Brazil eager to stage 'green' World Cup
Dubai: Brazil, the nursery of football talent, was to unveil more than just venues when the 12 cities hosting the 2014 Fifa World Cup were to be made public by Fifa late last night.
The Brazilian government headed by President Lula da Silva has put together a campaign for hosting a "green World Cup" in 2014.
Last night's announcement follow's the world governing body's extension of the deadline by two weeks. Fifa had originally wanted just 10 host cities, but Brazil made an appeal and got another two based on its vision of staging a "green" World Cup.
Five cities - Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre - are already guaranteed host status. Another 12 are vying for the remaining seven places, including Curitiba and Florianopolis in the south; Campo Grande, Cuiaba and Gioania in the mid-west; Salvador, Natal, Recife and Fortaleza in the north-east, along with the Amazonian cities of Rio Branco, Manaus and Belem.
Rio Branco, Manaus and Belem look strong due to their campaigns built on eco-tourism, but they will surely find it difficult to get past what has been achieved by Campo Grande, the capital of the state Mato Grosso do Sul, nicknamed Cidade Morena (Brown City) due to the richness of its soil.
Campo Grande is offering the greenest credentials of any venue. It already has an agreement with Masdar City in the UAE. This development is working alongside Campo Grande to make their potential World Cup stadium, owned and housed within the local university, the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste arena.
The city council is going a step further to make the World Cup an affair to remember - they will ask each fan visiting Campo Grande to plant a tree with their name at the base as a remembrance of the great event.
President Lula da Silva has thrown his weight behind such an initiative.
"Fifa has a responsibility now. If they don't make Campo Grande one of the venues, they will have to explain why," he told the local media recently.
The Campo Grande council has begun talks with the Maldives over a partnership that will highlight their plight to the world. The Maldives are threatened by rising sea levels.
Campo Grande has an excellent location as it borders five Brazilian states and is also near Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay. It also has a ready-made 45,000 capacity stadium and a Unesco World Heritage Site in Pantanal.
Dubai: Brazil, the nursery of football talent, was to unveil more than just venues when the 12 cities hosting the 2014 Fifa World Cup were to be made public by Fifa late last night.
The Brazilian government headed by President Lula da Silva has put together a campaign for hosting a "green World Cup" in 2014.
Last night's announcement follow's the world governing body's extension of the deadline by two weeks. Fifa had originally wanted just 10 host cities, but Brazil made an appeal and got another two based on its vision of staging a "green" World Cup.
Five cities - Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre - are already guaranteed host status. Another 12 are vying for the remaining seven places, including Curitiba and Florianopolis in the south; Campo Grande, Cuiaba and Gioania in the mid-west; Salvador, Natal, Recife and Fortaleza in the north-east, along with the Amazonian cities of Rio Branco, Manaus and Belem.
Rio Branco, Manaus and Belem look strong due to their campaigns built on eco-tourism, but they will surely find it difficult to get past what has been achieved by Campo Grande, the capital of the state Mato Grosso do Sul, nicknamed Cidade Morena (Brown City) due to the richness of its soil.
Campo Grande is offering the greenest credentials of any venue. It already has an agreement with Masdar City in the UAE. This development is working alongside Campo Grande to make their potential World Cup stadium, owned and housed within the local university, the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste arena.
The city council is going a step further to make the World Cup an affair to remember - they will ask each fan visiting Campo Grande to plant a tree with their name at the base as a remembrance of the great event.
President Lula da Silva has thrown his weight behind such an initiative.
"Fifa has a responsibility now. If they don't make Campo Grande one of the venues, they will have to explain why," he told the local media recently.
The Campo Grande council has begun talks with the Maldives over a partnership that will highlight their plight to the world. The Maldives are threatened by rising sea levels.
Campo Grande has an excellent location as it borders five Brazilian states and is also near Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay. It also has a ready-made 45,000 capacity stadium and a Unesco World Heritage Site in Pantanal.
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