First Sao Paulo, now Natal - another World Cup stadium is struggling to be ready for kick-off

The Arena das Dunas site has not passed a safety
inspection and is not yet in position to host Friday's
opening game between Mexico and Cameroon

Brazil’s overdue and over-budget
World Cup 2014 preparations have
been plunged into further chaos
following news that the Arena das
Dunas in Natal may not be ready
for its opening match of the
tournament.

Mexico are due to face Cameroon on Friday in what is
scheduled to be the first match held at the stadium.
While Secopa (Extraordinary Secretary for World Cup Related
Subjects) has guaranteed that the stadium is all but finished,
the fire department responsible for signing the order of release
for the use of the site disagree.

According to firefighters, there should have been a safety
inspection of the site on Tuesday, but they were not authorised
to make their visit, meaning that the stadium is yet to be
cleared to host matches.

The Arena de Sao Paulo, the stadium scheduled to host the
opening game of the tournament between Brazil and Croatia on
Thursday, faced similar issues.
The Sao Paulo firefighters department refused to sign off on its
temporary seating, which led to Fifa recalling a number of sold
tickets.

Fans that acquired seats in that part of the stadium were
forced to exchange their purchased seats for those situated in
other areas of the stadium, causing the capacity to fall from
around 68,000 to little over 60,000.