10 things to know about the FIFA World Cup 2014

Football fever has struck us again as FIFA World Cup 2014 remains less than a week away. Being among the World’s most widely viewed sporting event as it is, here are a few facts about this year’s World cup that you may not have otherwise known. Take a look :

1- The FIFA World Cup 2014 will be the 20th FIFA World Cup. It is scheduled to take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014. It will be the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition, the previous being in 1950.

2- For the first time at a World Cup Finals, the matches will use goal-line technology. Goal-line technology is a method used to determine when the ball has completely crossed the goal line with the assistance of electronic devices and at the same time assisting the referee in awarding a goal or not.

3- Spain is the defending champion, having defeated the Netherlands 1–0 in the 2010 World Cup final to win its first World title.

4- The total prize money on offer for the tournament was confirmed by FIFA as US$576 million (including payments of US$70 million to domestic clubs), a 37 percent increase from the amount allocated in the 2010 tournament. (Read: FIFA offers 180,000 extra World Cup tickets)

5- The official ball of the 2014 World Cup will be the Adidas Brazuca. The name was selected by a public vote that received responses from more than 1 million Brazilian football fans. (Read: The Adidas Brazuca comes into the hands of the World Cup stars!)

6- The 2014 tournament will be the most expensive FIFA World Cup in history.

7- The official logo of the competition is entitled “Inspiration”, and was created by Brazilian agency Africa. The design is based around a photograph of three victorious hands together raising the World Cup trophy and its yellow and green colouring is meant to represent Brazil warmly welcoming the world to their country.

8- The tatu-bola known as Fuleco, an armadillo that defends itself from predators by rolling up into a ball, was chosen as the official mascot by FIFA.

9- On 24 January 2014, FIFA and Sony Music announced that the official song for the tournament will be “We Are One (Ole Ola)” by Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte. A customized version of the song “Dare (La La La)” by Shakira, who provided the official song of the 2010 tournament, will be used as a secondary theme song.

10- Some of the main sponsors of the 2014, FIFA World Cup are Adidas, Coca – Cola, Emirates, Sony, Budweiser, Mac Donalds, VISA and Johnson & Johnson.