11.26am GMT

The 2014 World Cup finals will be staged in 12 different stadia (a few of which may even be built) in Brazil from Thursday 12 June to Sunday 13 July next year. The host cities are Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Sao Paulo. Conditions for matches played in the north of the country (Fortaleza, Natal and Manaus), which is bigger than the USA, are likely to be very hot, muggy and humid, a state of affairs that has already prompted England manager Roy Hodgson to unwittingly offend Arthur Virgilio Neto, mayor of Manaus, by announcing he hoped England wouldn't have to play there.

"We Amazonians also prefer that England do not come," sniffed Neto. "We hope a better national side comes, with more football and a more sensitive, cultured and educated coach. Here is one of the few people in the world who isn’t curious about the Amazon and doesn’t dream of knowing Manaus."

It seems fairly obvious that Mr Neto has firmly grabbed the wrong end of the stick with both hands, as Hodgson's only beef with Manuas is its prohibitive tropical climate, which is almost certainly not conducive to getting the best out of pasty players like Wayne Rooney, Leighton Baines and Phil Jones. Say what you like about England's manager, but he is nothing if not sensitive, cultured and educated. He speaks six languages, he's managed all over the world and ... drum-roll ... regularly reads books.