Rio 2016 Committee Sports Department Manager Rodrigo Garcia admitted during a recent tour of the Maracana Stadium that "he is worried about the tight timeline for the plan to replace the pitch" between the Opening Ceremony and the first of two semifinal games for the football competition, according to Gerard Farek of AROUND THE RINGS. The timeline "calls for four to five days to plant the new grass, leaving just another four or five days before the first game is played." Garcia said that "the original grass will be removed from the stadium after the Opening Ceremony and replaced with turf from a specially-grown grass field south of the city." The new grass "will be removed from the ground in rolls and transported on trucks to the Maracana, a journey expected to take between 90 minutes and two hours." Garcia said that FIFA has "signed off on the plan and will be involved throughout the process." The "biggest worry is whether the field will be smooth and the seams between the rolls of grass will be small enough not to present a danger to the players" (AROUND THE RINGS, 5/3).