JORGE RIBEIRO / AIPS in Salvador: Worried by problems involving construction ahead of the 2014 World Cup, Brazilian journalists are concerned that the local organising authority (COL) has made no formal contact withthem.

This was a main item for concern, over the last four days, for the 27 delegations of ABRACE (Sports Journalists Association of Brazil)  during their annual congress in Salvador da Baía.

Local, Bahia,. coach and hero Paulo Roberto Falcao (left) with AIPS's Jorge Ribeiro and Gabriel Cazenave of ABRACE

Further discussion concerned the infrastructural delays referred to on Friday by the president of FIFA and which prompted the infamous comment by Jerôme Valcke, FIFA’s secretary-general that “Brazil needs a kick up the backside.”

The ABRACE executive committee has asked COL to include journalistic representation on its  stadia assessment visits.

The Congress was attended by Jorge Ribeiro, representing the the AIPS bureau, and Gabriel Cazenave, president of AIPS America.

Cazenave explained the new dynamic of this continental Section of AIPS, highlighting the importance of welcoming a Brazilian representative on its  executive committee during the next Congress in Manaus on  September 4.

Ribeiro underlined the importance of the AIPS Card in helping to secure accreditation for the major  sport events, the next electoral Congress of AIPS (Sochi, next year) and asked members not to forget the 2016 Rio Olympics which had been obscured by the avalanche of football news.

Goiânia, in the state of Goiás, will host the 39th Congress of ABRACE next March.

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First published at www.AIPSmedia.com

AIPS, the Association Internationale De La Presse Sportive, was founded in 1924 and serves sports journalists worldwide

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