2014 Match schedule a revealing look at Brazil´s Cup

The Match Schedule for the 20th edition of the FIFA World Cup was announced in Zurich on 20 October 2011, giving a clearer picture of how teams and supporters will have to structure their travel plans for the event.

The 64 matches will be played in 12 cities across the country, with Sao Paulo finally overcoming its wealth of problems to confirm its right to host the Opening Match on 12 June 2014. Rio de Janeiro remains the venue for the Final. Hosts Brazil will be seeded as A1 and will therefore play the opening match in Sao Paulo and the remaining two group matches in Fortaleza and Brasilia.

All 12 cities will host at least four of the 64 matches, with the final on July 13 at Maracana stadium – according to the schedule, Brazil can only play in Maracana if it reaches the final. The semi-finals will be held in Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo, with the third place match in Brasilia.

The kick-off have been set as follows (all Brasilia local time – Australian EST is +13 hours):

Opening Match: 17.00

Group Stage matches: 13.00, 16.00, 19.00, 22.00

Round of 16/Quarter-finals: 13.00, 17.00

Semi-finals: 17.00

Match for Third Place: 17.00

Final: 16.00

Venues have also been confirmed for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2013, which will see the champions of the six confederations as well as hosts Brazil and world champions Spain compete between 15 and 30 June 2013. Currently, four host cities and four key matches have been confirmed, while the full match schedule to be confirmed in June 2012. Five teams have already qualified for the tournament in 2013: the Asian champions Japan, CONCACAF Gold Cup winners Mexico, South American champions Uruguay, as well as Spain and Brazil. Key matches include:

Opening Match: Brasilia

Semi-final matches: Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza

Final: Rio de Janeiro

Investment opportunities in Rio de Janeiro

Sistema FIRJAN, the Rio de Janeiro State Federation of Industries, has just released the study “Decision: Rio – Investments 2011-2013”. The document reveals investment amounts to the order of US$ 100 billion across more than 140 projects announced for the next three years, all in Rio de Janeiro state. It presents the investments in full detail and provides additional information arising from the technical studies developed by the FIRJAN System, the result being a dramatic increase in public knowledge of the impacts and opportunities that the investments will create. The study also includes investment mapping via Google Earth software.

Please email us to receive a copy of the report.

New airport terminal project open for bidding as further tenders continue worrisome

With the situation for key 2014 World Cup airports across Brazil remaining in somewhat of a state of limbo, one important step has been taken this week with the launch of the international tender for the design of the second terminal at Belo Horizonte´s international airport, Confins. The state secretary for economic development Dorothea Werneck announced last Tuesday (4/10) that interested groups and consortia will have until November 23 to lodge their bids, including their credentials, the technical proposal and price, with the selection to be made November 25.

The winning bidder will be responsible for the engineering project, the basic and executive design projects and complementary services, with the work expected to be completed by the end of 2012. The plan is to begin construction in early 2013 with a timeframe of 18 months, finishing right before the 2014 Cup. The airport is expected to host around 20 million passengers per year by 2020. A smaller, ongoing refurbishment of terminal 1 is lifting capacity from the already overloaded 5 million to 8.5 million.

In associated news, the privatisation process for the Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Campinas airports has been delayed and will now not occur until 2012. The three privatisations are the first for Brazil and are considered crucial in preparing these important airports for the 2014 Cup.