Rio Olympic Stadium Gets Third Name -- On the Scene

(ATR) The name of a disgraced ex-FIFA president and former IOC member is nearly erased from the arena once called João Havelange Stadium.

On Feb. 10 Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes approved a name change for the Rio 2016 athletics venue requested by the soccer club Botafogo, which uses the stadium as its home ground. The club requested the name of the stadium be changed to Estádio Nilton Santos after the left back who played at the club for 16 years.

During the Olympics, the 46,931-seat stadium will take on a third name when it will be known as Olympic Stadium.

The stadium was built about 10 years ago as the athletics stadium for the 2007 Pan American Games. As an existing venue, it figured into the successful bid from Rio for the 2016 Olympics.

But soon after Rio won the Games in 2009, construction defects in the roof of the stadium were exposed and the arena has been shut while it undergoes millions of dollars in repairs and renovation.

Botafogo played its first Rio state league match in the stadium on Feb. 1, a soft opening for the facility. Only the 20,000-seat lower bowl was open to spectators with the upper bowl reopening still not date certain. The stadium is supposed to host a test event for the Olympics in athletics sometime in the next year.

Havelange, born in Rio de Janeiro, was the longest serving IOC member ever, serving from 1963 to 2011. He resigned from the IOC as evidence was mounting that he could face expulsion due to a bribery scandal uncovered years after he served as president of FIFA, which he led from 1974 to 1998. Havelange is 98 this year.

When questioned in the past about the stadium bearing the name of the disgraced Havelange, two IOC presidents have indicated that it was a matter for Rio de Janeiro to decide. And regardless of what the stadium is called before or after the Olympics, protocol requires that the stadium simply be known as Olympic Stadium.

Media reports have said that the city had been trying to change the name of the stadium, nicknamed Engenhao, ever since the Havelange debacle five years ago.

"I authorize the use of the nomenclature 'Nilton Santos Stadium' in the form requested, highlighting the tribute to the athlete and idol," Paes wrote in a letter endorsing the name change.

Apparently even with the new name to adorn the stadium, the name of the now murky sports leader will linger on official records, still recognized as Municipal João Havelange Olympic Stadium.

Written and reported in Rio De Janeiro by Aaron Bauer

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