Obrigado Brasil

It's been pretty much a well-known fact that Brazil was going to get to host the 2014 World Cup but the official announcement still gives me jitters.

Brazil is now officially the host nation for the 2014 World Cup.

In soccer terms, there are few nations as deserving as Brazil to host a World Cup. The last time Brazil hosted a World Cup, the nation had exactly zero World Cup titles. Now, Brazil has five. Then, games were not broadcast on television. Now, overall viewers for one World Cup numbers in the billions.

But soccer is not the only factor considered for hosting a tournament, and Brazil's economy has lagged. I don't profess to know the economic health of Brazil but I would venture to guess that it is healthier than South Africa's. Maybe it's not, I don't know. But I do know that South Africa isn't a safe nation at all. In fact, I think it has one of the highest murder rates in the world. So if South Africa can host a World Cup despite its economic and safety shortcomings, surely Brazil could pull one off.

Well, that's not exactly the line of reasoning behind this latest selection. Actually, it was the rotation process that landed South America a World Cup. 2014 will be that continent's first World Cup since Argentina 1978, so the continent will be a focus for the tournament, not just Brazil.

Personally, I don't know if I'll go. Who knows if I'll even still be in the business in 2014? As a freelancer, I've got to pay for stuff on my own, and I'd fancy to guess that that would be an expensive venture. I won't go to South Africa for monetary reasons and other issues as well and I wasn't in Germany. I did go to Japan for the '02 World Cup, which was cool.

I'd love to go to Brazil. My daughters will be, uh, let me see, 10 and 8 by then, so maybe we could plan a family trip... or not. That's quite an expensive trip.

Regardless, I'm happy that Brazil got the nod for 2014.