The countdown for the 2014 FIFA World Cup has already began. The tournament will kick off one June 12 and it will continue for one full month until July 13. Millions of soccer fans are expected to flock into Brazil to support their home teams. To prepare you for the excitement around the event, we will present you the 2014 World Cup through the prism of numbers!
$14 billion – The estimated cost of the 2014 World Cup – the most expensive to this date. Initially, it was expected that the championship will cost only $1.1 billion. However, Brazil spend around $3.6 billion on stadium construction alone.
$35 million – The winner of the championship will walk away with a prize of $35 million. The runner-up, on the other hand, will get $25 million. However, every team will be also given$1.5 million to cover its preparation costs.
12 – There will be twelve venues in which the matches from the tournament will take place. All twelve of them are located in twelve different cities
32 – Teams will participate in the tournament.
736 – Players will participate in Brazil 2014.
5 – Brazil, the host country, is also the country with the most World Cup wins – Brazil’s team has won the World Cup five times during the championships in Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934), England (1966), Germany (1974), Argentina (1978) and France (1998).
20 – This is the 20th time in which Brazil will participate in a World Cup tournament. In other words, it is the only country that has played at all of the World Cup championships.
89% – The percentage of Brazilians which approved that Fuleco, a three-banded armadillo, should be the tournament’s official mascot. That makes it one of the most likely mascots in the history of FIFA.
3,283 – The total number of international goals the World Cup 2014 players have scored.
28.5 years – The average age of Argentina’s team. This makes it the oldest one in the tournament, followed by those of Portugal (28.2) and Uruguay (28.1). However, the oldest player who will participate in the championship is Colombia’s Faryd Mondragon who is currently 43.
24.9 years – the average age of Ghana’s team, which is also the youngest to participate in Brazil 2014. The youngest player in the tournament is Fabrice Olinga from Cameroon. He is only 18.
1,375 – The number of the international caps of Spain’s team. This automatically makes it the most experienced one at the 2014 World Cup. Spain’s Iker Casillas alone has 153 international appearances. Also in the top five are Uruguay (1,132), Honduras (1,059), Germany (974) and Japan (912).
364 – Algeria’s team has only 365 international caps, which means that it is the least experienced team in the tournament. Australia follows closely behind with 392 caps.
219 – Apart from being one of the most experienced teams in Brazil, Germany is the best goal-scorer. The country’s team has 219 international goals. A great part of them are contributed to Miroslav Klose, who is the world’s second best scorer. In fact, Klose may soon dethrone Ronaldo from the first spot. All he needs are two goals.
11 – There are a total of 11 soccer clubs that have over 10 players who will participate in this year’s World Cup. Bayern Munich, however, has the most – 15. Manchester United and Barcelona have 14 and 13, respectively. Clubs like Juventus, Napoli, Chelsea and Real Madrid each have contributed with 12 players, whereas Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain each have 10 representatives in Brazil.
The 2014 FIFA World Cup also promises to offer more fair play, since it will use a new-generation goal-line technology for the first time.
