added.
“I think the enthusiasm we are seeing now will be sustainable.”
Sao Paulo’s Arena Corinthians, venue for the opening match of the FIFA World Cup, is on track to be completed by the end of next year, according to organisers.
“There is no worry about delivery within the deadline [December 2013],” Ricardo Trade, executive director on the 2014 Local Organising Committee was quoted in a statement by the Corinthians football club according to AFP.
A FIFA delegation visited the construction site of the ‘Itaquerao’ stadium a few days ago as it neared 50 percent to completion.
Sao Paulo is slated to open the World Cup on June 12, 2014.
On a visit to Brazil last month, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke insisted Brazil had moved up a gear in its construction of stadia and infrastructure for the World Cup. “No stadium is behind schedule. All the projects are proceeding well and we have reached cruise speed,” he said.
“There is not a single stadium that’s code red for 2014, not one in a critical situation,” Valcke commented following an executive meeting of the Local Organizing Committee in Rio de Janeiro.
“That could change at any time,” he added, “but at this stage of the preparations there are no stadiums that are code red.”
Valcke has promised to visit all 12 host cities for Brazil 2014 by the end of this year. After tours of Brasilia, Fortaleza, Natal, Recife and Salvador in the first six months of 2012, he now has Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Curitiba left to inspect.
