With six months to go until the 2014 World Cup kicks off, plenty of questions remain. A panel of ESPN FC writers took on the task of asking -- and answering -- one each.
Gabriele Marcotti: Will the venues be ready?
Brazil’s organizing committee decided to spread the World Cup over twelve venues. It’s a big country and lots of areas would otherwise not be a part of it, so that’s fair enough.
But we already know that three of those stadiums -- Sao Paulo, Cuiaba and Curitiba -- won’t be delivered on time. The original deadline was Dec. 31, yet now we’re talking early March for the latter two and April for Sao Paulo.
This kind of thing seems to happen at every World Cup but two factors make this different. The first is that, with so much political pressure at stake, you always fear that corners might be cut. With two workers already having lost their lives at the Sao Paulo arena, that’s simply not acceptable.
The other factor is that with deadlines so tight, there may not be enough time to thoroughly test the logistics and infrastructure around the grounds. And, of course, that’s what makes you fear for the worst.
Sepp Blatter told Bloomberg that he’s “an optimist,” adding that “optimists live better and longer.” If he is optimistic that everything can get done on time AND be thoroughly tested, great. However, if he is optimistic that nothing will go wrong even if the grounds are not fully tested and ready, that is worrying.
This is one issue that needs to be resolved well before June 12.
More: www.espnfc.com
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