Sports minister: Brazil stadiums will be ready

Stadiums in Sao Paulo, Cuiaba and Curitiba have now been added to Porto Alegre, Manaus and Natal as venues that will not be completed by FIFA's original December 31 deadline.

Rebelo insists that all stadiums will be finished without being rushed and handed over to authorities before the end of January.

"It's possible that we will face some delays with the stadiums but the most important thing is that they will be ready for the World Cup," Rebelo said.

"There is no rush - what we have is deadlines, we have a schedule and also when a company wants to accelerate a construction they don't ask for a worker to do extra hours.

"In December, I spoke with Amazonas (Manaus) governor and he reserved the 20th of December as the delivery date, Rio Grande do Norte (Natal) offered 19th or 21st or 30th December and  Cuiaba from the 20th of this month.

"At Corinthians (Sao Paulo) we had the accident, Porto Alegre will be ready on January 15 and Curitiba, we really had a financial problem and the funds were delayed.

"According to our examinations with the owner and I spoke with the mayor of Curitiba and Parana's governor and they guaranteed that the stadium will be done before the new deadline."

Rebelo also played down any safety concerns surrounding the host nation, comparing his experiences in Europe to support his opinion.

"I have used airports in Brazil since I was a student, and the only time I was robbed was in an airport in Paris," he said.

"A Brazilian personality, the actress Ruth Escobar, lived here her whole live and was stabbed in front of her hotel door in Paris and the president of Brazilian Olympic Committee was robbed in London.

"Here we have violent cases in our cities but is a violence with social origin."

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