Accommodations
From an accommodation perspective, Brazil is capable of hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup. However, the LOC, state and municipal governments, hoteliers and others will
have to support FIFA to make up the shortfall that still exists.
FIFA states in the bidding agreement that “Securing a sufficient number of suitable hotel rooms in the host country of a FIFA World Cup, even before the announcement of the host country, is one of FIFA's highest priorities.” The bidding association is therefore required to fully cooperate with FIFA, the FIFA inspection team and the bid LOC in the selection and procurement of the official hotels.
Agreement”) a minimum of 55,000 hotel rooms spread across all host cities of
appropriate standard and at reasonable prices. The required 55,000 hotel rooms
equate to approximately 1.5 million hotel room nights over the tournament.
This is considered by FIFA to be the minimum number of hotel rooms required
to meet the accommodation and office space requirements of: (a) the FIFA
delegation; (b) the LOC, the participating member associations and their teams;
(c) the match officials; (d) the commercial affiliates; (e) the media; (f) the
hospitality rights holder; (g) MATCH; and (h) should FIFA elect to set up an
official tour operator programme, authorised tour operators or spectators. The
Hotel Agreement is designed to deliver fair prices and reasonable terms; it also
facilitates the management of a huge centrally controlled hotel room inventory
under FIFA World Cup conditions.
The Hotel Agreement is a standard form of contract provided by FIFA to the
bidding association to secure hotel room nights for occupancy during the 2014
FIFA World Cup competition period and which may be entered into by the
bidding association, FIFA or MATCH, on the one hand, and the hotel
owner/operator on the other.
The inspection team has sought an independent legal opinion on the validity
and enforceability of the hotel agreement in Brazil and can confirm that
properly completed hotel agreements are valid and enforceable in Brazil.
If the rights to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ are awarded to Brazil, Rio
de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are the most likely host cities to be designated
to accommodate any one or more of the following accommodation
requirements: (a) the FIFA World Cup headquarters (the operational
headquarters of the FIFA delegation) or a FIFA venue hotel; (b) the referee
headquarters; (c) the IBC (International Broadcast Centre for the competition);
and (d) the IMC (the principal International Media Centre for the competition).
In this regard, there exists a sufficient inventory of hotel rooms in Sao Paulo
and Rio de Janeiro to accommodate these requirements, although the
inspection team wishes to draw attention to the fact that currently, the
number of rooms contracted under the Hotel Agreement is not sufficient;
this is of particular concern in the case of Sao Paulo.
Every prospective host city has to have, or must be located within reasonable
travel distance from, hotel infrastructure of sufficient quantity and quality to
meet the following essential accommodation requirements: (a) one FIFA venue
hotel (where the principal office and accommodation space for members of
the FIFA delegation will be located in each host city during the competition
periods); (b) two venue-specific team hotels (“VSTHs”) per prospective
host city; (c) media hotels; (d) commercial affiliate designated hotels;
(e) hospitality rights holder designated hotel(s); and (f) hotels of different
standards to accommodate spectators who are not from within the host
communities and require overnight accommodation. On the basis of these
essential accommodation requirements, the inspection team took the view
that from an accommodation standpoint, at least four of the 18 prospective
host cities would face great difficulties/challenges to stage FIFA World Cup
matches at the standard that is required, this notwithstanding the enthusiasm
and unquestionable commitment of their inhabitants and the state and
municipal government.
Additionally, there is a need to contract in excess of 60 suitable potential team
base camps which may operate as the headquarters of a team during the
competition period to present the participating member associations with a
sufficiently wide range of options. Given the strength in depth of the
accommodation infrastructure in Brazil, the inspection team takes the view
that this should be possible.
FIFA requires evidence that MATCH (the accommodation provider) will have
the full support and cooperation of the LOC, the hotel association, the
national tourism association and the authorities; in this regard the bidding
association has secured the support of ABIH (the Brazilian hotel association),
FB&CVB (the Brazilian convention and visitors bureaux federation), Resorts
Brazil, FOHB (the forum of hotel operators of Brazil) and other lodging
associations and with this support MATCH has engaged the hotel
communities in all the prospective host cities through a series of workshops
and other activities with the objective of contracting the required number of
hotel rooms. This initiative has already secured a comparable number of hotel
rooms under contract to those that were contracted by the successful bid LOCs
for the 2006 and the 2010 FIFA World Cups. However, as indicated in this
report, there are still critical gaps, principally the very small number of rooms
contracted in Sao Paulo that must be dealt with.
The official bid proposal, the Hosting Agreement and all executed Hotel
Agreements had to be delivered to FIFA no later than 31 July 2007. At the
time, no executed Hotel Agreements were available. Instead, MATCH was
invited to provide an interim status report which was included in the Bid Book.
The information provided by the prospective bid LOC in the Bid Book and
received from the prospective host city representatives following the MATCH
interim status report is comprehensive and, based on extensive research by
the inspection team, found to be reliable. Furthermore, in order to produce
this report with complete objectivity, the inspection team has sought to
establish the exact number of hotels and the corresponding hotel rooms that
have been contracted to confirm compliance with the Bidding Agreement and
the Hosting Agreement and check the progress that has been achieved since
July 2007. In this regard the inspection team can confirm that much progress
has been made, with over 23,000 hotel rooms already contracted.
From an accommodation perspective, Brazil is capable of hosting the 2014
FIFA World Cup. However, the LOC, state and municipal governments,
hoteliers and others will have to support FIFA and MATCH in their efforts to
make up the shortfall that still exists between the minimum requirement of
55,000 hotel rooms and the current contract number, particularly given the
fact that in the two key prospective host cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro,
the numbers are significantly below the required number.
