Curitiba stadium to stage World Cup test event

Curitiba (Brazil): Brazil`s troubled Arena da Baixada Stadium will stage its first World Cup test event March 26.

But the venue will not be officially ready until April 30, just six weeks before football`s showpiece event. The announcement Monday comes less than a week after FIFA decided to keep the stadium on the World Cup schedule despite severe construction delays, reports Xinhua. It is one of four the World Cup stadiums yet to be ready for the June 12-July 13 tournament despite a December 2013 deadline imposed by FIFA. The test event is expected to be open to just 10,000 fans, less than a quarter of its final capacity. Officials also said the stadium`s redevelopment budget has risen to 330 million reais, up from an original of 184 million reais. Arena da Baixada will host four World Cup matches: Iran-Nigeria (June 16), Honduras-Ecuador (June 20), Australia-Spain (June 23) and Algeria-Russia (June 26).