Brazil Set to Open 3rd World Cup Stadium

(ATR) Brazil opens its third venue for the 2014 FIFA World Cup this weekend in Salvador.

President Dilma Rousseff will attend Friday’s official inauguration ceremony for the Arena Fonte Nova alongside government officials, stadium workers and members of the press.

The general public must wait until Sunday when home club Bahia hosts Vitoria in the second phase of the Bahia State Championship, a test event of sorts for the 2013 Confederations Cup.

Salvador will stage three matches during this summer’s "Festival of Champions" in addition to four group matches, a Round of 16 fixture and a quarterfinal during next summer’s showpiece.

Images released Monday as part of the Local Organizing Committee’s bimonthly "Stadiums Progress" series show the Arena Fonte Nova receiving finishing touches ahead of Friday’s inauguration.

That leaves Brasilia, Recife and Rio de Janerio still to deliver their stadia by FIFA’s new cutoff date of April 15.

Only the cities of Belo Horizonte and Fortaleza finished by the original December deadline set by world football’s governing body for venues hosting matches in the Confederations Cup kicking off June 15.

Also included in the LOC’s latest photo gallery are images of construction progress at Maracana Stadium in Rio, the Arena de Sao Paulo, Arena Pernambuco in Recife, Estadio Beira-Rio in Porto Alegre, Estadio das Dunas in Natal, Arena Amazonia in Manaus, Arena de Baixada in Curitiba, Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba and Estadio Nacional in Brasilia.

Click here to view the images, and click here for more coverage from World Football INSIDER.

Written by Matthew Grayson

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.