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There are less than five months to go until the World Cup begins in Brazil but the clock is ticking for another of the global football fiesta's host cities.
Curitiba, the capital of the southern state of Parana, is so behind with its stadium renovations that FIFA could strip it of its host status.
On a trip to inspect the venue Tuesday, Jerome Valcke, secretary general of the sport's governing body, told reporters: "You cannot organize games if you do not have a stadium -- that's obvious.
"If you don't have a stadium then you cannot have four games taking place here. So that's why again there is this emergency situation."
FIFA has now given builders in the city of Curitiba a new deadline of February 18 to show a marked improvement in the stadium.
The Arena de Baixada venue, home to Atletico Paranaense, is being expanded for the World Cup with new seats added alongside the pitch and capacity raised to 40,000.
It is understood to now be 90% complete but has progressed little since the end of November, when it was 88% done.
Work on the stadium was also halted in October when a local judge intervened because of concerns that workers were at serious risk of being injured.
"We are not expecting the stadium to be ready on February 18," Valcke continued.
"What we are expecting is to see a progress and to understand where we are going and that is what is being put in place today."
Luis Fernandes, executive secretary of Brazil's Ministry of Sport, agreed with Valcke's criticism, saying: "If the pace of work at the stadium in Curitiba were to be kept as it is, then it would not be ready to host the World Cup.
"With this is mind, we agreed that we would take steps to guarantee that the arena would be ready to host the games scheduled to be held there."
Those steps include "scaling up" work on the stadium and an injection of an extra $16.5 million from the Parana government's development fund.
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