Football, one of the most popular and practiced sports on some continents. FIFA World Cup is the most important competition of this sport and as everyone knows, is held every four years. The first edition of FIFA World Cup, this international organized competition was held in 1930 and had República Oriental del Uruguay as the host country, located in south-eastern South American continent, which became world champion in football that year, as the organizing country.
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World Cup qualifiers are played throughout 1 year and every continent of the world has its own rules through which representative teams are choosen to participate in FIFA World Cup. At 2014 edition, which will be held between 12.06.2014-13.07.2014, are participating 32 teams divided into 8 groups. 2014 FIFA World Cup is organized by Brazil in 12 cities of the country:
1. Rio de Janeiro at Estádio do Maracanã 2.Brasilia at Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha
3. SãoPaulo at Arena Corinthians 4. Fortaleza at Estádio Castelão
5. Belo Horizonte at Estádio Mineirão 6. Porto Alegre at Estádio Beira-Rio
7. Salvador at Arena Fonte Nova 8. Recife at Arena Pernambuco
9. Cuiabá at Arena Pantanal 10. Manaus at Arena Amazônia
11. Natalat at Arena das Dunas 12. Curitiba at Arena da Baixada
The following players, if they are included in the roster of their team will be suspended for the first game of their teams for violations committed in the qualifiers. FIFA, however, through decisions decide whether the suspension will be extended more than one match.
-Soshi Makani – IRAN: suspended for one match (against Nigeria) for an altercation in the match against South Korea on June 18, 2013;
-Fredy Guarin – COLOMBIA: suspended for one game (against Greece), after being eliminated in a match with Paraguay (double booked), October 15, 2013;
-Mario Mandžukić – CROATIA: suspended for one match (against Brazil), after being eliminated in a match with Iceland, 19 november 2013;
– Josip Šimunić – CROATIA: suspended for 10 games for using a slogan USTA after the match with Iceland. The Šimunić will miss the entire 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Here are the 8 groups of the FIFA World Cup 2014
Group A – BRAZIL; CROATIA; MEXICO; CAMEROON
BRAZIL Coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari
Star man: Neymar
Tournament best: Winners 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002
CROATIA Coach: Niko Kovac
Star man: Mario Mandzukic
Tournament best: Third in 1998
MEXICO Coach: Miguel Herrera
Star man: Javier Hernandez
Tournament best: Quarter-finals in 1970, 1986
CAMEROON Coach: Volker Finke
Star man: Samuel Eto’o
Tournament best: Quarter-finals 1990
Group B – SPAIN; HOLLAND; CHILE; AUSTRALIA
SPAIN Coach: Vicente del Bosque
Star man: Andres Iniesta
Tournament best: Winners in 2010
HOLLAND Coach: Louis van Gaal
Star man: Robin van Persie
Tournament best: Runners-up 1974, 1978, 2010
CHILE Coach: Jorge Sampaoli
Star man: Alexis Sanchez
Tournament best: Third in 1962
AUSTRALIACoach: Ange Postecoglou
Star man: Robbie Kruse
Tournament best: Last 16 2006
Group C – COLOMBIA; GREECE; IVORY COAST; JAPAN
COLOMBIA Coach: Jose Pekerman
Star man: Radamel Falcao
Tournament best: Last 16 1990
GREECE Coach: Fernando Santos
Star man: Georgios Samaras
Best Tournament: Group Stage 1994 2010
IVORY COAST Coach: Sabri Lamouche
Star man: Yaya Toure
Best Tournament: Group Stage 2006 2010
JAPAN Coach: Alberto Zaccheroni
Star man: Keisuke Honda
Tournament best: Last 16 2002 2010
Group D – URUGUAY; COSTA RICA; ENGLAND; ITALY
URUGUAY Coach: Oscar Washington Tabarez
Star man: Edinson Cavani
Tournament best: Winners 1930, 1950
COSTA RICA Coach: Jorge Luis Pinto
Star man: Bryan Ruiz
Tournament best: Last 16 1990
ENGLAND Coach: Roy Hodgson
Star man: Wayne Rooney
Tournament best: Winners 1966
ITALY Coach: Cesare Prandelli
Star man: Mario Balotelli
Tournament best: Winners 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006
Group E – SWITERLAND; ECUADOR; FRANCE; HONDURAS
SWITERLAND Coach: Ottmar Hitzfeld
Star man: Xherdan Shaqiri
Tournament best: Quarter-finals 1934, 1938, 1954
ECUADOR Coach: Reinaldo Rueda
Star man: Antonio Valencia
Tournament best: Last 16 2006
FRANCE Coach: Didier Deschamps
Star man: Franck Ribery
Tournament best: Winners 1998
HONDURAS Coach: Luis Fernando Suarez
Star man: Wilson Palacios
Tournament best: Group stages 1982, 2010
Group F – ARGENTINA; BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA; IRAN; NIGERIA
ARGENTINA Coach: Alejandro Sabella
Star man: Lionel Messi
Tournament best: Winners 1978, 1986
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA Coach: Safet Susic
Star man: Edin Dzeko
Tournament best: Never qualified
IRAN Coach: Carlos Queiroz
Star man: Javad Nekounam
Tournament best: Group stage 1978, 1998, 2006
NIGERIA Coach: Stephen Keshi
Star man: Victor Moses
Tournament best: Last 16 1994, 1998
Group G – GERMANY; PORTUGAL; GHANA; UNITED STATES
GERMANY Coach: Joachim Low
Star man: Mesut Özil
Tournament best: Winners 1954, 1974, 1990 (all as West Germany)
PROTUGAL Coach: Paulo Bento
Star man: Cristiano Ronaldo
Tournament best: Third 1966
GHANA Coach: James Kwesi Appiah
Star man: Asamoah Gyan
Tournament best: Quarter-finals 2010
UNITED STATES Coach: Jurgen Klinsmann
Star man: Clint Dempsey
Tournament best: Third 1930
Group H – BELGIUM; ALGERIA; RUSSIA; SOUTH KOREA
BELGIUM Coach: Marc Wilmots
Star man: Eden Hazard
Tournament best: Fourth 1986
ALGERIA Coach: Vahid Halilhodzic
Star man: Madjid Bougherra
Tournament best: Group stages 1982, 1986, 2010
RUSSIA Coach: Fabio Capello
Star man: Alexander Kokorin
Tournament best: Fourth 1966 (as the USSR)
SOUTH KOREA Coach: Hong Myung-bo
Star man: Son Heung-min
Tournament best: Fourth 2002
The competition is open to the first match between the host country Brazil and Croatia, a match of Group A, which will be held on the Arena Corinthians stadium in São Paulo and will start on June 12, 2014 17:00 pm Brazil (UTC-3).
To buy tickets to the games to watch all the results, news, updates, gossip and anything else related to the FIFA World Cup 2014 we advise you join fifa.com.
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