Organizers of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics said on Thursday they may decide to use more cities to host the soccer amid concerns that pitches slated to host matches may get burnt out.
Rio, welcoming South America’s first ever Olympic Games next year, is scheduled to share out the games with fellow World Cup venues Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Salvador, but Carlos Nuzman, who chairs the Brazilian Olympic Committee, told reporters FIFA has voiced concern at whether the four pitches will stand up to multiple use in the early rounds.
“Can we have one more city? Yes,” Nuzman said. “This is under discussion with FIFA and the Brazilian soccer federation.”
Adding venues would not just protect pitches from cutting up, but it would have the added benefit of bringing potential use to one or more of Brazil’s potential “white elephant” World Cup venues, such as Manaus in Amazonia and Cuiaba, both of whom boast multimillion-dollar swanky new stadiums, but have no major side to fill them.
Nuzman said adding venues — rather as London did for the 2012 event when some matches were played as far away as Newcastle and Glasgow, about 400km away — would respond to FIFA concerns of pitch maintenance.
With 16 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams, the current four-city structure could mean some stadiums hosting more than one match a day during the Aug. 3 to Aug. 19 event.
Rio’s legendary Maracana, which hosted Germany’s World Cup final win over Argentina in July last year, is due to host the semis and the final.
Brazil used 12 venues at the FIFA World Cup, giving the Maracana a massive US$400 million overhaul and spending almost US$3 billion in all to spread the tournament across the country, despite fears that several host cities would struggle to fill their new grounds thereafter.
As a partial solution, the Brazilian league took domestic matches to the likes of Manaus’ Amazonia Arena last season.
Nuzman hinted a decision would be made by next month, when the International Olympic Committee is due to visit to monitor the progress of the preparations.
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