Sao Paulo urged to find new venue for 2014 World Cup

June 26 – Brazil’s largest city Sao Paulo needs to find an alternative venue for the 2014 World Cup after the Morumbi stadium was dropped due to lack of financial guarantees for renovation, FIFA said tonight.

The dropping of the 75,000-capacity Morumbi was announced earlier this month, ending lengthy controversy over the stadium, owned by local club Sao Paulo, and adding to general concerns over Brazil’s preparations for the next World Cup.

Jerome Valcke, the general secretary of FIFA, said that they would discuss alternatives with Sao Paulo officials.

“How can you imagine that there would be no World Cup stadium or no World Cup matches in Sao Paulo which is the first city in Brazil?” he said.

“Morumbi is out.

“It’s good news.

“There is a time you have to stop playing.”

At stake for the city is three billion reais (£1.11 billion/$1.68 billion) of tourism spending resulting from the competition from 500,000 tourists, according to estimates by Sao Paulo Turismo SA, a Government-controlled tourism promotion company.

The figure does not include lodging and transportation spending and the 20 per cent increase in visitors the city may see in the two years following the event.

Games are also scheduled to take place in 11 other Brazilian cities in 2014, including Rio de Janeiro, the Amazonian port city of Manaus, and the capital Brasilia.

But Sao Paulo, with a population of 11 million, is Brazil’s hub for the banking, automobile and agriculture industries.

Luiz Barretto, Brazil’s Minister of Tourism, promised that the exclusion of Morumbi stadium may not mean that Sao Paulo will not host any matches.

“There will not be cuts in the number of cities,” Barretto said.

“FIFA set deadlines for the 12 stadia and all the deadlines are being kept to.

“So everything is within the deadlines and everything is going as it should.”

Valcke said: “We will have a meeting with the people of Sao Paulo, with the city of Sao Paulo, and I am sure that we will find a solution to play games in Sao Paulo.

“But it’s true that to play matches in Sao Paulo we need a stadium.”