The world governing body were expected to unveil the 12 host Brazilian stadiums on March 20 in Zurich.

However, a FIFA report today said: "The selection of the 12 host cities for the 2014 FIFA World Cup will be made at the FIFA executive committee meeting taking place at the end of May, just before the 2009 FIFA congress that will be held in the Bahamas, and not at the upcoming meeting of the FIFA executive committee scheduled on 19-20 March in Zurich.

"Since the increase of the number of host cities from 10 to 12 was only decided at the FIFA executive committee meeting held in December 2008 in Tokyo, and since there is no imperative for an immediate decision on the choice of the host cities, FIFA, in agreement with the Brazilian local organising committee, have opted to give more time to the analysis of the reports received after the last inspection conducted in 17 cities of Brazil in January-February 2009."

The 17 candidate cities are Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Florianopolis, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Goiania, Campo Grande, Cuiaba, Rio Branco, Manaus, Belem, Salvador, Recife, Natal and Fortaleza.