If FIFA confirm Itaquerão for the World Cup opening in the coming weeks, the entity will be making an exception to the rules that its Local Organizing Committee (COL) imposed to the other host cities.
According to sources involved with the World Cup preparations, the determination in 2009, year of the selection of projects, was that the opening stadium candidates had permanent bleachers and coverage for 100% of the public.
This is not so for Itaquerão. The stadium has 48,000 fixed seats and will reach 68,000 with temporary seats. Considering only the permanent structure, the coverage will protect the 85% of the public (41,000), according to the architects Aníbal Coutinho and Paulo Cordeiro, co-authors of the project.
This percentage will decrease during the World Cup. Despite the plans for expansion of the bleachers, the roof will be the same in order to not endear the work. "In the bleachers for the World Cup there was no sense in extending the roof, because it is an expensive item, amounting 20% to 25% of the construction," Coutinho estimates.
According to him, the Itaquera project has been approved by FIFA and, even leaving the public discovered and sitting in mobile bleachers, it meets the entity’s requirements to receive a World Cup opening. The items would be required only in the VIP and media sectors.
Perks
However, sources close to the World Cup projects complain on the different treatment received by São Paulo. They said the COL rule was to have stadiums 100% covered and with permanent bleachers in the main World Cup matches.
"Even the city of Cuiabá will have 100% of the bleachers covered," says one of those responsible. "It has always been expressly forbidden to make collapsible bleachers for the opening stadium. I find it strange to make this changes later, because the rule was the same for all."
In April last year, FIFA vetoed the proposal to install temporary seats in Morumbi stadium. At that time, it was considered to receive the opening match, but the proposal was vetoed in June.
Three months later came the Itaquerão project, which was soon appointed to host the opening ceremony. Only in August this year it was confirmed that the stadium would have 20,000 temporary seats.
Competitors to the World Cup opening, Mané Garrincha (Brasília) and Mineirão (Belo Horizonte) stadiums will have permanent bleachers and offer full coverage to the public.
Another stadium that was included on the list of opening candidates was Fonte Nova (Salvador). The weak point of it was the capacity of 50,000 seats, insufficient for the opening match, which requires 65,000.
Responsible for the work, the government of Bahia talked to COL on the possibility of expanding the capacity with mobile bleachers. It heard a negative answer and the promise that Salvador would be rewarded with other events related to the World Cup, as the Confederations Cup.
FIFA’s contract specifications, which list the stadium requirements for the official competitions, do not require the adoption of the full coverage. It only recommends the construction of this item in the cities that are wet, cold or with a high incidence of sun.
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04/05 | News
