4th March, 2014
Brazil still has a lot of work to do to get ready for the 2014 World Cup finals, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said in an interview published on Tuesday.
“There is still a lot of work to do, and we are working with very short deadlines,’’ Valcke told Brazil’s Lance newspaper as a 100-day countdown to the kick-off began.
Valcke had spoken in the last few days of a huge challenge for football’s world governing body amid stadium construction delays.
The delays have held up completion of the Sao Paulo stadium hosting the opening game on June 12.
They could lead to problems numbering stadium seats, and “this is something that we would like to avoid”.
Valcke said it was his third World Cup since he was with FIFA and the second in which he was in charge.
“I can say it was not an easy World Cup,’’ he said.
On Saturday after a meeting of the annual International Football Association Board (IFAB), Valcke said telecommunications still needed to be installed in stadiums.
“We are almost at 100 days before the first game starts in a stadium in São Paulo which is still not ready and won’t be ready until 15 May.
“And as you know another two stadiums (in Curitiba and Manaus) are quite late,’’ he told reporters.