麻豆社

21 November 2010 Last updated at 17:21

Inside Rio's Maracana Stadium

The huge Estadio do Maracana in Rio, Brazil, was built for the 1950 World Cup finals and is scheduled to host the final of the 2014 World Cup after undergoing an extensive revamp. The 麻豆社's Bill Wilson takes a look inside.

The original stadium entrance remains, showing its more formal, official, name - the Estadio Mario Filho. It is named after the Brazilian journalist who championed the building of the stadium in the 1940s.

Damp and cracking affecting parts of the stadium

In the stadium's heyday, football fans would have clamoured at these ornately-tiled, but now closed, ticket-sale windows in order to be part of crowds which at times reached close to 200,000 spectators.

Sheet metal fencing is being erected around the perimeter of the Maracana stadium meaning much of the iconic venue, set to reopen for the 2013 Conferations Cup, will soon be hidden from sight.

One office area in the stadium remains open and the lobby is dominated by a statue of Mario Filho, who was instrumental in getting public opinion behind building the stadium in Rio's Maracana district.

A recent extension to the Maracana stadium, to allow easier access for VIPs, will remain in place during the refurbishment, but the rest of the stadum is being gutted and modernised ahead of 2014.

Many old and rusting stadium girders have been dismantled by engineers employed by Maracana reconstruction firms Odebrecht Infraestrutura, Delta Construcoes and Construtora Andrade Gutierrez.

Although the Maracana only closed in September, all seats have been removed from inside the bowl-like stadium and the lower tier terracing has aleady been reduced to piles of rubble.

On the upper tier of the stadium - which saw its capacity steadily reduced over the years until it stood at 82,000 just before closure - a sole workman is chipping away at the concrete steps.

It will be some time until we hear more Brazilian-style "Gooooo-oooaaalll" celebrations coming from the TV commentary box which is now dusty and deserted.

The stadium museum beneath one of the stands remains open and these old turnstiles are among the displays marking the 60th anniversary of the year the Maracana opened.

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Inside Rio's Maracana Stadium

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