FIFA officials meet Brazil's new football leaders

FIFA's executive committee met Brazil's replacements for departed football leader Ricardo Teixeira at a session Wednesday of the governing body's committee overseeing the 2014 World Cup.

Marco Polo del Nero, newly appointed to the executive panel, and Jose Maria Marin, now chairman of the 2014 local organizing team, attended the meeting in Zurich.

Del Nero and Marin have taken positions vacated by Teixeira this month.

Teixeira resigned citing unspecified health and personal reasons, though he has also faced unproven allegations of financial wrongdoing.

FIFA's full 2014 committee met for the first time, two weeks after FIFA President Sepp Blatter had talks in Brazil with state president Dilma Rousseff to mend a rift between the two sides.

''After the reconfirmation received from President Dilma Rousseff and the Brazilian government on the fulfillment of all guarantees, we are confident that despite the many tasks still to be completed by all of us, Brazil will stage an exceptional FIFA World Cup in 2014,'' Blatter said in a statement.

Marin is scheduled to lead his first board meeting of the Brazilian World Cup operation on May 9 in Rio de Janeiro, FIFA said.

The tournament's official marketing slogan is due to be announced soon after.

Del Nero will formally join FIFA's executive committee at a two-day meeting which opens Thursday, when Blatter's promised radical reforms of football's scandal-hit world governing body will be discussed.