The draw took place on 6 December 2013 at the Costa do Sauípe resort in Bahia, during which the teams were drawn by various past World Cup-winning players.[20][21] Hosted by TV presentators Fernanda Lima and Tadeu Schmidt and conducted by the FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke, the draw featured football celebrities from all FIFA World Cup champion countries such as Cafu (Brazil), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Lothar Matthäus (Germany), Zinédine Zidane (France), Mario Alberto Kempes (Argentina), Fernando Hierro (Spain), Geoff Hurst (England) and Alcides Ghiggia (Uruguay).
The 32 participating teams were drawn into eight groups. In preparation for this, the teams were organised into four pots with the seven highest-ranked teams joining host nation Brazil in the seeded pot.[22] As with the previous tournaments, FIFA aimed to create groups which maximised geographic separation and therefore the unseeded teams were arranged into pots based on geographic considerations.[23][24] Under the draw procedure, one randomly drawn team – Italy – was firstly relocated from Pot 4 to Pot 2 to create four equal pots of eight teams.[25]
Officials
[edit]In March 2013, FIFA published a list of 52 prospective referees, each paired, on the basis of nationality, with two assistant referees, from all six football confederations for the tournament. On 14 January 2014, the FIFA Referees Committee appointed 25 referee trios and eight support duos representing 43 countries for the tournament.[26][27] Yuichi Nishimura from Japan acted as referee in the opening match whereas Nicola Rizzoli from Italy acted as referee in the final.[28][29]
Squads
[edit]As with the 2010 tournament, each team's squad consisted of 23 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers). Each participating national association had to confirm their final 23-player squad no later than 10 days before the start of the tournament.[30] Teams were permitted to make late replacements in the event of serious injury, at any time up to 24 hours before their first game.[30] During a match, all remaining squad members not named in the starting team were available to be one of the three permitted substitutions (provided the player was not serving a suspension).[30]
Venues
[edit]12 venues (seven new and five renovated) in twelve cities were selected for the tournament. The venues covered all the main regions of Brazil and created more evenly distributed hosting than the 1950 finals in Brazil.[31] Consequently, the tournament required long-distance travel for teams.[32] During the World Cup, Brazilian cities were also home to the participating teams at 32 separate base camps,[33] as well as staging official fan fests where supporters could view the games.[34]
The most used stadiums were the Maracanã and Brasília, which hosted seven matches each in which the Maracanã was the only stadium in the tournament to previously have hosted the 1950 FIFA World Cup. The least-used venues were in Cuiabá, Manaus, Natal, and Curitiba, which hosted four matches each; as the four smallest stadiums in use at the tournament, they did not host any knockout round matches.[35]
| Rio de Janeiro | Brasília | São Paulo | Fortaleza |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estádio do Maracanã | Estádio Nacional | Arena Corinthians (Arena de São Paulo) | Estádio Castelão |
| Capacity: 74,738[35][A] | Capacity: 69,432[35][B] | Capacity: 63,321[35][C] | Capacity: 60,348[35][D] |
 |  |  |  |
| Belo Horizonte | Salvador | ||
| Estádio Mineirão | Arena Fonte Nova | ||
| Capacity: 58,259[35][E] | Capacity: 51,708[35][F] | ||
.jpg) |  | ||
| Porto Alegre | Recife[nb 3] | ||
| Estádio Beira-Rio | Arena Pernambuco | ||
| Capacity: 43,394[35][G] | Capacity: 42,583[35][H] | ||
 |  | ||
| Cuiabá | Manaus | Natal | Curitiba |
| Arena Pantanal | Arena da Amazônia | Arena das Dunas | Arena da Baixada |
| Capacity: 41,112[35][I] | Capacity: 40,549[35][J] | Capacity: 39,971[35][K] | Capacity: 39,631[35][L] |
 | .jpg) |  |  |
Team base camps
[edit]Base camps were used by the 32 national squads to stay and train before and during the World Cup tournament. On 31 January 2014, FIFA announced the base camps for each participating team,[33] having earlier circulated a brochure of 84 prospective locations.[36] Most teams opted to stay in the Southeast Region of Brazil, with only eight teams choosing other regions; five teams (Croatia, Germany, Ghana, Greece and Switzerland) opted to stay in the Northeast Region and three teams (Ecuador, South Korea and Spain) opted to stay in the South Region. None opted to stay in the North Region or the Central-West Region.[37] Campo Bahia, the base camp of the eventual champion Germany, attracted much interest.[38]
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