Brazil To Host 2014 World Cup Finals
The
Executive Committee of FIFA has officially named
Brazil, the only bidding country, as the host nation
of the 2014 World Cup finals.
The world soccer's governing body, also approved
Germany to stage the 2011 Women’s events.
Brazil becomes the fifth country to host two World
Cups following Mexico (1970 and 1986), France (1938
and 1998), West Germany / Germany (1974 and 2006)
and Italy (1934 and 1990).
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil
who was present at FIFA House where the announcement
was made said: “I would just like to say how happy I
am to see Brazil's name on that card…Organizing the
World Cup is a huge task and we have far more
responsibility weighing on our shoulders than when
we arrived here. But we will organize a great World
Cup and I am very happy.”
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said that although there
was only one candidate, FIFA still had a tough task
in awarding the finals to Brazil.
“It was a real big challenge,” he said, "there were
the same list of responsibilities and the same
conditions that had to be met as if there had been
more candidates.”
Brazil, who have won the World Cup a record five
times and are the only country to have played in all
18 World Cup finals tournaments, last staged the
event in 1950.
They become the first South American hosts since
Argentina staged and won the 1978 World Cup finals.
Brazil were the only country nominated to bid for
the World Cup by the South American confederation (CONMEBOL)
whose turn it was to stage the finals after they
were awarded to Europe (Germany) in 2006 and Africa
(South Africa) in 2010.
Eighteen cities have bid to stage matches, and,
according to the FIFA inspection report published
last week, it is envisaged that between eight to 10
cities will host games.
Hurdles
While giving the bid its blessing, the report
however, says that none of the stadiums are
currently up to FIFA safety standards for staging
World Cup matches.
That includes the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, which
held a world crowd of 199,000 for the 1950 final.
Brazil was the only contender because of FIFA's
policy of rotating World Cups through its six
continental confederations, a strategy that was
scrapped on Monday.
More than 160 Brazilian delegation members and media
were in Zurich for Tuesday's announcement, including
President Lula, Romario, a member of Brazil's 1994
World Cup winning team, and Dunga, who captained the
side in 1994 and is now the national coach.
REUTERS/YINKA