Brazil was today named as the host country for the 2014 football World Cup. The announcement was made at FIFA headquarters in Zurich in a ceremony attended by President Lula and the coach of the Brazilian national team, Dunga.

Brazil has won the World Cup five times – more than any other country – but despite the country’s enormous passion for football it has not hosted the competition since 1950, when the final was played in front of a crowd of almost 200,000 (the biggest football attendance in history) in the famous Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

The Maracanã is now a modern, all-seater arena with a capacity of 95,000, and will probably feature as one of the venues in 2014. As for the other major football stadiums, most of them are set to undergo substantial refurbishment over the next seven years, and it is also anticipated that some entirely new arenas will be built.

Source: Embassy of Brazil in London