The 20th FIFA World Cup Soccer will take place from 12 June until 13 July 2014 in Brazil, where 32 national teams from all over the world will compete to claim the title ‘World Champion Soccer’. Defending champion is Spain, who beat The Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa.
World Cup Hosting Cities
Twelve Brazilian cities are host to the 2014 World Cup and the opening match will be played by Brazil and an at this moment unknown opponent on 12 June in the Arena Corinthians stadium in Sao Paulo. Other hosting cities are Manaus, Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Salvador, Brasilia, Cuiaba, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Porto Alegre.
World Cup Tournament
The World Cup tournament starts with a group phase, dividing the 32 national teams in 8 groups of 4 teams. The draw for the group phase will take place on 6 December 2013. The runners-up and the winners of the groups will qualify for the round of 16.
The winners of the groups will play against the runner-ups of other groups, following the rules of a knock-out system, which means that you are out of the tournament if you lose. If a match ends in a draw, 30 minutes of extra time will follow. If there is still no winner after the added time, then a penalty shoot-out will bring the decision.
The winners of the round of 16 move to the quarter-finals and the winning national teams of those games play the semi-finals. The losers of those games play on 12 July for the World Cup bronze medal, while the winners will compete for the 2014 FIFA World Cup title on 13 July 2014.
2014 FIFA World Cup Mascot – Fuleco
An armadillo, an animal that rolls up into a ball to defend itself from predators was chosen as official mascot for the World Cup. Its name is Fuleco, coming from the words Futebol (soccer) and Ecologia (ecology).
2014 FIFA World Cup Ball – Brazuca
Adidas is the official supplier of the 2014 World Cup bal. The worldwide sports brand is already the supplier of the official match ball since the World Cup in 1970. For the first time in history, soccer fans could vote for the name of the match ball.
2014 FIFA World Cup Tickets
Interested soccer fans who reside outside of Brazil, can apply for tickets via the FIFA-website. If you are not able to do any transactions online, then it is also possible to download a ticket-form and send this to the FIFA headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.