In March 2003, FIFA announced that the tournament would be held in South America for the first time since 1978, in line with its policy at the time of rotating the right to host the World Cup among different … See more

Technologies
In order to avoid ghost goals, the 2014 World Cup introduced goal-line technology following successful trials at, among other competitions, the 2013 Confederations Cup. The chosen Goal Control system featured 14 high … See more

On 12 June 2014, the 20th edition of the FIFA World Cup began with the opening ceremony at Arena de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. The event saw 660 dancers take to the stadium … See more

Qualification
Following qualification matches played between June 2011 and November 2013, the following 32 … See more

12 venues (seven new and five renovated) in twelve cities were selected for the tournament. The venues covered all the main See more

The first round, or group stage, was a competition between the 32 teams divided among eight groups of four, where each group engaged in a See more

Goalscorers
In total, 171 goals were scored by a record 121 players, with five credited as own goals. Goals scored from penalty shoot-outs are … See more