The FIFA World Cup 2014 is due to be held in Brazil. While the five-time world cup winners would be looking forward to playing before home crowds, they have other worries ahead of the event.
The host nation is well behind schedule in its preparedness to host the prestigious event, according to FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke.
Valcke has expressed concern at the slow progress shown by the host nation of the 2014 mega event. The lack of progress has been most obvious in Sao Paulo, where a new stadium is under construction. The stadium that was planned to be used in the 2014 world cup is unlikely to be ready by 2013. As originally scheduled, the stadium was to be up in time to host the Confederations Cup to be held in that year. That would serve as a rehearsal for the bigger event to come, in 2014.
Another area of tardiness has been in the building of airports and transport links. Brazil is said to lack stadiums, airports and a national transportation system, according to Valcke.
Brazil hosted the FIFA World Cup, once earlier, way back in 1950. The 2014 host nation has had the most successful team ever, having won the event a record five times. But the South American country's planning has left much to be desired since making a successful bid to host the 2014 world cup event.
Building stadiums was the most challenging task of all, according to Valcke, who emphasized that the Sao Paulo stadium was unlikely to be used at all, in 2014, as it was not up to the required standard. Valcke made his comments on a visit to Moscow, in Russia, while speaking to Russian officials of the organizing committee of the 2018 world cup. Russia were recently successful in their bid to host the 2018 event, and the FIFA secretary general advised them to be ready with everything in place, at least two years ahead of the event.
Russia would have to build and renovate nearly every stadium available in the country, according to Alexei Sorokin, chief executive of Russia's world cup organising committee. However, Sorokin was optimistic that everything would be up and running by 2016, as required by FIFA.
Sorokin said that Russia didn't have a single stadium up to FIFA's standards, but that it was well within their capability to get the required infrastructure in place, in time. The new infrastructure is likely to cost Russia $10 billion, spread across 13 host cities named for the event.
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Suresh Iyer is an avid sports fan and blogger.
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