RIO DE JANEIRO, July 12 (UPI) -- Some Brazilian soccer fans are complaining online about plans to ban standing and going shirtless in the stands at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium.
Joao Borba, president of the stadium's consortium, said the venue's administration is seeking to ban going shirtless, standing in front of seats, waving large flags with bamboo poles and playing percussion instruments during soccer games, the BBC reported Friday.
"We will talk to the clubs aiming [for] a change of habits. I'm referring to bamboos, bass drums, watching the matches standing. We do not even have room for the bamboos," Borba told the local Extra newspaper.
Maracana, which recently underwent $450 million in renovations, was renewed as the host of next year's World Cup matches.
Borba said the new measures are aimed at keeping the stadium safe, comfortable and accessible for fans.
However, some fans wrote online that they consider the plans to be an attack on the fans.
"In the new Maracana, icon of a football undergoing transformation, a war has been declared against people," blogger David Butter wrote in a post he titled "The colonization of Maracana."
Fellow blogger Rica Perroni agreed.
"So, away from the people, with expensive tickets and surroundings that handpick the attendance, they decreed [new rules]," Perroni wrote.
