“Fuleco”, the name of the 2014 Brazil World Cup pet

Brazil, November 26, 2012

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) today named the pet of the next World Cup Brazil 2014 with the name “Fuleco” which merges the concepts of football and ecology.

The name of the armadillo, an endangered species in Brazil, was chosen by 1.7 million Brazilian people on Internet (48 percent of the voters).

Other choices of names that were voted were “Zuzeco”, a mixture of the words “friendship” and “glee”, which won 31 percent of votes, and “Amijubi”, which refers to “blue” and “ecology “, and was voted by 21 percent of participants in the consultation.

“The care of the environment and ecology is an important goal to achieve in the 2014 World Cup”.

Recent results of a public opinion poll conducted by FIFA in 2012 in Brazil confirm the importance of the issues of sustainability and the environment among the public of the host country.