Brazil given 2014 World Cup
The world famous Maracana is the likely venue for the 2014 final
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Tuesday, 30, Oct 2007 04:47
Football's world governing body, Fifa, have awarded the 2014 World Cup to Brazil.
The South American nation, who last hosted the tournament in 1950 but have won the competition on five occasions, were the only country to lodge a bid.
Any successful campaign to host the competition would have had to come from within the South American confederation as part of Fifa's rotation policy, which has since been scrapped in favour of a more open system.
In 2003 when bids were formally submitted, Colombia withdrew their application and all the South American nations agreed to back Brazil's bid and this consensus played a major part in persuading Fifa to abolish the rotation policy - a move that was confirmed yesterday.
Despite there being only one bid for the 2014 tournament, Fifa president Sepp Blatter said that, if anything, the stringent requirements used to assess the various candidacies had been made even more obstinate.
"The task was not easy - for us it was a really big challenge to have the same list of requirements and the same conditions for only one candidate than if we had two," he said.
"Perhaps we put the bar higher than if we had two.
"There was an extraordinary presentation by the delegation and we witnessed that this World Cup will have such a big social and cultural impact in Brazil.
"This is the country that has given to the world the best football and the best footballers, and they are five times world champions."
At the same ceremony the hosts for the next women's World Cup in 2011 were announced as Germany - the winners of the 2007 and 2003 tournaments.
The German bid beat off competition from Canada, and Fifa cited the country's proven ability to stage a major tournament having laid on a worthy platform for the men's World Cup tournament last summer.