Venues For The 2014 World Cup

By Author: Tony King.
Total Articles: 4
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There are 17 cities who expressed interest to host the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil. Some of the cities that requested to host games are Belem, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

There are 17 cities who expressed interest to host the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil. Some of the cities that requested to host games are Belem, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. With these many cities expressing interest and FIFA regulations permitting only 8-10 cities, some compromise had to be reached. The Brazilian Football Association wrote to FIFA requesting to host the World Cup with 12 cities. FIFA took its time and decided that some leniency could be exercised and accepted the request. Except for Maceio, Belem, Campo Grande, Florianopolis, Goiana and Rio Branco, the other cities were given the green light. Half the cities will be building totally new stadia. Brasilia’s stadia will be demolished and rebuilt again while the other five will be upgraded. Here is a look at the four main venues:

The 71,400-seater National Stadium Mane Garrincha in Brasilia will host the opening match ...
... of the World Cup 2014. Brazil’s capital is Brasilia and as such the National Stadium was picked to host the third place match. The stadium is named after Mane Garrincha who in some quarters in Brazil is considered greater than Pele. Mane Garrincha was nicknamed as the “Joy of the people” in Brazil. He was a legendary footballer who starred in the 1958 and 1962 tourney.

The Maracana of Rio de Janeiro will host the final. This stadium is memorable to Brazil as it was the venue where they lost to Uruguay 2-1 in the 1950’s World Cup final. By far, this is Brazil’s biggest stadium, and as such it is treated with such reverence like it’s a national monument. The stadium’s capacity will be 76,000, which will make a fraction of the record number it hosted in the 1950 final, which was 200,000.

Sao Paulo is Brazil’s largest city, but ironically it needs to upgrade its 48,000 Arena Corinthians Itaquera. FIFA requires at least 65,000 capacity, and as such Corinthians football club have put up structures to increase the stadium’s capacity. The opening game and also the semifinals of the 2014 World Cup will be hosted here. Itaquera hosting the opening game came as a reprieve to Sao Paulo residents, as FIFA had threatened to exclude Sao Paulo from the World Cup. This came about, as Sao Paulo FC was not ready, to meets FIFA’S investment demands, to its stadia Morumbi.

Mineirao is a 67,000-seater stadia hailing from Belo Horizonte. The stadia will be hosting the semi-finals in the 2014 World Cup.

These are the main stadiums, which are going to host the opening and closing games, plus the final and semis. Other stadia that deserve mention are Beira-Rio, Arena das Dunas and Arena Pernambuco. Whichever venue you go to in Brazil on top of offering world class stadia will also provide you with breath-taking tourist hotspots. They say, it is never about where you are from, but where you are at, between 12th June and 13th July 2012, hopefully, you will be at the 2014 World Cup.
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