With the decision that Brazil will organize the 2014 FIFA Football World Cup, nineteen Brazilian cities are in the run to host the World Cup's games: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Brasília, Belém, Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Goiânia, Maceió, Manaus, Natal, Recife/Olinda (a stadium will be shared by both cities), Rio Branco and Salvador.

According to current FIFA practice, no more than one city may use two stadiums and the number of host cities is limited between eight and ten. The Brazilian Football Confederation already requested permission to assign twelve cities hosting World Cup Finals. A reported 1 billion dollars is to be approved for the repair, upgrading and maintenance of Brazilian stadiums.

However, aiming to build “state of the art” stadiums and, therefore, increasing their chances to be part of 2014’s tournament, some Brazilian states are searching for expertise abroad. Recently delegations from Pernambuco and Porto Alegre, for example, visited the Amsterdam Arena in order to familiarize with the formula which made that stadium highly profitable. Amsterdam Arena, the home of Ajax Football Club, has developed and is offering its expertise on the multi-use-purpose stadium concept & management. Amsterdam Arena has been developed to accommodate not only football matches but also concerts and events.

Amsterdam Arena is currently developing two projects for Brazil: Recife/Olinda and Porto Alegre (Grêmio).