BLATTER BACKS BRAZIL

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has stated that he is confident that the stadiums will be ready in time for the World Cup 2014. FIFA has also confirmed that there will be no speeches by officials in the opening match between Brazil and Croatia on June 12. This has been done in order to prevent unnecessary protest from starting inside the stadium. During the Confederations cup, Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff gave a speech and he was booed off by the crowd due to allegations about corruption.

There has also been a lot of discontent amongst the Brazilian public that the government had spent a huge amount of money on unnecessary aspects like developing the stadium rather than improving the infrastructure, which is a major doubt on the nation. Due to the large amount of supporters who are expected to travel for this tournament, it has been suggested that Brazil’s infrastructure like road and air transported will not be able to handle the volume. Blatter, meanwhile, attempted to once again put an end to the rumours that the stadium may not be ready in time for the World Cup.

The Arena Corinthians, which will hold the opening match, is still undergoing construction and is not expected to be handed to FIFA until a few months later.

“Everything with the stadiums will work out. This is not my first World Cup. In the end, all the stadiums will be ready. Friends of Brazilian football, where is the respect and the fair play, please? We hope that the World Cup will play a part in calming down the social unrest that we experienced during the Confederations Cup,” said the FIFA president. Brazil is estimated to have spent more than £ 8 billion in improving all aspects across the country, but it has been mostly spent on stadiums.

BRAZIL CAN WIN IT

Brazil did not do well in a World Cup when they last hosted it. It was in 1950 when the country last hosted the tournament, but they lost in the final to Uruguay in front of 200,000 supporters. That team has never been forgotten by the supporters, but manager Luiz Felipe Scolari says that it is time that the country learns to celebrate that 1950 team rather than degraded it. He also wants to use them as an inspiration to win this upcoming World Cup. Brazil are the current record holders after having won five World Cup titles in their history.

Scolari says that the 1950 team were the pioneers to what the successes achieved in the five decades that followed. Brazil will be going into the 2014 World Cup looking to lift the title for the first time since 2002. Rather than wilt under the pressure of the home supporters, Scolari is planning to do well with the 12th man behind them. Brazil is one of the most football crazy nations in the world. Their supporters always expect the best from the home team, which could work against them, but Scolari is aware of this challenge and he wants to provide them with the best.

“Before 1950 Brazil had never gotten to the final, they were the pioneers of the five titles we have won since then. Those players got there and made Brazilian history. We built our success on top of them. We are going to try and get back to the Maracana for the final and properly remember the team of the 50s because they were wonderful and fantastic and that’s how I’d like Brazilians to think about them. We will be playing with 12 players on the pitch,” said Scolari.

Brazil will be up against Mexico, Croatia, and Cameroon in the group stages.

READY IN TIME

The FIFA general secretary has recently said that all the whole stadium is intended for the purpose of hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches will be ready in time. However, Jerome Valcke recently said that he doubts whether the nation will be able to complete the construction work before the start of this tournament. He is currently overseeing the progress made by the South American nation in delivering the World Cup. Valcke has said that he is expecting that more than 500,000 fans will be making the trip to the South American nation in order to see the World Cup.

As a result, infrastructure like transport and hotel also needs to improve, but Brazil are still a long way off from meeting the demands of the tournament according to Valcke. He has recently said that an unnamed city has just 17,000 hotel rooms despite having a stadium capacity of more than 45,000. The country has spent more than £ 9 billion in updating the infrastructure aspects in all the host cities. This includes aspects like the renovated or newly built stadiums – which number in 12 – airports, and bus lanes. The Sports Minister of Brazil, Aldo Rebelo recently said that he wants to make the World Cup leave a lasting legacy on the nation.

“In one unnamed city there are 17,000 hotel bedrooms and a 45,000 capacity stadium for the World Cup. But we have now moved from talking about the problems to talking about the solutions. We are able to find and answer the problems,” said Valcke. FIFA and the Brazil government have already come at loggerheads regarding a number of issues. However, it is expected that Brazil will certainly be not completely ready in number of ways for the 2013 Confederations cup that will take place in the summer.