World Cup 2014 When and Where

On 7 March 2003, FIFA announced that the tournament would be held in South America for the first time since Argentina hosted the competition in 1978, in line with its policy of rotating the right to host the World Cup amongst different confederations. On 3 June 2003, CONMEBOL announced that Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia wanted to host the 2014 World Cup finals. By 17 March 2004, the CONMEBOL associations had voted unanimously to adopt Brazil as their sole candidate. Brazil formally declared its candidacy in December 2006 and Colombia did so as well a few days later. The Argentina bid never materialized. On 11 April 2007, Colombia officially withdrew its bid, Francisco Santos Calderón the vice president of Colombia announced that instead Colombia would be hosting the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup. With this Brazil was the only official candidate to host the event in 2014.

Brazil won the right to host the event on 30 October 2007 as the only country to enter a bid.

As the host nation, Brazil qualifies automatically.

According to current FIFA practice, no more than one city may use two stadia, and the number of host cities is limited between eight and ten. The Brazilian Confederation requested permission to assign twelve cities hosting World Cup Finals. On 26 December 2008, FIFA gave the green light to the 12-city plan.

Even before the twelve host cities were selected, there are few doubts that the chosen venue for the final match will be the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which also hosted the final match for the 1950 FIFA World Cup. Originally the CBF's intentions were to have the opening match at Estádio do Morumbi in São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil. However, on the 14th June 2010 the stadium was excluded from hosting games in the tournament due to a failure to provide financial guarantees for the improvements needed to have it as an eligible venue. Despite the desire of the CBF to still have São Paulo as one of the 12 host cities, there are still no defined plans to have a proper venue in the city.

The twelve host cities for the 2014 World Cup were announced on 31 May 2009.  Belém, Campo Grande, Florianópolis, Goiânia and Rio Branco were rejected.

	Belo Horizonte Brasília Fortaleza Porto Alegre São Paulo Rio de Janeiro Salvador Natal Cuiabá Curitiba Manaus Recife