World Cup test for Porto Alegre stadium

Beira Rio stadium in Brazil's southern city of Port Alegre has had a smooth test run, less than four months out from soccer's World Cup.

With the World Cup fast approaching in Brazil, the so-new-it's-still-being-built Beira Rio stadium had a smooth test run on Saturday, with Internacional as hosts.

Just 10,000 fans were let in (capacity almost 50,000) to the stadium in the southern city of Port Alegre for a match at which Inter outscored Caixas 4-0 in the local Gauchao playoffs.

Saturday's play in Rio Grande do Sul state came a day after firemen did a thorough inspection, according to the local side.

Booming Brazil is gearing up to host the World Cup - starting in Sao Paulo on June 12 - with fears its infrastructure for playing and hosting are not ready for prime time and amid public safety concerns.

Just Friday, Internacional's chairman warned that Porto Alegre could be removed from the list of June's World Cup venues owing to the cost of temporary facilities.

Giovanni Luigi said the club could not afford to pay the 30 million reias ($A14 million) foreseen in the stadium contract with world football body FIFA and was in talks with local and Rio Grande do Sul state authorities on how the costs might be shared.

Under the terms of contracts signed in 2007 with FIFA and then revised in 2009, the stadium owners - in this case the club - are responsible for temporary structures such as the media centre and the hiring of volunteers, electricity generators and security scanners.

The warning came as FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke prepared to visit Porto Alegre on Monday in his latest tour of event facilities.

Valcke has already warned that another of Brazil's 12 venues, Curitiba, faces being dropped if it cannot show by Tuesday that the stadium's construction is back on track.

FIFA originally set a deadline of December 31 for all stadiums to be ready, but was forced to drop it with six venues still unfinished at that stage.

Sao Paulo's Arena Corinthians will not be ready for tests until mid-April after the deaths of two construction workers in an accident in late November.

The Amazonia stadium in Manaus has suffered three fatal accidents and Brasilia one, as Brazil races against the clock to finish off construction.

Porto Alegre's Beira Rio stadium, due to host five matches, had been expected to be the next to be delivered to organisers.


3 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Follow SBS News

Download our apps

Listen to our podcasts

Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service

Watch now

Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world