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The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international men's football tournament that is scheduled to take place in
Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014. It will be the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition, the previous being in 1950. Brazil was elected unchallenged as host nation in 2007 after the international football federation, FIFA, decreed that the tournament would be staged in South America for the first time since 1978 in
Argentina, and the fifth time overall.
The national teams of 31 countries advanced through qualification competitions that began in June 2011 to participate with the host nation Brazil in the final tournament. A total of 64 matches are to be played in twelve cities across Brazil in either new or redeveloped stadiums, with the tournament beginning with a group stage. For the first time at a World Cup Finals, the matches will use goal-line technology.
With the host country, all world champion teams since the first World Cup in 1930
(Uruguay, Italy,
Germany, England, Argentina,
France and Spain) have qualified for this competition. Spain is the defending champion, having defeated the Netherlands 1–0 in the 2010 World Cup final to win its first World title. The previous four World Cups staged in South America were all won by
South American teams.
APRIL
2014
The FIFA World Cup™ Trophy Tour by
Coca-Cola has come to the end of its worldwide journey, just 52 days before the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Brazil.
After already visiting 89 countries across 221 days, the tour arrived in the USA at the beginning of last week to give American fans the opportunity to see football’s ultimate prize. Starting on the country’s east coast, in Washington DC, a very special activity was held at the United States' State Department with youth from Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Special
Olympics alongside VIP guests
USA Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Olympic and FIFA Women's World Cup winner Julie Foudy and former American international Cobi Jones, who still holds the record number of appearances for the Stars and Stripes, featuring in 164 games from 1992 to 2004.
Following the excitement in Washington DC, a number of media and customer events were held in Miami as well as at Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta before arriving in Los Angeles for one final celebration before the Trophy departed for 2014 FIFA World Cup Host Country, Brazil. Tens of thousands of lucky consumers who attended the event at L.A. Live on Hollywood Boulevard were able to have their photo taken with the Trophy, experience the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola Hologram movies and participate in football clinics alongside Fuleco.
The Trophy is now making its final journey to Brazil, where 27 cities will be visited across six weeks in order to share the excitement of the 2014 FIFA World Cup with local communities. Starting the adventure in
Rio de Janeiro tomorrow (Tuesday 22 April) and finishing in the Host City of the 2014 Opening Game - Sao Paulo - the final leg of the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola will ensure an amazing ending to a memorable journey.
VENUES
FIFA proposes that no more than one city may use two stadiums, and the number of host cities is limited between eight and ten. The proposal of Ricardo Teixeira, the then-Head of the Brazilian Football Confederation, to use twelve host cities in "the interest of the whole country" was however accepted by FIFA in December 2008.
The twelve host cities were announced on 31 May 2009, with Belém, Campo Grande, Florianópolis, Goiânia and Rio Branco being rejected; Maceió had already withdrawn in January 2009. The twelve selections – each the capital of its state – cover all the main regions of Brazil and create more evenly distributed hosting than the 1950 finals in Brazil provided, when matches were concentrated in the south-east and south. As a result the tournament will require significant long-distance travel for teams.
A reported US$3.47 billion has been spent on stadium projects. Five of the chosen host cities have brand new venues built specifically for the World Cup, while the Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha in the capital Brasilia was demolished and rebuilt, and the remaining six are being extensively renovated. The Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, which already holds the record attendance for a
FIFA World Cup Finals match (199,854), is the largest of the stadiums and will stage the final. The CBF originally intended to host the opening match at São Paulo's Estádio do Morumbi but it was dropped in 2010 and replaced by the Arena Corinthians after failing to provide financial guarantees for the required improvements.
The first new stadium, the Castelão, in Fortaleza, became operational in January 2013. According to Joe Leahy of the
Financial Times, the works in the Castelão, "could set a precedent for other sporting public works", since the project "came in within budget and cheaper per seat" than the Maracanã stadium in Rio. Six of the venues were used during the 2013 Confederations Cup. Six further stadiums are however forecast to miss FIFA's original 31 December 2013 deadline for completed works. The completion of the new Arena Corinthians has been hindered by a fatal crane collapse in November 2013 that destroyed part of the stadium and
killed two construction workers.
On 22 January 2014, FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke visited the Arena da Baixada site in Curitiba and stated that the city may be dropped as a World Cup host city if sufficient progress in the renovation of the arena was not shown by 18 February. On 18 February, FIFA confirmed that Curitiba would remain as a World Cup host, despite delays in construction of the stadium.
On 9 March 2014, the Arena da Amazônia, in Manaus, became the ninth World Cup stadium to host a football match, with Remo and Nacional coming to a 2-2 draw. Arena das Dunas, in Natal, and Estádio Beira-Rio, in Porto Alegre also hosted soccer matches already, and are ready for the World Cup.
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LINKS
and REFERENCES
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup
FIFA.com/worldcup
2014_FIFA_World_Cup
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