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Brazil's overcrowded and outdated airports could be an embarrassment for the country when it hosts the 2014 World Cup, the country's sports minister has admitted.

Orlando Silva warned that not enough progress was being made in improving airports in Brazil, which depends almost exclusively on air transport for long-distance travel.

"Today, I have a very strong concern about our airports," Silva said at the Soccerex conference.

"When we think about an event of this size and that Brazil is almost a continent, and that you can only travel around by plane, then we realise that this is the biggest risk for the 2014 World Cup."

Brazil has almost no long-distance passenger trains while many main highways are in a dilapidated state.

Twelve cities will host matches, many of them thousands of kilometres apart.

The longest distance between venues, Porto Alegre in the south and Manaus in the Amazon region, is roughly 4,500 kilometres.

A recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey and Co said that, at the end of 2009, seven of Brazil's 20 principal airports were struggling with overcrowding in both passenger areas and plane berths, frequently leading to delays or cancelled flights.

The report revealed that Brazil's airports had capacity for 126 million passengers per year, with existing demand of 111 million that is expected to rise to 146 million by 2014.

During the World Cup alone, McKinsey said as many as 6 million additional travellers would pass through Brazilian airports.

The Government expects to invest 6.5bn reais ($3.8bn) in airports by 2014, including about 5.5bn reais for those in the 12 host cities.

However, Silva argued that progress has not been quick enough and criticised the Government's airport authority Infraero.

"I think Infraero will have to change its conduct, behaviour and attitude, otherwise Brazil could suffer embarrassing situations in 2014," he added.