In March 2003, it was announced that the 2014 tournament would be held in South America, part of a policy of rotating the World Cup between continents. In June 2003, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil all announced their interest. Argentina and Colombia backed out before October 2007, when it was decided that Brazil would be the host.
One of the reasons Colombia may have withdrawn its bid early is FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s comments that insinuated that the country did not have a chance. He said, “Colombia’s bid is more of a public relations presentation of the country to say that we are alive not only in other headlines but also in football.”
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
Because Brazil was the only contestant remaining in the final bid to host the 2014 World Cup, FIFA decided to discontinue the continental rotation policy in order to ensure more competition among bidding countries.
Any country, except those belonging to the confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments, have been eligible to apply as World Cup hosts starting from 2018.
During the host bidding process in 1966, the FIFA Congress decided to hand out three World Cup hosting deals at the same time: the 1974 World Cup was given to West Germany, the 1978 to Argentina, and the 1982 to Spain.
While FIFA initially allowed Brazil to make the case for 10 possible host cities, it eventually acquiesced to the Brazilian Football Confederation’s request for permission to use 12 cities. Not making the list were the Brazilian cities of Belém, Campo Grande, Florianópolis, Goiânia, and Rio Branco.
Blatter often throws his support in the bidding process to countries that don’t have existing infrastructure to host World Cup games, citing his intention to spread the glory of the tournament to new regions of the world. He has often been successful in these maneuvers. Both the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and this year’s tournament in Brazil were considered out-of-the-box choices. Blatter is supported by blocs of voters all over the world who have felt previously alienated by the “old boys club” at FIFA.
After FIFA inspectors visited Brazil to ensure that it was capable of hosting, they found that all was well apart from the lack of TV commentator equipment. Many of the stadiums are now using TV commentary equipment for the first time thanks to the FIFA requirements for hosting.
Beginning in 1958, FIFA started alternating hosts between the Americas and Europe, and this continued until 1998 when the continental rotation policy was expanded. Locations are often controversial, especially in FIFA’s early years when it took some national teams weeks to travel by boat to the host countries, impacting their ability to play well in the tournament.
Due the 2014 FIFA World Cup’s $11.3 billion price tag, many Brazlians are fed up with the tournament and believe that it was a bad move on the part of the Brazilian government to bid to host. Thousands have marched across the nation telling FIFA to “go home.”
Source: Reuters.com
