Brazil sees World Cup as more than a sporting event

By Mike Collett

ZURICH (Reuters) - The World Cup finals in Brazil in 2014 will be far more than a sporting event and will help transform the nation, the head of the country's football association told FIFA on Tuesday.

Brazil are the only country bidding to host the finals in seven years' time, but went through the formality of making a final presentation to FIFA's executive committee at the headquarters of world soccer's governing body before the decision is officially announced later on Tuesday (2:30 p.m. GMT).

Ricardo Teixeira, the president of the CBF, the Brazilian football association, and himself a member of FIFA's executive committee, told his FIFA colleagues: "The World Cup goes far beyond being a sporting event, it will be a tool for social transformation and leave a lasting legacy for the Brazilian population.

"Brazil will benefit from hosting the World Cup but there will also be benefits for the world from Brazil hosting the tournament."

The writer and poet Paulo Coelho said that football was such a part of Brazilian culture that people spent more time discussing matches than their sex lives.

"I have heard people discussing a match for five hours, I have never heard anyone talk about their sexual relationships for five hours," he said, adding that the World Cup will ignite an emotional response in all Brazilians.

UNITED DREAM

Orlando Silva, Brazil's minister for sport, said "the land of the football boot" would benefit enormously from hosting the finals.