<p>Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff took a swipe at the naysayers on Monday as she officially inaugurated the last of six stadiums that Brazil will use next month to host a warm-up for the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament. <br /><br /></p>.<p>"The pessimists said the stadiums would not be ready in time, but we are showing them today that we can deliver high-quality stadiums," Rousseff said in a speech in Recife before opening the 46,000-seat Arena Pernambuco outside the northeastern Brazilian city. <br /><br />Rousseff said Brazil is fulfilling its commitments with global soccer body FIFA, whose secretary general Jerome Valcke last year angered Brazilians by saying the country needed a "kick up the backside" to get World Cup preparations moving. <br /><br />On Saturday, Rousseff kicked the first symbolic ball on the newly-laid pitch of the brand new Mane Garrincha National Stadium in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, where Brazil will face Japan in the first game of the eight-nation Confederations Cup on June 15. <br /><br />At a cost 1.2 billion reais ($590.1 million), the colonnaded stadium is the most expensive of the 12 that Brazil is building for next year's 32-nation World Cup, and a prime candidate to become a white elephant in a city with no major soccer club.</p>
<p>Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff took a swipe at the naysayers on Monday as she officially inaugurated the last of six stadiums that Brazil will use next month to host a warm-up for the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament. <br /><br /></p>.<p>"The pessimists said the stadiums would not be ready in time, but we are showing them today that we can deliver high-quality stadiums," Rousseff said in a speech in Recife before opening the 46,000-seat Arena Pernambuco outside the northeastern Brazilian city. <br /><br />Rousseff said Brazil is fulfilling its commitments with global soccer body FIFA, whose secretary general Jerome Valcke last year angered Brazilians by saying the country needed a "kick up the backside" to get World Cup preparations moving. <br /><br />On Saturday, Rousseff kicked the first symbolic ball on the newly-laid pitch of the brand new Mane Garrincha National Stadium in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, where Brazil will face Japan in the first game of the eight-nation Confederations Cup on June 15. <br /><br />At a cost 1.2 billion reais ($590.1 million), the colonnaded stadium is the most expensive of the 12 that Brazil is building for next year's 32-nation World Cup, and a prime candidate to become a white elephant in a city with no major soccer club.</p>