Centenario Stadium is close to being ready to host the South American and Libertadores Cup finals

The works of Centennial Stadium with a view to the end of the South American Cup and of the Liberators cup, which will be played in Montevideo, are at “90-92%” with three weeks left for the first of them to be played.

This is the estimate that makes Ignacio Alonso, president of the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) during an interview with Efe, a medium that agreed in full advance of the works inside the coliseum erected in 1930.

From a room that the AUF has in the stadium, presided over by a billboard with images of the Uruguayan internationals Fernando Muslera, Diego Godín, Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani, you can see how the work is progressing off the pitch, which looks “like it never was”, a phrase that sounds repeated among visitors.

The stands are dressed in light blue and the posters of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) with the legend “South American Cup – The great conquest ”, the first to be held on November 20, while the operators finalize details in the covered boxes and the new arches wait in the funds for their installation.

“We have the most sensitive days. Regarding the playing field, refertilization is being done now, reseeding and a final care. There are little flags on the court for the focus of the luminaires so that the lighting of 1,500 lumen is homogeneous, which is greater than what Conmebol will require in 2023 (1,300) ”, explains Alonso.

After the controversy over the disappearance of the mural that adorned the outside of the stadium since 1993 with figures of soccer players that resembled those of the original 1930 World Cup poster, the walls are still in gray, waiting for the landing of Conmebol with its badges.

In this regard, the head of the Uruguayan soccer governing body comments that it is already “practically to completion”, Except“ some aspect of the exterior paint ”, such as the last figure that resists in the main entrance gate to the stadium, by the America Tribune.

Alonso considers that the Centennial will be delivered to the Conmebol authorities on November 8 or 10, thus complying with the schedule set at the beginning of the work, and that only the work in the public toilets will be completed, which will be completed on the 14 .

“There is a lot of excitement because the stadium was an issue in itself. Every time they talked about football, about AUF, the city, the stadium was at the center of the debate, of questioning, about its maintenance, about its future, that it had been abandoned for the practice of sport and today it has been given a brutal resignification”He argues.

Alonso shows his chest through the old stadium and says that “this wonderful football house today must be one of the most iconic living temples of football” that Uruguay offers to the world, after the changes suffered by other mythical corners of football, such as Wembley or Maracana.

“This one has the magic of what is different and is historical and here you can breathe the same mythical atmosphere that was breathed a long time ago,” adds the president of the AUF on the field that on November 27 will host the final of the Cup Liberators.

According to the studies that the Centennial has undergone at different times, “the best part of the structure is the original from 1930,” which corresponds to the three rings of the Olympic Tribune, two from Amsterdam and Colombes and the first from America, compared to the extensions of 1955 and 1980, in which “some problems” were found that are now being solved.

Perhaps that is why, in a romantic attempt not to lose the essence of 1930, the large access stones through the main door -which are the originals- are being relocated around the Centenario Stadium so that, despite its modernization, the Steps of those old times do not fall into oblivion. (D)