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By Andrew Downie in São Paulo

It’s official. Brazil’s top three priorities ahead of the 2014 World Cup are airports, airports and airports. The head of Brazil’s organising committee told reporters in South Africa on Thursday that his country had to get a move on and upgrade its transport infrastructure in time for the 2014 competition.

“The three main priorities we have are airports, airports, airports,” said Ricardo Teixeira, the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation. Brazil plans to play games in 12 stadiums in 2014, more than in past tournaments because so many Brazilian cities were desperate to get involved in the prestigious competition.

But most of the host cities have airports that are too old and too small to cope with the estimated 600,000 fans who will fly to football’s spiritual home to take part in the month-long jamboree. Airports are more important for the 2014 competition than previous tournaments because distances between the host cities are massive and the country’s motorways are often atrocious.

Teixeira even suggested Brazil will divide the country into four regions and base teams in each region as a way of avoiding long flights for players and fans. (A flight from Fortaleza to Porto Alegre, two planned venues, takes six hours.) Although Brazil was chosen as the tournament venue almost three years ago, it’s preparations have been lackadaisical, with FIFA criticizing Teixeira by name and calling the lack of action in building stadiums “amazingly late.”

The Copa2014 site reported in May that work on nine of the 13 airports due for renovation had been postponed by Infraero, the government-run airports authority. The federal government is to spend $7.4bn on transport, infrastructure and oversight to prepare the country for the World Cup and the states and municipalities where the matches are to be held are charged with spending $3.9bn on stadiums and facilities.

The timing of Teixeira’s statement is hardly a surprise. The night before, hundreds of fans missed the World Cup semi-final between Holland and Spain because of congestion at South Africa’s Durban airport (caused by private jets). In a country where football is a religion, a repeat of that would surely provoke an unholy response.

Related:

FT special report: The New Brazil

FT In depth: World Cup 2010