Emerging South

The worldcup of 2010 in South Africa will be quite an event.  But football and South Africa cannot match the affinity Brazil has with soccer.  South Africans are into Rugby and golf, not into soccer.  
And only when you have experienced how Brazilians live the worldcup, you can truly realize how big an event the 2014 Brazilian worldcup will be.   Add to that that economically wise the country will be living Hay Days in 2014 with the Petrobras oil finds being pumped up and the commodity prices sckyrocketing again.
This will be the second time Brazil will host the competition after the 1950 FIFA World Cup.  It will also be the first World Cup to be held in South America since the 1978 FIFA World Cup, which was held in Argentina.   You cannoy imagine how big an event this will be for Brazil and Brazilians.  Last September, the Brazilian Transport Ministry already announced a high-speed train project for the world cup connecting Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Campinas.  This will basically connect Rio to Sao Paulo as Paris and Brussels are connected with the TGV.

According to the current FIFA practices, no more than one city may use two stadia and the number of host cities is limited between eight and ten.  The Brazilian Confederation (CBF) already requested permission to assign twelve cities hosting World Cup Finals.

Yesterday I read in the Portuguese economical newspaper Economica that the Portuguese architect Tomas Taveira (yes, right, he also featured on "Queres óleo" and "Vamos comer a Fatinha" in the 90s), was asked by Santa Catarina to do studies for a new stadium for Avai Futebol Clube in Florianopolis.  Taveira build the Estádio Municipal de Aveiro, Estádio José Alvalade and the Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa for the Euro 2004 in Portugal.  When I read the article I told my wife "look, Florianopolis is also competing to be one of the 12 cities to host the 2014 World Cup".  She was sceptical, since Porto Alegre and Curitiba in the South would already by hosting cities and the country needs to 'balance its act'.  But look, today Globo published this article:

Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia and Porto Alegre are surely on the list.  Curitiba cannot be pushed out.  That makes 6 cities already.  Add to that one city in Amazonia and Pantanal.  That brings the list on 8.  Then 3 cities in the North East (probably Recife, Salvador and Fortaleza), that brings the list on 11.  Which leaves the last places to be fought out between  Goiânia e Florianópolis.  You've probably never heard of Goiânia in the Central-Western Region of Brazil; don't underestimate the city with its 1,3 million habitants; yet I personally favor Florianopolis for winning the bet.