Inside the World Cup

News Story

Brazilian President promises no white elephants for 2014

June 23 - Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (pictured) today promised that the country would not build facilities for the 2014 World Cup that they would not be able to use afterwards.

His pledge came a day after Jerome Valcke, the general secretary of FIFA, said officials were concerned that infrastructure built for next year's World Cup in South Africa would become "white elephants."

Lula said: "We're going to hold the World Cup in 2014 and we shouldn't go overboard and spend what we don't have."

FIFA has approved 12 cities to host games in 2014, and all of them must build new stadiums, or refurbish older ones.

Lula said: "It's true that we need to host a good World Cup with well-built stadiums, with good facilities for the press, parking.

"But we have to remember this is only for 30 days of competition and we can't invest in things that we are not going to use afterward."

Lula is also leading Rio de Janeiro's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games as it seeks to become the first South American city to host the event.

He has insisted that staging the two biggest sports events in the world so close together will benefit the Olympics if Rio is chosen because it will help ensure that all the necessary infrastructure would already be in place for the World Cup.

Rio is one of four cities bidding for the 2016 Olympics.

The others are Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is due to announce its decision at its Session in Copenhagen on October 2.