Brazil's 2014 World Cup will see potential travel trauma for fans - and the latest kick-off times ever for a finals tournament with matches starting as late as 10pm, or 2am in Britain. FIFA have performed a U-turn on promises to cluster teams in sectors to minimise travel distances. Instead, it was announced on Thursday that teams will play each group match in a different city - some up to 2,000 miles apart. The group stages will see matches kicking off at four different times - 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and 10pm, with the British summer time equivalent being four hours later. The knockout stages will be more suited to European prime time, with the latest kick-off being 5pm in Brazil, or 9pm in the UK. The final in Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium will take place at 4pm - 8pm BST. The distances that fans may have to travel could be a major concern. For example, one team in Group A will have to play the opening match of the tournament in Sao Paulo, their second match 2,000 miles away in Manaus, and the third in Recife - another three-and-a-half-hour flight away, or a 5,700-kilometres road trip through the Amazon jungle. FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said: "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." Last year, Valcke said they would consider splitting Brazil into four regions, rather than having teams travel around the entire country. He said then: "Brazil is a continent, not just a country, so we may divide it into four pieces to make sure that fans do not have to travel (fly) more than one or two hours from one stadium to the other." Organisers said the decision to move the teams between the different areas of the country was partly to ensure that individual sides did not benefit from playing games all in the cooler climate of the south of Brazil. Ricardo Trade, head of operations for the 2014 World Cup, said: "The climate is so different you do not want to give an advantage to one country over another." The World Cup will kick off on 12 June 2014, a Thursday, with Brazil playing at a 65,000-seat arena being built at Itaquera in Sao Paulo.
This WC has nightmare written all over it. There was also rumour of a contingency plan being in place at as little as 24hours notice, to switch the WC to another country. Being England, as it is equipped to host a large tournament at little notice. Again that's just a rumour
So ko times over here will be 5pm, 8pm, 11pm and 2am. Not so bad though midweek 2am games might be tricky! LOL
Ive always wanted to go to Brazil and South America and ive always said 2014 would be the year i would love to go if we got to the world cup.The distance between cities is crazyness and very unfair on fans.Going to be a expensive one it looks.
Great ko times for people in Ireland and the UK, there will be no missing afternoon games while stuck at work. That 2am one could be a bit of a dodgy one alright though! If I remember right, I think there was a few of those ko times at USA 94. I have a distant recollection of staying up into the early hours to watch Spain v South Korea back then!
Will be same for Russia 2018 no doubt, with two further cities about 2500km apart Have to say Brazil would be great place to go for this, love to qualify, then worry about getting there and lastly worry about getting around
This should be a fantastic tournament.The kick off times are perfect.For the 2am one grab a power nap after the 1am game and go to bed again at 4.The distance to travel might be a problem but at least you will get to see as much of the country as possible.
England's golden generation must be a cert for this! Hope to be there but will no doubt be following my adopted country the USA!