World Cup Football: World Cup Finals Fact File
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Your support makes all the difference.THE DRAW
LAS VEGAS will be the venue for the draw for the 1994 World Cup finals, on 19 December. Italy, Belgium, Brazil and Argentina will join the hosts, the United States, and the defending champions, Germany, as seeds.
The six seeded teams will be placed in the first 'pot', six second-ranked teams will be in pot two, six third-ranked teams in pot three and six fourth-ranked teams in pot four. The six first-stage groups (A, B, C, D, E and F) will comprise one team from each 'pot'.
The United States will play in Group A, Germany will play in Group C and Italy will play in Group E; the other three seeds have yet to be allocated first-stage groups, in which two (not three) points will be awarded for a win.
The top two teams from each group progress to the second stage, along with the four best third-placed teams. The winners of the eight second-stage matches progress to the quarter-finals. If a second-stage match is level after 90 minutes, extra time will be played, followed by a penalty shoot-out.
WORLD CUP FINALS Match schedule: FIRST STAGE Group matches: 17 June: C1 v C2 (Chicago), C3 v C4 (Dallas). 18 June: A1 v A2 (Detroit), A3 v A4 (Los Angeles) E1 v E2 (New York). 19 June: F1 v F2 (Orlando), B3 v B4 (Los Angles), E3 v E4 (Washington). 20 June: B1 v B2 (San Francisco), F3 v F4 (Washington). 21 June: C1 v C3 (Chicago), D1 v D2 (Boston), D3 v D4 (Dallas). 22 June: A1 v A3 (Los Angeles), A4 v A2 (Detroit). 23 June: E1 v E3 (New York), C4 v C2 (Boston). 24 June: B1 v B3 (San Francisco), B4 v B2 (Detroit), E4 v E2 (Orlando). 25 June: D1 v D3 (Boston), F1 v F3 (Orlando), F4 v F2 (New York). 26 June: A1 v A4 (Los Angeles), A2 v A3 (San Francisco), D4 v D2 (Chicago). 27 June: C1 v C4 (Dallas), C2 v C3 (Chicago). 28 June: E1 v E4 (Washington), B1 v B4 (Detroit), B2 v B3 (San Francisco), E2 v E3 (New York). 29 June: F1 v F4 (Washington), F2 v F3 (Orlando). 30 June: D1 v D4 (Dallas), D2 v D3 (Boston).
SECOND STAGE: 2 July: Chicago and Washington. 3 July: Los Angeles and Dallas. 4 July: San Francisco and Orlando. 5 July: Boston and New York.
QUARTER-FINALS: 9 July: Boston and Dallas. 10 July: San Francisco and New York.
SEMI-FINALS: 13 July: Los Angeles and New York.
THIRD / FOURTH PLACE Play-off: 16 July: Los Angeles.
FINAL: 17 July: Los Angeles.
THE VENUES
BOSTON: Foxboro stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts (capacity 61,000). Situated half-way between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. Attracted a crowd of 54,743 for an international between the States and the Republic of Ireland in 1991.
CHICAGO: Soldier Field (66,814). The home of the NFL's Chicago Bears, located on the shore of Lake Michigan.
DALLAS: Cotton Bowl (72,000). The venue of the annual Dallas Cup youth tournament. Like several other stadiums, has been converted to natural grass from artificial turf.
DETROIT: Pontiac Silverdome (72,794). An indoor stadium with a retractable roof, located 18 miles north-east of Detroit. Home to the NFL's Detroit Lions.
LOS ANGELES: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California (102,083). The venue for the World Cup final, located to the north of Los Angeles.
NEW YORK: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey (76,891). Located 15 minutes from the heart of New York City across the Hudson River, home to two NFL teams, New York Giants and New York Jets, and once hosted the New York Cosmos soccer team.
ORLANDO: Citrus Bowl (70,188). One mile west of downtown Orlando, northern Florida.
SAN FRANCISCO: Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto, California (86,019). The home of Stanford University, 30 miles to the south of San Francisco.
WASHINGTON DC: Robert F Kennedy Memorial Stadium (56,500). The home of Washington Redskins of the NFL, located 20 blocks east of the US Capitol building. Record crowd of 58,513 was for a Grateful Dead concert in 1990.
TICKETS
ALL tickets for international distribution, representing 35 per cent of the 3.6m total supply of tickets, are being handled by Fifa, authorised tour operators, and national associations. The Football Association of Ireland, in Dublin, will be offering ticket packages for the Republic's matches. A spokesman for the Football Association in England said yesterday: 'Obviously we are now at the back of the queue for tickets but, as we understand it, in January we will be invited to apply for tickets, and we expect to receive a small number to distribute in this country.'
The remaining 65 per cent of the tickets are being distributed within the States, including a limited number for the later stages (including the final) being sold by a random-selection mail-order process, which will be restricted to citizens of the United States.
The average ticket price is dollars 58 and the cheapest first-round ticket price is dollars 25. The most expensive seat for the final costs dollars 475.
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