The stadium was the main topic of conversation at meetings held yesterday during FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke's tour of 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil host cities.
It was decided that a steering committee and a technical committee would be created between all the parties involved to synchronise efforts on the schedule for the stadium's delivery, as well as intensifying and supervising work on the project. The results of a first evaluation within three weeks will be used to determine Curitiba's position as a World Cup host city.
"To be very honest, the situation as it stands is not ideal,” said Valcke. “The stadium is very delayed and well outside the delivery schedule to ensure best use by FIFA and the FIFA World Cup. But we have to be positive and that's why we have come together, as the main driving forces involved, to find solutions.”
A team workshop is being held on 18 February, where all 32 qualifying sides will be given information about the competition. A decision is needed by then about whether the FIFA can be confident that World Cup matches can be held in the stadium, without risking the organisation of the event. “We will have people from FIFA and the LOC monitoring the stadium's progress on a daily basis and we will work together to guarantee that Curitiba will host FIFA World Cup games," said Valcke.
"What all sides have found is that, if the pace of work at the stadium in Curitiba were to be kept as it is, then it would not be ready with the quality and requirements necessary to host the FIFA World Cup,” said executive secretary of the Ministry of Sport, Luis Fernandes. “With this is mind, we agreed that we would take steps to guarantee that the arena would be ready to host the games scheduled to be held there.” Firstly, this involves taking the partnership between the entities involved to a new level. The new administration will aim to get work up to the pace required and will be linked to a technical committee that will identify the best ways to accelerate work at the site.
“The second thing we are doing is linked to how progress is determined to be going: work on the stadium needs to be scaled up to get it ready and this means increasing the number of workers and introducing a third shift to accelerate this pace,” he said. The third step is to guarantee the flow of funds, with 39m reais freed up from the Parana government development fund.
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