Brazil not ready to host the World Cup, Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke claims
Despite the tournament being three years away, there are worries that the South Americans will not be ready due to slow progress on stadium and infrastructure developments
By Joel Lamy
Brazil will struggle to host the World Cup in 2014, according to Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke.
Valcke is concerned that work on new stadiums and developments to old ones like the famous Maracana might not be completed in time for the tournament.
Brazil’s infrastructure is also thought to be below the required standards needed for such a large event.
Valcke, who has been in the news recently following the corruption scandal which has engulfed world football's governing body, has hit out at the slow development taking place and believes the South American country will not be ready to properly host the Confederations Cup the year before, which is seen as a warm-up event in preparations for the main tournament.
"There is a lot of work to deliver,” he told the Inside World Football Forum in Moscow.
"We don't have stadiums, we don't have airports, we don't have a national transportation system in place and we are one month away from the preliminary draw.
"The Maracana is definitely not currently a World Cup stadium and that's why it's closed. It will be ready at the last minute, a few months maybe, even a few weeks before the tournament if they don't speed up the process.
"In Sao Paulo, the main city in Brazil, they will not even be able to play the Confederations Cup in 2013 because the stadium will not be ready."
Valcke believes that Brazil are far less concerned about hosting a successful tournament than South Africa were in 2010, and are too preoccupied with winning the competition instead.
He added: "In South Africa the main goal was to show the world that Africa could organise a World Cup.
"In Brazil, in a way the main issue is to win it. Otherwise they will talk about failure."
