THE Arena das Dunas staged its third 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil test event on Saturday, with ABC defeating America-RN 2-0 in the clássico do Rio Grande do Norte, on match day three of the Brazilian second division championship.

The tests carried out by the Brazil 2014 Organising Committee (LOC) revealed that the stadium is all but ready for the tournament which gets under way on June 12.
In all, ten operational areas were tested at the match, more than at any another test event staged this year: cleaning and waste management, transport, spectator services, volunteers, media operations, catering, technology, competitions, medical services and safety and security.
The crowd of just over 10 000 had the opportunity to see some of the organisational aspects that will be rolled out at the FIFA World Cup, such as the organisation of queues at the turnstiles and the services provided by volunteers. Responsible for attending to players and for conducting doping controls, the LOC’s medical team also took the opportunity to carry out drills.
Brazil 2014 LOC Stadium Operations Manager Tiago Paes said that the whole operation went smoothly thanks to the fact the Arena has been in regular use since January.
“The consortium is delighted,” he said. “The fact that 19 events have been held here in Natal really helped us with our operations. The fans here have seen the kind of operations that we are looking to implement for the FIFA World Cup.”
Demetrio Torres, Rio Grande do Norte’s Executive Secretary of FIFA World Cup Affairs, also expressed his satisfaction with the result of the test event.
“Expectations have been very high all week long,” he commented. “It was a bit like taking an oral test, and from what I could see, we passed it.”
The next Brazil 2014 test event will be held on Saturday May 10 at the Beira-Rio in Porto Alegre, where Internacional will take on Atletico-PR in a Brazilian first division championship match.