FIFA to decide on 2014 World Cup host cities

HAMBURG - Football’s ruling body FIFA will decide this weekend which Brazilian cities will host games at the 2014 World Cup.

FIFA’s Executive Committee will select 12 host cities from 17 candidates at its meeting Saturday and Sunday in Nassau, Bahamas.

A decision is expected Sunday evening ahead of next week’s annual FIFA Congress.

The cities of Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Porto Alegre, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, where the final is due to take place in the 90,000-seater Maracana stadium, have been seeded.

Belem, Campo Grande, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Florianopolis, Fortaleza, Goiania, Manaus, Natal, Recife-Olinda, Rio Branco and Salvador are the remaining candidate cities.

It was agreed last December to increase the number of cities from 10 to 12 due to the size of Brazil and a FIFA inspection team visited all 17 cities in January and February.

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be hosted in 10 stadiums in nine cities while Germany used 12 stadiums in 2006. All potential stadiums would hold at least 40,000 spectators.

Over the coming week FIFA will also receive progress reports from the organisers of the Confederations Cup, which takes place June 14-28 in South Africa.

FIFA president Joseph Blatter is also expected to push for the introduction of a 6+5 rule to protect home-grown talent.

–DPA

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290944 GMT Mai