Work on all the 2014 World Cup stadiums and infrastructure is progressing well and Brazil has reached "cruise speed", a top FIFA official said here Thursday after visiting two host cities.
"No stadium is behind schedule. All the projects are proceeding well and we have reached cruise speed," FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke told a press conference here.
Valcke, who last February caused an uproar by suggesting that World Cup organizers needed a "kick up the backside" to hasten lagging preparations for the event, spoke on his fourth visit to Brazil to assess the progress.
He inspected stadiums and infrastructure projects in the northern city of Manaus as well as in Cuiaba in the central-western state of Mato Grosso earlier this week.
The two cities are among 12 which will host World Cup matches.
FIFA earlier this year had voiced varying degrees of concern over the extent to which preparations -- renovation or construction of stadiums, as well as infrastructure projects -- are on track for the first World Cup in Brazil since 1950.
Source: AFP
