2014: Brazil impresses Fifa

2007-08-27 14:10

Rio de Janeiro - The head of the Fifa team evaluating Brazil to host the 2014 Soccer World Cup said on Sunday they liked the initial presentations made by the cities hoping to host the competition, local media reported on Sunday.

The inspection team has been in Brazil since Thursday and already has heard presentations from the majority of the 18 Brazilian cities wanting to host matches if the tournament takes place in Brazil seven years from now.

"The presentations were very good, they impressed us," Hugo Salcedo, head of the inspection team in Brazil, told the UOL website during the team's visit to Maracana stadium before a Brazilian league match between Flamengo and Goias.

Salcedo did not elaborate, and said the team would not officially talk about its 10-day visit to Brazil until a press conference in Rio de Janeiro on September 1.

Beginning on Monday, Fifa's team will visit stadiums in the nation's capital of Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil is the sole candidate to stage the 2014 World Cup and is likely to get it if Fifa remains committed to a South America-based tournament under its continental rotation policy.

But soccer's governing body already has said that it can stage the competition in another region if Brazil fails to meet the requirements for the quadrennial event.

The 2010 World Cup will take place in South Africa.

- AP