Last weekend´s draw for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers in Rio has been accompanied by some important moves by national football federations, including Australia´s, to scope out possible base camp locations for the period leading up to and during the event.
Football Federation Australia took the opportunity to visit a number of suitable facilities, including ones in São José dos Campos, a small city around 100km from São Paulo, mining hub Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais, and Goiania, capital of Goais, in the very heart of the country.
Beyond offering state-of-the-art training facilities with certain standards defined by FIFA, the base locations must meet a range of criteria in relation to accommodation availability for support staff and media, security and proximity to airports. For further details on the selection process for training centres, click here
For Australia, given the Socceroos continue their recent history of strong qualification campaigns, the base camp location should become a strategic point for additional business links and promotional activities in Brazil.
Apart from training bases, friendly warm-up matches in Brazil against the home team or other countries have also been on the agenda, with England looking at an historic fixture against Brazil to mark the re-opening of the famed Mineirão stadium in Belo Horizonte at the beginning of 2013.