Nassau/Sao Paulo, June 1 (DPA) The 12 host cities for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil were named Sunday by world body FIFA at its executive committee meeting in Nassau, Bahamas.
The cities are Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Cuiaba, Manaus, Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Salvador and Belo Horizonte. Five cities were eliminated from the list.

Rio is hoping to get the prominent final match. Sao Paulo is seen as the strong favourite for the opening party in Brazil’s second World Cup games since 1950.

The decision came ahead of next week’s annual FIFA Congress.

“We survived the acceptance test,” said Ricardo Teixeira, head of Brazil’s CBF club. “There are no winners or losers. All of Brazil will support the games.”

The cities of Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Porto Alegre, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, where the final is due to take place in the 90,000-seater Maracana stadium, were already seeded before the meeting.

It was agreed last December to increase the number of cities from 10 to 12 due to the size of Brazil and a FIFA inspection team visited all 17 cities in January and February.

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be hosted in 10 stadiums in nine cities while Germany used 12 stadiums in 2006. All potential stadiums would hold at least 40,000 spectators.

Over the coming week FIFA will also receive progress reports from organisers of the Confederations Cup, which takes place June 14-28 in South Africa.