World Cup Stadium collapses

This stadium is meant to be holding the opening game.

3 people killed

A bit convenient after the reports yesterday that it wouldn't be ready for the deadline next month  

Rino- thats a poor comment, considering there have been deaths in this incident!

R.I.P. to those lost. Not really surprised this has happened in Brazil. Workers probably being pushed to the limit & over-worked in an attempt to get to the deadline. There not an experienced country when it comes to building infrastructure on mass, mistakes will & have happened.

So... what happens now? Surely all the other stadiums now need an inspection?

Well you'd think so kingraf, they're meant to be ready by January and still 6 are incomplete!!

CF wrote:Rino- thats a poor comment, considering there have been deaths in this incident!

Agreed.

R.I.P to those 3 men. Very sad story indeed.

Meh...

R.I.P those that have died. A tragic accident.

With the football, if FIFA had any sense they would now choose a back-up host for the World Cup just in case. It could be Germany, England, France, Italy, or even the United States and maybe even Japan. Sort out all the venues and scheduling now for such a world cup, because Brazil doesn't look like it will be ready.

Then there's less alarm in the event of Brazil announcing they can't hold the world cup in March/April.

It's not such an easy thing to relocate a world cup at short notice, although it can be done.  New Zealand was hit by a massive earthquake shortly before the 2011 Rugby World Cup which, amongst other things, rendered the Jade Stadium (one of NZ's three principle rugby venues) in Christchurch completely unplayable.

The Kiwis recovered in time for the RWC almost seamlessly, which shows it can be done.  Whether or not the same may apply to FIFA World Cup in Brazil I wouldn't hazard to guess.  

But just try to imagine the sheer logistics of trying to relocate a FIFA World Cup.  It's not just a question of football grounds, there is accommodation for players........ and huge numbers of fans..... plus training facilities, security, the organisation of television and press coverage and any number of other (lesser but no less significant to the whole) things to organise.

Imagine if the FIFA World Cup were relocated to, say, Argentina at this stage, how would that country get ready, in 7 months, for an influx of an expected 150'000 fans.... border control......hotel accommodation.... travel within the country from venue to venue.... security and anti-terrorist arrangements..... And those are just the things I can think of off the top of my head as I type.

What else might there be to consider..? The mind boggles.

As much as it might be a convenient solution to relocate, the logistical difficulties may very well be insurmountable at this late stage.  

And just think.............  if an advanced country like Brazil cannot host a world cup, what hope is there for the rest of South America in the future..?  

Looking at it from FIFA's point of view (and this is not my own personal opinion), the world cup HAS to go ahead in Brazil.  Not to do so would be a political disaster.  

And politics is dear to Mr Blatter's heart.

And the difficulty in relocating is why FIFA should make a contingency plan now.

Whilst we would all love the world cup to go ahead in Brazil, the building is behind schedule and there's numerous safety concerns. What happens if Brazil pull out and FIFA don't have a back-up in place?

Delayed world cup...until when? Next winter? 2015?

Can't be allowed to happen - FIFA need a fall back. Germany would be perfect in my opinion.

Brazilians were protesting about wasteful expenditure when they had a world cup to look forward to... Imagine telling them that the billions that could have improved infrastructure has come to naught.
#Bedlam

Well it would be Brazil's own fault. They've had six years to get this ready after all.

Duty281 wrote:And the difficulty in relocating is why FIFA should make a contingency plan now.

Whilst we would all love the world cup to go ahead in Brazil, the building is behind schedule and there's numerous safety concerns. What happens if Brazil pull out and FIFA don't have a back-up in place?

Delayed world cup...until when? Next winter? 2015?

Can't be allowed to happen - FIFA need a fall back. Germany would be perfect in my opinion.

Delayed world cup...? Well, that's a bit of a quantum leap, isn't it..!!

Has there been any official statement from FIFA that the world cup might be postponed..?

Now, I could believe that various hacks in the toilet roll press might have speculated on such things, but anybody who reads those... erm... 'publications' probably doesn't have much of a grip on reality about anything so it is easy to see how such a scenario might appear credible to them.

In my humble opinion, I don't think the world cup will be delayed. It is possible that some venues may have to be changed, if stadium completions go as planned, and the overall event may not be as shiny and Gucci as everybody would like. But from where I sit, as long as the teams have large enough patch of grass to run around on, and it has a goal at each end...... and as long as I can watch the match on TV with a beer in my hand........ then as far as I'm concerned, it will be as sound as a pound.

Jumpers for goalposts, anyone..?

Rest assured sir, the only newspaper I read is the Times. Surely that isn't populated by various hacks, nor is it the "toilet roll press"?

And with numerous safety concerns, building works massively behind schedule - wouldn't be too much of a leap to suggest that Brazil won't be ready in 7 months time?

Duty281 wrote:Rest assured sir, the only newspaper I read is the Times. Surely that isn't populated by various hacks, nor is it the "toilet roll press"?

And with numerous safety concerns, building works massively behind schedule - wouldn't be too much of a leap to suggest that Brazil won't be ready in 7 months time?

You could be right and to be honest, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you were.  But the matches would still go ahead, methinks.

When Athens hosted the 2004 Olympics, the opening ceremony went ahead without the stadium having yet achieved a proper fire certificate and when the athletes arrived at several of the venues, they found the paint on the walls was still wet, the final coat having been applied only that morning.  The Greeks really did cut it that fine.  The Games went ahead.  Nobody died.

Perhaps the Gucci soap dispensers may not be full for the players, or the changing room walls may not be quite the right shade of blue, poor things, but I still hold to my anachronistically romantic view of football that, all they really need is a ball and a patch of grass with a goal at each end.   They'll get by if the showers don't exude a gentle flow of lightly perfumed water after the game.

A simplistic view, I know, but heck, a bit of roughing it might just make some of these players remember where they came from.  

Fan safety is a different issue, but whether or not a stadium should be opened to the public is a police matter.   I wouldn't trust the Brazilian police any further than I could punt a piano, but the same could be said for a multitude of countries where the World cup could be transferred to.  

Brazil it is most likely going to be.   I would be extremely surprised if it went anywhere else now.

I think the World Cup will go ahead in Brazil, and rightly so it is far too late to take it from them considering the huge amounts of investment that has gone into it. However, you have to question why FIFA don't award the World Cup to countries who already have the infrastructure in place, England could hold the World Cup without very little investment having a lot of quality stadiums, so could Spain and Germany. I appreciate that it shouldn't be in Europe all the time, but Blatter's attempts to spread football around the world is commendable, but it pushes countries into building things at a ridiculously fast rate, causing a lot of health and safety concerns and can lead the country to having a lot of stadiums that they don't need.

I am really surprised that Brazil's football infrastructure is so poor considering the country is football mad, but I assume that is a result of lack of investment.

I'm hearing another worker has died falling off the roof of a stadium. Horror show over in Brazil

two have died. One fell 35m and later died in hospital and a second had a heart attack and the family have said he was overworked

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-25383023

The exact reason why a World Cup should not be happening in Brazil sadly! The writing was on the cards over 18 months ago...sadly no one at FIFA pulled their fingers out; instead they just continue to push the deadline further and further back hoping that on the surface all will appear fine and dandy before kick off time.

What shocks me the most is the amount of reports which suggest that the people who are supposed to oversee this project on behalf of FIFA have barely checked in on the progress of the builds (3 of the stadiums being built/repaired have been visited twice in 4 years   ) that takes negligence to a brand new level!!

It's pure greed that these tournaments take place in such places; FIFA get a nice big lump of money which they can pass around for handing out the rights to host the tournament to countries which sadly should be no where near one. Despite the fact the Brazilians love football the fact is that as a country it is vastly underdeveloped (except for a few 'tourist' locations); lacking the necessary infastructure & in a logistical/transport sense is far to behind the times to be dealing with the influx of people that will inevitably head over. Add in the seriously worrying crime rates across many areas and you have a disaster waiting to happen.

Of course we were saying the same thing about South Africa 4 years ago; the difference there was that a) they weren't so far behind and b) actually kept a lot of the World Cup in areas which weren't crime ridden & poverty stricken c) had figures which showed a decrease in crime leading up to the event. More importantly than all of that though was they had a nation which were vastly invested in the World Cup and wanted it because they believed the country would thrive by hosting it....

The same cannot be said for Brazil and it's nationals!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-25409174

Court has suspended further construction and the workers have gone on strike at the venue in Manaus. Totally justified.

50% of the stadiums behind schedule.

When do FIFA get worried?

They don't...they just plough forwards regardless. It wouldn't even shock me if they just ended up relocating games to 'older' stadiums if the new ones aren't built. Their is no chance that the World Cup gets moved now...far to late in the day for that too occur.

Bring on the farces of the 2018 Russia World Cup and 2022 in Qatar...

This is what happens when you attempt to take the World Cup global....it very may well be traditional a game that anyone can play..but much like the game itself now, it's far removed from the 'jumpers & goalposts' ideologies. If a country doesn't have the stadiums then it shouldn't be able to host it; much less countries which have very little experience in building such state of the art infrastructure, transport links etc etc.