RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazilian football legend Ronaldo, a member of the World Cup organising committee, has blamed the Government for delays in preparations and would back an opposition candidate in this year’s presidential election.

Ronaldo told financial daily Valor he had a “very good relationship” with Socialist President Dilma Rousseff, but sharply criticised the sluggish preparations for the World Cup, which starts June 12.

“What is really a shame for our people are the delays in infrastructure works, airports, urban mobility projects,” said the former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Real Madrid star in comments published Monday.

“We shall have little of the World Cup legacy which we ought to have had, compared to what was forecast.”

Numerous infrastructure improvements promised when Brazil won the right to host the World Cup seven years ago have failed to materialise.

That fact, allied to a World Cup bill soaring past $11 billion, has infuriated many Brazilians who have castigated the Government for, in their view, getting the country’s priorities wrong.

“This is what people should understand: it is down to governments. The governments they themselves elected. It has nothing to do with football or the World Cup,” said Ronaldo, whose goals won Brazil the 2002 World Cup.

Ronaldo — whose full name is Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima -— said he had “no intention of entering politics”, himself but would back Social Democratic candidate Aecio Neves, who is trying to unseat Rousseff in elections this October.