Rousseff: Brazil will meet Cup challenges

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff on Monday insisted her giant nation would pull off a successful World Cup, swatting aside FIFA criticism that the hosts started preparing late.    "We love football and so we shall proudly receive the Cup and make it the Cup of Cups," Rousseff insisted on her Twitter feed. "Demand for tickets is the biggest there has been for any Cup, and that shows fans across the world have confidence in Brazil," Rousseff added, in comments which prompted FIFA president Sepp Blatter to make conciliatory noises over the Twittersphere. In his opening gambit, Blatter, in an interview published Sunday in Switzerland, had chided Brazil for being slow to start preparations for its first World Cup since 1950. "Brazil has come to realize that they started too late. They are the country who are the most delayed (in terms of World Cup organization) since I have been at FIFA," Blatter told Swiss newspaper 24 Hours. "Yet they are the only country who have had such a long time -- seven years -- to prepare." On Monday, however, he tempered his criticism. "I fully agree with @dilmabr tweets today. The whole world, including me, is looking forward to#CopadasCopas (Cup of Cups). Brazil will be a great host. Brazil 2014 will be a success," Blatter tweeted, accepting the hosts are working hard to finalize preparations. The tournament kicks off June 12 with a match in Sao Paulo between five-time champions Brazil and Croatia. But the build-up has been plagued by construction delays and spiraling costs, as well as civil unrest over the billions being spent on the tournament and also the 2016 Rio Olympics. Rousseff, who was booed along with Blatter when she attended last June's Confederations Cup dress rehearsal, insisted Brazil will get it right. "Brazilians start 2014 confident in our hosting," she tweeted. "The tourists will have the opportunity to get to know this multicultural and resilient country," the leftist leader added. "Everyone who comes to Brazil will be well received," she said. "We are a happy, welcoming people." Fueling FIFA's concerns is the fact that several stadia still have yet to be completed. A double fatality in late November at the Sao Paulo arena staging the opening match put back that stadium's completion schedule and tests will only take place there in mid-April. There have also been construction worker deaths in the Amazonian city of Manaus on two occasions, as well as in the capital city Brasilia. FIFA originally had insisted all 12 venues be ready by December 31, but was compelled to drop the deadline after it became clear that almost half the venues would not meet it. The specter of further social unrest also hangs over the event, despite most Brazilians saying they back the event itself. Blatter insists security will be state of the art, and said in his Swiss interview that "I believe that Brazilians will not attack football directly. This is the sport's home, it's a religion," a point echoed by Rousseff. Source: AFP