Mayor puts Rio de Janeiro as a candidate to host this year’s Club World Cup | football

– We’re working on it. It is Rio’s wish, as Japan canceled the final there. It will be very interesting to bring her to Rio, I am talking to the Brazilian Football Confederation, with other managers, to see what we can do. She has connections and contacts with FIFA. It’s not simple, there seems to be a tendency to make this definitive in Asia. There must be something with the special sponsors, I’m not an expert on this. But we are working to make it happen. So the Flamengo players think I do it for them, used to think that they are in every Club World Cup final. I hope so, but I don’t know if it will.

Vasco fan Eduardo Paes also joked with Flamengo fans that the club could play in the final of the competition – Flamengo are in the semi-finals of the Libertadores and could guarantee a place if they are champions.

People think that when I talk about the Club World Cup, I am talking about Flamengo. But it would be arrogant for a Flamengo player to think he has already reached the Club World Cup final. It happened, at least for now. I don’t support that, I encourage Flamengo to reach the final. Paes joked that Flamengo will represent Rio and Brazil in the Club World Cup final.

If selected as the venue, Rio de Janeiro will host the FIFA-organised event for the second time. The city was also the host of the 2000 edition, in which Corinthians defeated Vasco in the final, at the Maracana.