The stadium that will host the opening match of the 2014 World Cup will not be ready until April 14 or 15, less than two months before the tournament kicks off, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said yesterday.
The announcement came a day after the Brazilian government said the stadium would be ready in February.
The Itaquera Arena in Sao Paulo was originally supposed to be ready this month but an accident last week set the timetable back. Two workers were killed after a crane collapsed into a stand.
Blatter did not give details but appealed to higher powers in the hope the stadium will be completed.
“We believe it is a question of trust and that it will be done,” he told reporters.
“For the time being there is no Plan B and what FIFA can do now is ask God, Allah, whoever, that no more accidents shall arise in connection with the World Cup. That is all we can do and we hope the reconstruction can start as soon as possible.”
Host nation Brazil will open the tournament at the stadium on June 12. Their opponents in the prestigious match will be known today when the draw is made for the tournament.
The setback is the latest in a string of delays involving stadiums and transportation.
At least five cities have scaled back or abandoned plans to build metros, bus lanes or trams in time for the World Cup, which will take place in 12 cities next June and July.
Only two of six stadiums built for June’s Confederations Cup were delivered on time.
The other six were scheduled to be handed over this month but at least half will be late.
Arenas in Cuiaba and Curitiba will be delivered by mid-February, officials said earlier this week, while downplaying the delays.
“At every single wedding I’ve been to, the bride was always late,” said Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo.
“The wedding always went ahead despite this. It is possible that one or two are delayed, but the most important thing is that they’ll all be delivered.”
Meanwhile, Blatter said that FIFA is working to improve the rights of workers in Qatar but everyone needs to “calm down” about the problems surrounding the 2022 World Cup.
A decision on whether the tournament will be moved from the steaming summer months to the winter months in nine years’ time has been postponed by FIFA until after next year’s World Cup finals.
Alleged abuses of the rights of migrant workers employed on World Cup projects have made frequent headlines this year but the International Trades Union Confederation said this week that conditions had still not improved.
“We are looking at workers’ welfare in Qatar,” he said.
“We in FIFA have our responsibilities and there are others in Qatar with their responsibilities. We have met with the ITUC and the ILO and now is the time to calm down.
“I am sure at the end of the day football will be the winner because we can show the world it is possible to create good working conditions.”
How today’s WCup draw will work
The draw for the 2014 World Cup finals will take place in Brazil this evening (5pm Malta time). The 32 countries will be split into four pots and drawn into eight groups of four teams.
Pot One is the top seeds: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.
Pot Two contains the unseeded South American countries and the qualifiers from Africa: Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Ghana and Nigeria.
Pot Three is the teams from North and Central America plus Asia: Australia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, US.
Pot Four contains the nine unseeded European teams: Bosnia, Croatia, England, Fran-ce, Greece, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Russia.
At the start of the draw, one European team from Pot Four will be selected at random and added to Pot Two to make it eight countries in each pot.
The four seeded S. American teams will be put into a temporary pot (Pot X) and the European team from Pot Two will be drawn in the same group as one of them.
The draw will then proceed with Pot One being emptied and the teams allocated to position one in the Groups A-H in turn.
Pots Two, Three and Four will then be emptied in order but no South American teams can be in the same group, and a maximum of two European teams are permitted per group.
Teams from Pots Two, Three and Four will have their positions in the group drawn randomly.