Brazil to make official bid for 2014 World Cup

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 12 (Reuters) Brazil will officially inform FIFA tomorrow of its bid to host the 2014 World Cup, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) announced today.

''The president of the CBF (Ricardo Teixeira) will make official Brazil's candidacy to be hosts of a World Cup again after 64 years,'' said a statement on the CBF's Web site.

''The presentation of the Brazilian candidacy will be made in Tokyo.'' Teixeira and the FIFA directors are in Japan for the Club World Cup.

South America is due to host the 2014 World Cup under the rotation system introduced by FIFA, which starts in South Africa in 2010.

Brazil have been hot favourites to stage the tournament since 2003 when the other nine South American nations agreed to back them as the continent's only candidates.

However, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said last week that Brazil were by no means certain to host the event.

Critics say that only one Brazilian stadium, the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba, is currently in condition to host a World Cup finals match.

Public safety and transport are also serious worries.

Last week, two of Brazil's top judges became the latest victims of Rio de Janeiro's notorious criminals when they were car-jacked on the highway from the airport to the city centre.

Earlier this year, more than 200 people, including police and gangsters, were killed in Sao Paulo during a wave of attacks on banks, police posts and government offices blamed on the organised crime gang known as the First Command of the Capital.

Brazil has also been hit by crisis in air transport after the country's worst air crash on Sept. 29 in which 154 people died.

Air traffic controllers have gone on a work-to-rule which has caused hundreds of delays and cancellations.

With almost no passenger-carrying railways and a decaying highway system, Brazil depends almost exclusively on air transport for long-distance travel.

REUTERS PDS RN2310