NASSAU Joseph Blatter, president of world football's governing body FIFA, on Sunday unveiled the names of the 12 venue cities for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The announcement came after two days of FIFA executive committee meetings in the Caribbean.

As expected, five major cities will host games, including the capital Brasilia (Mane Garrincha stadium), Rio de Janeiro (Maracana), Sao Paulo (Morumbi), Belo Horizonte (Mineirao) and Porto Alegre (Beira-Rio).

Three cities where the stadia must be built were also selected Natal (Estrela dos Reis Magos), Recife-Olinda (Arena Recife-Olinda) and Salvador (Arena da Bahia).

In the competition to represent the Amazon, which makes up 43 per cent of Brazil's territory, Manaus (Vivaldao) beat out Belem.

The other venue cities are Curitiba (Arena da Baixada), Cuiaba (Verdao) and Fortaleza (Castelao).

'There are no winning and losing cities here in Brazil,' said Brazilian Football Federation president Ricardo Terra Teixeira. 'For the 12 privileged cities chosen, it's the beginning of the work. They have a huge responsibility.'

The 12 cities were chosen from 17 candidates, after inspections and based on their accessibility, infrastructure and potential security arrangements.

Florianopolis, Goiania, Campo Grande, Belem and Rio Branco all missed out.
'It was a very difficult decision to choose just 12 venues from the initial list of 17,' Blatter said.

FIFA had already agreed to have 12 venues rather than 10 because of the size of the country.

The venue cities are Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio De Janeiro, Salvador, Sao Paulo.—AFP