Blatter urges Brazil to speed up stadia

FIFA president Sepp Blatter yesterday urged Brazil to speed up its 2014 World Cup preparations, warning that Rio and Sao Paulo might not be ready to host Confederations Cup matches a year beforehand.

“If you make a comparison between the state of play in South Africa and Brazil three years before the World Cup, Brazil is behind Africa. It shouldn’t be said but it’s a fact,” the head of world football’s governing body told journalists.

“If they carry on working like that when we have the Confederations Cup... a year before the World Cup as a rehearsal, there won’t be matches in Rio and no matches in Sao Paulo,” he added. “The World Cup stadiums are still not ready.”

Blatter said he was waiting for “a bit of effect” from the five-time World Cup winners “because it’s not moving forward, it’s not moving forward very fast”.

“What they should do in Brazil is put a little bit more speed in the organisation,” he added.

Work on almost all of the 12 World Cup venues in the country is behind schedule, while airports in Brazil are also saturated, with flight delays and cancellations a common daily occurrence.