The Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo is slated to host the opener of the football extravaganza in June. Yesterday, two workers were killed there when a crane collapsed and crushed them.
"Accidents occur. I very much deplore the deaths, but I am absolutely convinced that the Cup will open" in Sao Paulo on June 12, said Jose Maria Marin, president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and the Cup's Local Organising Committee (COL).
Ricardo Trade, COL's director general, echoed those remarks, telling the daily Estado de Sao Paulo that the Arena Corinthians "will not be excluded from the Cup."
The accident came amid a scramble to meet a firm December 31 deadline set by football's governing body FIFA to complete the dozen arenas.
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Work at Arena Corinthians has been suspended until Monday for three days of mourning, after which 30 per cent of the site will be closed for an investigation into the matter.
Brazilian press reports, citing anonymous sources, said the incident could result in a delay of one to two months in construction of the arena, which is 94 per cent complete.
"It is impossible to make any prediction at this time as to whether the accident will cause a delay. In any case, we cannot imagine that if there is a three-month delay, the stadium will be excluded from the World Cup," Trade said.
But Jose Roberto Bernasconi, president of Brazil's union of architects and engineers, Sinaenco, said "surely the work will be delayed."
"We have to clear the rubble, the damaged pieces, the crane structure, clean up ahead of a thorough inspection to check whether or the structure was affected," he said.
According to civil defence officials, architects and engineers involved in the project, the accident did not affect the stadium's overall structure.