World Cup teams and supporters face a marathon of traveling after organizers decided countries must play their group games in different venues around Brazil at the 2014 World Cup.
Rio de Janeiro was confirmed as the venue for the final and Sao Paulo was awarded the opening match featuring Brazil, even though it has barely started work on its Itaquerao Stadium.
Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte will stage the semi-finals and the capital Brasilia will get the third-place playoff after the match schedule was announced at a brief, televised ceremony at the headquarters of world governing body FIFA on Thursday.
Matches will kick off at midnight, 3am and 6am Taiwan time.
The surprise was that organizers decided against basing teams in single venues, which means some must travel thousands of kilometers between matches in one of the world’s biggest countries.
It had been expected teams would play their group matches in two venues at most to cut down traveling in a country overdependent on air transport which is limited and unreliable.
The team eventually drawn as No. 2 in Group A will have to play in Sao Paulo in the southeast, then travel to Manaus, a three-and-a-half hour flight, and finally Recife. Flights between Manaus and Recife nearly always involve a connection, taking a total of six to nine hours.
The road journey is 5,700km, according to the Brazilian transport department.
The team drawn as No. 4 in Group D might have to play their first game in Cuiaba, where temperatures in June can top 30?C, and their second in Porto Alegre, where temperatures can drop to near freezing.
Many other teams face at least one long flight in their schedules, while fans may struggle to get on a plane at all because of the limited supply of seats.
Brazilian authorities have already admitted the country’s outdated airports are the biggest worry facing the tournament.
Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, was in danger of missing out on the tournament last year after its original venue, the Morumbi, was ruled out because local authorities could not provide financial guarantees for stadium rebuilding.
It was then decided to use the new Itaquerao Stadium being planned by Corinthians, though work on that only started in June.
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