BRASILIA: Brazil’s Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo has insisted that he now has no doubts that all the country’s stadia will be ready in good time ahead of the 2014 World Cup.

World football federation leaders had expressed concern over much of the past two years at the slow pace of redevelopment but Rebelo has told the national sports council (CNE) that “there are no serious problems.”

Rebelo said that the stadia in Fortaleza and Belo Horizonte would be ‘delivered’ on December 16 and 21 respectively and the other four being used for next year’s Confederations Cup would all be ready in March. This would allow enough time for formal test events in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Recife and Salvador.

He added: “The situation with the stadia is satisfactory for FIFA, for the organisers, for the rights-holders and for the sponsors.”

The other six stadia – in Sao Paulo, Manaus, Cuiritiba, Porto Alegre, Cuiaba and Natal – would all be ready by December next year at the least.

Rebelo said: “Some of these may be ready well before that deadline – probably the Corinthians stadium (Sao Paulo) and Porto Alegre.”

He also noted that the federal government was likely to provide extra funds to ensure that a wide selection of training facilities would be available from which the finalist nations can choose.

** Porto Alegre club Gremio opened their new 60,000-capacity stadium this past weekend – though it is not a World Cup venue.

Local political reasons mean five World Cup ties will be staged, instead, in the Beira-Rio Stadium – owned by rivals Internacional – and which is not scheduled to be ready until next December.

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