FIFA has expressed concern over reports that São Paulo's 2014 World Cup stadium "will not be finished by the December deadline as preparations for the tournament continue to be plagued by delays," according to Brian Homewood of REUTERS. FIFA, which has allowed several stadiums to over-run the deadline for this year's Confederations Cup warm-up event next month, said "no compromises" would be made when it came to the real thing next year. FIFA said in a statement, "FIFA is for sure concerned as it is vital that the firm deadline of December 2013 will be kept." The host cities, federal government and stadium owners "have committed themselves to this date" and acknowledged that for the World Cup, "no compromises can be made to avoid jeopardising the successful staging of football's flagship event." FIFA has insisted that the six stadiums not being used for the Confederations Cup "will be ready by December." They are in São Paulo, Manaus, Cuiaba, Natal, Porto Alegre and Curitiba. Brazilian media quoted the head engineer at São Paulo's Itaquerao stadium as saying that "work would over-run by two months" (REUTERS, 5/8).
