The deaths of two workers during construction at a World Cup soccer stadium in Sao Paulo on Wednesday represent the latest example that Brazil is woefully unprepared to host the 2014 summer event.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a massive crane collapsed at the Arena Corinthians as a crew rushed to complete the stadium before a FIFA-imposed December deadline. The construction nearly was complete when the rain-soaked ground beneath the crane gave way. The crane was in the process of lifting the final piece of roofing in place, but the sunken ground caused the crane to fall on the stadium. Parts of the section of the structure toppled, killing Ronaldo Oliveira dos Santos, 44, and Fabio Luiz Pereira, 42.
The Times added that many of the 1,600 workers assigned to the project were on a lunch break when the accident occurred, or the death toll could have been higher.
The timing is about the only fortunate piece of Brazil's attempt to ready itself to host the World Cup next summer. Multiple media sites report that the fatalities raised the death toll to at least four in the last 18 months of preparations of venues for the World Cup.
The Times reported that five deaths have occurred.
The Independent reported that FIFA has an "intervention and acceleration" meeting scheduled next month in case the country has not completed the worh greater expense.k on the venues. Brazilian officials have admitted that the work will not be completed until mid-January .
The cost to make all the venues fully operational, according to the Independent, will come at a much greater expense because of overtime and additional costs associated with the late construction.
The fatalities on Wednesday pushed those other issues to the background.
"I don't want to know about FIFA right now," Andres Sanchez, head of the stadium project and former president of the Sao Paulo soccer club Corinthians, told a news conference. "We are worried about the families and the victims."
FIFA also issued a statement expressing condolences.
The Independent reported that FIFA will not allow Brazil, which won the bid in October of 2007, to be unprepared for the World Cup, but the expense to the country - and its citizens - could be exorbitant.
Former soccer great Romario has been one of Brazil's harshest critics.
"I am not against the World Cup, but I am against the excessive spending," he has said, and on another, rather more graphic occasion, "Brazil has opened its legs to FIFA."
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