Brazil behind time: FIFA

“I won't say that Brazil started too late (but) we are not advanced in Brazil,” he told an audience in Russia, which will host the subsequent tournament in 2018. “We don't have stadiums, we don't have airports, we don't have a national transportation system in place,” he said during a keynote address to a football forum in Moscow.

Brazil, the most successful World Cup nation with five victories, has been much-criticised for its preparations since winning the rights to host its first tournament since 1950.

A new stadium for largest city Sao Paulo has already been ruled out as a venue for 2013 dress rehearsal, the Confederations Cup, while cost increases have hampered new building plans.

“To deliver stadiums is the most important part... it's a lot of work. The Sao Paulo stadium is definitely not a World Cup stadium and that is why it is closed," Valcke said.