Itaquerão Will Not Be Tested at Its Full Capacity Before the World Cup Opener

05/30/2014 - 09h13

The final test event at Itaquerão before the World Cup, a match Corinthians vs Botafogo, on Sunday, will not be as Fifa expected, with its 68 thousands seats available.

The municipality and the State government agreed to sell only 40 thousand tickets. The ticket sale started yesterday evening.

35 thousand people will be allocated to the arena's permanent grandstands and 5 thousand to the temporary one, at the South sector.

The temporary North sector seats will not be tested on Sunday's game.

During the first official test, a match Figueirense vs Corinthians, a slightly smaller audience attended Corinthians arena: 36,694 people.

The decision was taken for safety reasons, since it is a Brazilian championship game and not the World Cup, whose audiences are different.

The arena will host the World Cup opener, Brazil vs Croatia.

According to the Fan Statute, the ticket sales of sporting events must start at least 72 hours prior to the match.

That means it should have started yesterday, at dawn.

The Fan Statute is not applied in this case.

The sports law specialist Heraldo Panhoca explains that because the stadium has already been delivered to Fifa, their rules should be followed.

"It is a Fifa test event and CBF agreed, so Corinthians is not responsible [for the delay"], said Panhoca.

"Fifa has the control in this case, not the Fan Statute", he concludes.

There is still an issue related to a fire department report that is missing. The firefighters checked the arena yesterday.

Folha attempted to contact both organizations. The Fire Department has released no statement and Corinthians informed there were no news to report.

Translated by JULIANA CALDERARI

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