Behold! The wait is over! It is finally here!

After four prolonged years, this wait is over and the FIFA World Cup is back. This year, Brazil holds the honor of hosting 20^th FIFA World Cup. The 2014 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place from 12^th June to July 13^th. A total of 62 matches will be played in 12 different venues – 12 cities of Brazil.

Different Stages of Football World Cup

The stage is all set! Thirty-two teams from around the world are participating in this world cup. These 32 teams are divided into eight different groups. Matches will be played in a round robin format within a group i.e. each team will play once against each team turn by turn. At the end of the group matches, top two teams from each group (16 teams from eight groups) will advance into the next stage, called ‘Knockout Round’.

Knockout Stage

In the knockout stage, eight matches will be played between 16 teams and 8 winning teams will qualify for the ‘Quarter Finals’ stage. In quarterfinals, 4 matches will be played between 8 winning teams from the knockout round. The excitement of the big tournament increases as the stages pass by.

Road to Final

After quarter finals, the winner of the mega event remains just 2 steps away. Four winning teams play 2 matches in the semi final round and the winners of these two semi finals compete for the last escapade. The ultimate winner gets to take the 18 carat gold trophy to their home country along with handsome prize money.

Warm up matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup have already been started but the real game begins on Thursday, 12^th June. The first match will be played between the host team Brazil and Croatia. Football fanatics are feeling the heat and its lovers are going nuts about this mega event. Brazil has won 5 football world cups so far. It is the greatest number of football world cups ever won by a team up till now.

Prize Money

The winner of this mega event will bag the World Cup trophy and prize money of US$ 35 million while the Runners up team receives a cheque of US$ 25 million. The prize distribution for the rest of the teams is as follows:

• US$ 22 Million for the team who came at third spot
• US$ 20 Million for the team who came at fourth
• US$ 14 Million for each team eliminated in the quarter finals
• US$ 09 Million for each team eliminated in the top 16 knockout round
• US$ 08 Million for each team eliminated in the group stage