Rio 2016 announced yesterday that Manaus had joined São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Brasília and Salvador on the list of cities qualified to host men's and women's Olympic football matches.

"Considering our concept of the Games being for all of Brazil, the inclusion of Manaus makes good sense," said Carlos Nuzman, the Rio 2016 President.

"The Amazon rainforest is one of the country's most emblematic symbols and we would like very much to include Manaus in our proposal to integrate all of Brazil in the Games."

But the idea received short shrift from football's governing body, which swiftly released its own statement.

"FIFA welcomes the choice of two stadia in Rio de Janeiro," the statement said.

"However, we do not consider Manaus as a suitable first option for a hosting venue.

"On a general note, FIFA has always been in favour of using the FIFA World Cup stadiums, since all of the infrastructure is already in place.

"Given that the Olympic football tournament is only two weeks long, FIFA's preference has also always been for short distances between the other football venues and the Olympic city Rio de Janeiro, to provide the participating teams with the best possible Olympic experience."

The Maracana will host both Olympic finals as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies ©Getty Images





Since, as Rio 2016 acknowledges, the final choice over venues rests with FIFA, the governing body's comments must put Manaus's prospects of eventually staging matches under severe doubt.

FIFA said the proposal would be discussed at the next session of the FIFA Organising Committee for the Olympic football tournaments in Zurich on March 16.

Two teams - arch-rivals Argentina and Brazil - have already qualified for the 16-team men's tournament, which features players under the age of 23 with the exception of three over-age players per squad.

Brazil and Colombia have qualified for the 12-team women's competition.

Football is the sole sport at the Games that will be staged, in part, outside the host-city.

Finals will take place in the famous Maracanã Stadium.

The tournament is due to play out between August 3 and 20, 2016.

Rio 2016 also said it would make a request to FIFA for the group draw for the competition in April 2016 to take place in Brazil.