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2nd Thoughts | FIFA Pres Thinks Brazil World Cup A Mistake

Brazil 2014 mistake?



FIFA President Sepp Blatter says Brazil might have been the wrong choice as host of the 2014 World Cup if the tournament is affected by similar social protests as at last month's Confederations Cup.

Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets during the warm-up tournament in June, demanding better public services and expressing their anger over the costs to stage the World Cup.

''If this happens again we have to question whether we made the wrong decision awarding the hosting rights,'' Blatter told German press agency DPA on Wednesday.

FIFA spoke with the Brazilian government after the Confederations Cup, and Blatter said he'll discuss the issue again with Brazil President Dilma Rousseff in September.

''We didn't do a political debriefing, but we did emphasize the fact of this social unrest being there for the entire duration of the Confederations Cup,'' he said. ''The government is now aware that next year the World Cup shouldn't be disturbed.

''To me, these protests were like alarm bells for the government, the senate, the parliament. They should work on it so that this is not going to happen again. Though protests, if peaceful, are part of democracy and therefore have to be accepted ... we are convinced the government, and especially the president, will find the words and the actions to prevent a repeat. They have a year to do so.''

Blatter was speaking at the start of a two-day conference on sports, media and economy set up by German great Franz Beckenbauer in Austria. FIFA later verified the comments were accurate.

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