Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff officially opened Brasilia"s Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha World Cup stadium on Saturday.
The stadium held its first test game yesterday, between Brasiliense and Brasília, ahead of the Confederations Cup Opening Ceremony on June 15.
The 70,000-capacity venue for next month’s tournament comes five months behind schedule and at a cost of $500 million, almost double its original redevelopment budget.
Rousseff said: “A year ago they said that we wouldn"t build our stadiums, that they wouldn"t be ready. But now we are seeing that the stadiums have been built and are being opened.
“I am extremely proud of the quality and modernity of the facilities. It"s a demonstration of Brazilians" capacity to successfully carry out what many said was beyond us.
“These six stadiums show the capacity and determination that we will have while building the other six [needed for the World Cup]."
FIFA originally wanted three test events in each of the six Confederations Cup venues, but that was not possible because of a series of delays in stadium construction.
The Brasilia venue was delayed because of a problem with the pitch installation, which was said to be due to excessive rain.
The Mane Garrincha will host seven games at next year’s World Cup but has been highly criticised, with many saying that it will become a “white elephant" after next year because the city has no teams in top leagues.
