Arena da Baixada is still the most delayed stadium of 2014 World Cup, but will not be dropped from the host list, against suggestions from some FIFA representatives.

Speculations have been ongoing for days about the potential exclusion of Curitiba as host city of the 2014 World Cup. Even hours before the decision was announced, some speculated FIFA will drop the city in an unprecedented move. The threat seems to have been real, because some representatives of the global football body supported the idea of leaving Curitiba behind.

This won’t happen, however. The contractor’s recent pace allowed work to meet the expected progress. Roof cladding is almost complete, while 15,000 seats are installed, exceeding the FIFA expectation of 10,000.

Arena da Baixada is far from safe, though. The project has to keep moving forward as fast as it does now. Otherwise the risk is still there, at least theoretically. Now FIFA requires the stadium to be able to hold a soft launch test event in late March at the latest.