FIFA: 2014 World Cup to start on June 12
Reuters - Wednesday 27 July 2011, 15:23
RIO DE JANEIRO- The 2014 World Cup
finals in Brazil will start on June 12 with the final on July
13, FIFA's Secretary General Jerome Valcke said on Wednesday.
Valcke said the exact match and venue schedule will be
announced after FIFA's Executive Committee meets on October
20-21.
"We are still working on the match schedules and venues, and
these will be ratified by the World Cup organising committee and
the FIFA executive committee in October," Valcke said before
adding that the 2013 Confederations Cup, the World Cup dress
rehearsal tournament, will run from June 15 to June 30 in 2013.
Valcke was highly critical of Brazil's preparations for the
World Cup when he spoke in Moscow last month, but FIFA President
Sepp Blatter said new confidence had been established between
FIFA and the local organising committee.
"The Government, the minister of sport and the President of
Brazil Dilma Rousseff are all confident, and we at FIFA are also
confident and we have the trust that this World Cup will be a
success.
"It is a country not only of football but of happiness, but
the reality is that there is still some work to be done.
"But I am sure, with trust and confidence, Brazil and FIFA
together will deliver an exceptional World Cup in 2014."
As far as the Confederations Cup was concerned, Valcke said
the decision on the venues for that competition would be taken
bearing in mind the state of readiness of construction work on
the stadiums.
FIFA's top brass are in Rio for Saturday's draw for the
qualifying competition for the 2014 finals, which involved a
record number of 203 of FIFA's 208 member nations.
A total of 824 matches are scheduled to played in the
qualifying campaign, with some preliminary round matches having
already taken place. The qualifiers will last until November
2013.