WORKERS were rushing to remove scaffoldings at the Rizal Memorial Stadium just before kickoff of the football competition of the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
SPIN.ph spotted workers in the final stages of removing scaffoldings in front of the renovated stadium two hours before the first match of the men's football tournament between Malaysia and Myanmar.
The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) declared on Monday morning that the renovations of the Rizal Stadium, Rizal Coliseum and Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila and the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City were completed in time for the Games.
However, the sorry state of the venues has drawn attention from foreign media.
While the facade of the historic stadium looks done, it was an altogether different matter inside as most of the rooms still look like construction sites when the stadium opened its doors to both foreign and local mediamen.
Look:
That includes the press center, which is expected to host the bulk of the foreign mediamen since football is the centerpiece attraction for most of the Southeast Asian countries.
The working area for the press was set up in the squash venue which workers failed to finish in time for the Games.
While foreign mediamen were already hard at work inside the press center, a construction worker hauling cement was still inside when SPIN.ph arrived.
On Sunday, organizers discussed moving the early matches in men's football to the Binan Football Stadium in Laguna, before deciding at the last minute that Rizal Stadium was ready to host the games.
The Philippine Azkals' Under-23 side will also see action on Monday night against Cambodia.
The pool television broadcast of the football matches also encountered problems, sources said, after the equipment needed to beam the games to other member nations was held up at the Bureau of Customs.
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