Story highlights
The 2014 World Cup will take place in Brazil
32 teams from across the world will compete for the biggest prize in world football
All eight former winners have qualified for the tournament
Bosnia is the only country making its debut at the World Cup
The World Cup – the greatest show on earth.
After over 800 games, hundreds of goals and endless hours of tension, the 32 teams who have qualified for the tournament will discover their fate on December 6 when the draw for the Group Stage of the competition is made in Brazil.
All eight former champions will be present but no European side has ever won the competition in South America.
The tournament will start in Sao Paulo on 12 June 2014, with the final in Rio de Janeiro on 13 July.
CNN has compiled all the important numbers that you need to know.
0 – number of times that Bosnia-Herzegovina has played in the World Cup. The nation, which gained independence in 1992, won eight out of its 10 qualifying matches to win Group G.
5 – number of times Brazil has won the tournament.
12 – games in the 2014 World Cup will be played in 12 Brazilian cities: Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Sao Paulo.
36 – highest tally of goals scored in qualifying by Germany and New Caledonia.
59 – current world ranking of Cameroon, which is hoping to become the first African team to win the tournament. Cameroon, which reached the quarterfinals in 1998, is the lowest ranked side to make it through qualifying.
86 – The age of Alcides Ghiggia, the man who netted the winning goal for Uruguay against Brazil in the 1950 World Cup final.
World Cup qualifiers
World Cup qualifiersEurope
145 – number of goals scored at last tournament, the lowest of any World Cup since the competition moved to a 64-game format.
245 – different television channels showed the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands.
990 – cheapest tickets for the final cost $440 while the most expensive are $990.
2,898 – yellow cards shown by referees during the qualifying campaign.
3,000 – number of miles separating the northern city of Boa Vista and the southern city of Porto Alegre.
18,449 – number of volunteers who worked at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
390,600 – hot dogs were sold at official venues in South Africa four years ago.
750,000 – liters of beer sold inside stadiums at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
1 million – trees which cover the famous Lago de Patos (Ducks Lagoon) in Porto Alegre – a venue for the World Cup.
2.4 million – residents in Belo Horizonte – the city which will host Argentina’s training base.
6.15 million – ticket requests made during the first phase of ticket sales – more than 70% of those from Brazil.
317 million – population of the U.S – the largest population of any qualifier.
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3.2 billion – people worldwide who watched the 2010 World Cup – 46.4 percent of the world.
