Mayor: Sao Paulo will host 2014 opener
Reuters - Saturday 26 February 2011, 12:23
SAO PAULO - Sao Paulo will "without
question" host the 2014 World Cup opening match, according to
the mayor of Latin America's biggest city even though work has
yet to start on its stadium.
Gilberto Kassab told reporters that the construction of the
Itaquerao, the start of which has been repeatedly put off,
should finally get under way in April barely three years before
the tournament will take place.
"We can say that without question we will have the World Cup
opening match in Sao Paulo, in Itaquera, in the stadium of
Corinthians," Kassab told reporters.
The Sao Paulo venue is the biggest of many headaches facing
the 2014 World Cup hosts where initial worries about crumbling
infrastructure and rampant crime have been exacerbated by delays
in the building or reconstruction of stadiums.
Sao Paulo initially planned to use the Morumbi stadium until
the arena was barred by FIFA and local organisers over a lack of
financial guarantees for the necessary rebuilding.
Kassab met with Brazil President Dilma Rousseff and state
governor Geraldo Alckman on Friday to discuss the matter.
"The president invited the mayor and governor to this
meeting because her perception is that Sao Paulo is the city
which must have the opening match, thanks to its infrastructure,
hotels and the quality of its services," said sports minister
Orlando Silva.
The stadium will be situated in the east of the sprawling
city, several kilometres from the centre.
Corinthians, one of Brazil's biggest and most popular clubs,
had planned to built the stadium with a capacity of 48,000,
while FIFA require a minimum of 65,000 for the opening match.
Negotiations are taking place over who will pay for the
building of the extra 17,000 seats.
Brazil was elected unopposed in 2007 to host the tournament
which was earmarked for South America by FIFA under a
short-lived rotation system which also brought last year's World
Cup to Africa.
Brazil is due to stage the tournament in 12 cities despite
the difficulties of moving around the vast country.
Last November, sports minister Silva said that the country's
outdated and overcrowded airports were the biggest risk to the
event's success and that not enough was being done to improve
them.