Blatter and Valcke both know we will be ready for 2014, says Brazil official

– The physical fitness trainer for Brazil’s volleyball teams at the 1988 Olympics says the country will be ready for the 2014 World Cup and that Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke are happy with progress.

Ricardo Trade speaks now with all the gravitas of his role as World Cup head of operations, a far cry from a team support post in Seoul 23 years ago. He claimed inside knowledge on how the president and secretary-general of world federation FIFA think in secret at a logistics forum during the Aspire4Sport conference.

Blatter said earlier this year that, with the 2014 finals some two and a half years away, Brazil were further behind in preparations than South Africa had been at the same stage ahead of the last tournament in 2010. This past Tuesday Valcke flew to Brasilia to warn politicians that the country was running out of time.

However Trade, one of three directors answering to controversial local organising president Ricardo Teixeira, suggested that both men had been scare-mongering.

He said: “I am very confident about the discussions we are havingwith Mr Blatter and Mr Valcke and we also have a board meeting with them every two and a half months. We are not behind on stadia and airports and both of them know this.

“We are behind in putting the guarantees into law – which was why Mr Valcke was there – and some infrastructure but we have time in both cases and on this we are very comfortable and Mr Blatter and Mr Valcke are in the same way.”

Trade, having projected a map which displayed the enormous inter-city distances involved in the Brazilian World Cup, asserted that the concept of venue clusters had been dropped because of tourism expectations.

Stress-buster

Originally, to ease the pressures, stress and risks of long-haul travel for teams, officials, fans and media, FIFA had projected a system of regional fixture zones.

This was ditched subsequently and Trade explained: “We decided with FIFA to use all the country . . . also, for tourism, because all the cities receive a lot of matches and a lot of seeded teams will be divided throughout our country.

“We prepared a match schedule which is very comfortable because we have long distances and some weather differences so, at least, if a team play games which are a long distance away they will have at least four days to rest and become acclimatised.

“We had 57 schedules then we worked in secret with two people from our side and two from theirs [FIFA]. We saw a lot of information and the decision was to use all the country and all the cities . . . each city will be very comfortable to receive a good team.”

Trade refused to comment on a question about whether the credibility of Brazil’s organisation had been undermined by all the investigations and controversies surrounding organising president Ricardo Teixeira.

He said: “It’s not a thing to discuss here. He is president of the Brazilian football federation and the organising committee but we have a team of more than 70 people and we are doing things well and the money we receive from FIFA is audited by Ernst & Young and is strictly controlled.

“FIFA is working with us, in the same office, and there are a lot of signs that things are running well.”