FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke admitted late last week that there was ‘no plan B’ if Rio de Janeiro’s world famous Marcana stadium’s upgrade is not completed for the June Confederations Cup, the warm up event for next year’s World Cup.
The famous stadium which was erected for the 1950 World Cup Finals has been receiving a much needed makeover. There have been concerns that this has fallen behind schedule in the main due to heavy rains in the city that left parts of the site flooded. This forced a planned inspection last week to be cancelled.
There are no concerns that the stadium will not be ready for the World Cup finals in 2014, but the deadline will be tight for this year’s event. This was another minor hiccup for FIFA who also last week conceded that the 2022 World Cup which was awarded to Qatar may well now have to be hosted in the winter. A concern that many raised at the time of voting, and which FIFA assured would not happen.
Football fans are used to such issues and undoubtedly the game will go on.
