| NEW
DELHI: The executive committee of Fifa (Fédération Internationale
de Football Association), has announced the 12 host cities for the 2014 FIFA World
Cup Brazil. The
venues include Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Belo
Horizonte, Brasília, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal
and Recife. The
decision was made public on Sunday by the committee in Nassau, the capital of
the Bahamas. Announcing
the names, Fifa president Joseph S Blatter mentioned that the cities are selected
on the basis of extensive analysis by Fifa and the local organising committee
of the 17 candidate cities. Earlier,
10 cities were to be selected for the event. Blatter said, "In the very beginning,
10 cities were going to be chosen, but thanks to the influence of Brazilian Football
Confederation president Ricardo Teixeira and the interest of the whole country,
we agreed increasing the number to 12." Five
cities - Florianopolis, Goiania, Campo Grande, Rio Branco and Belem - were not
selected by the committee. It
will be for the second time that the Fifa World Cup will take place in Brazil.
The five-time world champions last hosted the flagship event in 1950. | 
