Rio de Janeiro, July 12: World Cup 2014 hosts Brazil will put on a spectacular show as the event comes to South America for the first time in almost 40 years, organisers and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insist.
Keen fan Lula had been hoping to see a sixth title achieved in South Africa this summer but a quarter-final loss to Holland put paid to that.
Now the focus switches instead to what will be the first tournament hosted by the most successful nation in the history of the competition since 1950 — memories of which Brazilian fans would like to forget as that edition culminated in a shock quarterfinalfinal loss to Uruguay.
“To lose in 2010 could be understood, but to lose in 2014 would be a repeat of 1950 and this is something nobody can imagine,” said Ricardo Teixeira, the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) who is also head of the 2014 organising committee.
That sentiment is driving organisers on. “The problem for 2014 is the airports, the airports and the airports,” Teixeira admitted.
That brought a strong riposte on Saturday from Lula even as he headed back after cutting short his visit to South Africa to deal with severe flooding in the northeast of the country.