Despite ongoing delays affecting a number of the projects, the 12 Brazil World Cup 2014 host stadia have, once again, been officially approved by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) following FIFA’s latest comprehensive inspection of the works. The LOC has also laid out what remains to be done for each project, plus has asked the respective state and city governments handling the projects to assure their financing models and guarantees for the projects by the end of June, at which time further announcements will be made.
While the LOC and FIFA have previously confirmed that some host cities may well be cut from the event because of delays, there was no mention during this latest approval process of any plans to diminish the amount of host cities, however LOC head, Ricardo Teixeira, who is also the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation and has been involved in a number of controversies over the years, commented that some 2014 Cup hosts could lose the right to host matches in the 2013 Confederations Cup because of the ongoing delays. The latter is held in the host country for the next FIFA World Cup 12 months prior to the Cup.