BRASILIA (Brazil) - BRAZIL President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cautioned about overspending for football's 2014 World Cup, wary that facilities built for the event could struggle to find uses afterward.

His caveat on Tuesday came a day after Jerome Valcke, the general secretary of Fifa, said officials were concerned that infrastructure built for next year's World Cup in South Africa would become 'white elephants'.

Fifa has approved 12 cities to host games in 2014, and all of them must build new stadiums, or refurbish older ones.

'It's true that we need to host a good World Cup with well-built stadiums, with good facilities for the press, parking,' the president said.

'But we have to remember this is only for 30 days of competition and we can't invest in things that we are not going to use afterward.'

Rio de Janeiro has also become the leading contender to host the 2016 Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee voting in Copenhagen on Oct 2 to chose the venue. Tokyo, Chicago and Madrid are the other contenders in a tight race.

Both Fifa and IOC officials are sensitive to criticism of public money spent for stadiums that serve little purpose after they are built.

In Beijing, the 90,000-seat Bird's Nest Stadium has not hosted another sports event since it was packed just over 10 months ago for the opening and closing ceremony of the Olympics. The venue cost about US$450 million (S$654 million) to build and might have cost two or three times that much if it was in Europe or North America. -- AP