BRASILIA: The text of the contentious, long-delayed ‘World Cup Law’ has finally been approved by the steering commission charged with piloting it through the Brazilian parliamentary system.

The Bill must yet be approved by the full congress and then the Senate before it can be signed off by President Dilma Rousseff but it has taken a major step forward, which will be of enormous relief to FIFA.

Despite opposition from some congressmen, the Bill contains a permission for the sale of alcohol in the World Cup stadia. This would overrride a prohibition which has been in effect in Brazil since 2007 but which is needed by FIFA because one of its main World Cup sponsors is Budweiser.