World Cup 2014 Guide

Soccer Fans!

Many friends have asked me to help them understand how to best prepare to take on planning a trip to Brazil for next years World Cup Finals Festivities. As I was writing a message to friends I thought I'd share my research here in case folks are interested: 

there are a few parts to this so i'm going to try and break it up for maximum clarity. 

• Overview:  We are in the final phases of qualification for the World Cup Finals. Once qualification is over for each federation the final draw for group round seeding will take place in Rio de Janeiro on Dec 3 2013.
• What does that mean? Although ticket sales have begun (see match tickets section) fans will not know whether and/or where their teams will play until the qualification rounds have finished and the draw has taken place. 
• Why does that matter? Brazil is a big country! If you are planning on following the US and/or other countries through the group rounds they may be playing at a few different stadiums which will include the need for travel within the country.

• Basic tournament schedule: The 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals will take place between June 12 and July 13th 2014. 
• Group round: June 12- June 26
• Round of 16: June 28- July 1
• Quarter finals: July 4 & 5
• Semi- finals: July 8 & 9
• 3rd place match: July 12
• Final match: July 13

• Match tickets:  Match tickets are being sold a few ways, the first is through travel agents and soccer tour companies. This can be a good deal if you're not interested in figuring out your own logistics. I have included a few links to companies that do this. You will pay a premium for this service.  The second way to is to buy your tickets directly from FIFA. In order to make ticket purchasing fair FIFA has a whole complicated processes with phases, i'll do my best to explain. 
• FIFA has 3 ticket purchasing periods for the international public (Brazilian citizens). Each of the three phases of ticket sales, the first two rounds have a lottery round and a first come first serve round. 
• Phase 1 (lottery): Aug 20- Oct1
• Phase 1 (first come first serve): Nov 5- Nov 28
• Phase 2 (lottery): Dec 8- Jan 30
• Phase 2 (first come first serve): Feb 26- April 1
• Phase 3 (last min sales phase): Apr 15- July 13
• What does that mean?  This means that between rounds tickets can only be purchased through travel agents etc. 
• Whats the difference between lottery and first come first serve?  Lottery means you apply for tickets and FIFA will let you know if they can approve your request. First come first serve sales will indicate as you purchase whether or not your request will be granted.
• You can apply for individual tickets, ticket packages for a specific host city stadium or tickets for a specific team. Once your team has qualified team specific packages make most sense. You can buy team packages from 3 matches to 7 matches. If you purchase a 7 match package and your team only makes it through the group round you can still attend the round matches for which you purchased tickets.  Here is a table with general costs for tickets per match round. 
• If you're confused read this ticketing guide from FIFA to get even more confused.

• Travel & Host Cities: Depending on where your team is playing you'll likely have to travel around Brazil on domestic flights, trains or busses. Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are both centrally located in relationship to the other host cities. See map of all host cities here.

My two cents. 

The best bang for your buck is attending the group rounds through the round of 16. you get games every few days and you can either follow your team around or hang out in a specific host city and catch all the games that take place there. 

Don't wait until the Dec 6 drawing to try and buy tickets if you really want to go. Buy a flight to a major city and figure out lodging and domestic travel later, its not worth tickets selling out or being forced to pay way more for tickets from agents. 

If you have the funds I would apply for USA specific match packages now. Now that we have qualified it's going to be a rat race to get tickets. If you can't do it now my best advice is do it before the Dec draw. 

Nate and I haven't made final plans yet and our visit is a little more complicated because we are trying to follow 2 teams but as we settle on plans i'll let you all know in the event you want to make adjacent plans. As of right now we are planning to be in Brazil for the group round and the round of 16 and will travel around Brazil and Argentina for a week or two maybe coming back for the semi or final match if things work out. 

It's a lot of info I know but shit is complicated! 

USA! ARGENTINA!

Vamos a Brazil!