Sao Paulo - Work on Sao Paulo's Arena Corinthians, one of Brazil's 12 host stadiums for the 2014 World Cup, is progressing quickly and will be finished by the end of 2013, the event's local organisers said Monday.
“There is no worry about delivery within the deadline (December 2013),” Ricardo Trade, executive director of operations at the 2014 World Cup's Local Organising Committee (COL), said in a statement by the Corinthians football club.
The statement, released following a joint visit of the site by officials from COL and world football governing body FIFA, said the arena will be 50 percent completed at the end of this month.
“The construction is advancing at great speed,” Gilmar Tadeu, another COL member, said. Sao Paulo will host the opening game of the World Cup on June 12, 2014.
The FIFA team earlier completed a new round of visits at some host stadiums, including in Rio, Belo Horizonte, and the capital city Brasilia. It is later to inspect those in the northeastern cities of Fortaleza and Recife.
In late August, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said preparations for the World Cup - including renovation and construction of stadiums, as well as infrastructure projects - were progressing well.
“No stadium is behind schedule. All the projects are proceeding well and we have reached cruise speed,” Valcke told a press conference in Rio after inspecting host arenas in Manaus and Cuiaba.
In 2013, Brazil will also host the Confederations Cup - a kind of dress rehearsal for the World Cup - but Sao Paulo will not host any of the games for next year's event.
Sapa-AFP