Fans and players face huge 2014 journeys

Friday, 21st October 2011 at 17:30pm

Teams, officials and fans face massive cross country journeys at the upcoming Brazil World Cup after 2014 organisers decided that countries must play their group stage matches in different cities.

Players and supporters will have to make trips as far as 2,000 miles because of the decision taken by football's governing body.

"The teams will travel around so the host cities will have all the teams, and you can have the best teams, the seeded teams in all the cities," said Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke.

According to the changes set out by Fifa a team in Group A will begin their campaign with a game in Sao Paulo before making a 2,000-mile trip to Manaus. Their third game will take place in Recife.

Recife is a three-and-a-half hour flight away from Manaus those who are unable to fly will be forced to endure a 5,700km trip through the Amazon.

The decision to force teams to play in different host cities is to prevent teams from enjoying the advantage of playing in the cooler south.

Group stage games will kick off at four different times: 17:00, 20:00, 23:00 and 02:00 (all British Summer Time), however the knock out stages will be all played at times more suited to European audiences.

The latest knock out match will get under way at 21:00BST and the final at the Maracana in Rio will kick off at 20:00BST.

The 2014 World Cup gets underway on June 12 and comes to a conclusion just over a month later on July 13.

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