World Cup 2014: A Guide to Recife

Recife is one of the largest cities of Brazil as well as the capital city of the State of Pernambuco. The metropolitan area of Recife is the 5th most populous area after Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte. Besides, this is the most populous city in the Northeast region with more than 1,500,000 inhabitants.

It is hard to find any other city in Brazil as crazy about football as Recife. The top 3 clubs in the state of Pernambuco mainly depend on a more fanatical fan base: Santa Cruz Futebol Clube, Clube Nautico Capibaribe or Sport Club do Recife.

The FIFA World Cup 2014 will be played from June 12 to July 13, 2014 in Brazil. Soon after the declaration of the FIFA World Cup 2014 matches in Recife, a huge preparation has been taken. Recife is returning to the arena of FIFA World Cup long back after hosting a match on the FIFA World Cup 1950. This time, this city has arranged a brand new arena for both the players as well as for the football lovers where five matches will be hosted during this coveted event.

Arena Pernambuco Stadium

Keeping the 2014 FIFA World Cup in mind, the state government of Pernambuco has put up a more modern and new stadium, named Arena Pernambuco at the metropolitan area adjacent to Recife. The new stadium was built up by means of the partnership between the private and public sector. This stadium opened officially on May 22, 2013 by hosting a welcoming match between Sporting Portugal and Nautico.

This new stadium has the capacity to arrange over 44,248,000 seats for the football enthusiasts, who will be visiting this stadium to cheer on their favourite team. This stadium offers VIP lounges, two giant HD television screens, a mixed seating section and further premium seating. Apart from that, there are warm-up areas, massage areas and Jacuzzis, technical areas and four changing rooms for the players and also for the managers, who are within the team zones.

Weather in Recife

Similar to the other coastal cities located within the tropics, the weather in Recife is also warm all around the year. Because of the close proximity to the equator, the average temperature of Recife remains around 80°F even in the winter season. Though, the temperature remains high during the summer days, but still the weather remains enjoyable due to the cool ocean winds. The FIFA World Cup will be organized in the month of June and the average daily temperature of this month is around 85°F. Sometimes, the temperature drops below 80°F or exceeds to 88°F. The lengths of the days are mostly constant this time and the most common precipitation forms are light and moderate rain throughout the month of June. Recife records an average rainfall of 224 days a year and June/July are considered the two wettest months.

During this month of the year, the humidity level mainly ranges from 66 per cent or mildly humid to 95 per cent or very humid. Sometimes, it reaches as high as 100 per cent or very humid and sometimes drops below to 59 per cent resulting in a mild humid weather

Match Schedule

Recife is scheduled to host five total matches in the tournament. Former world champions Germany and Italy are two among those teams, which will play in the Arena Pernambuco stadium.

Followed are the matches slated to be played in Recife: Ivory Coast vs. Japan (June 14), Italy vs. Costa Rica (June 20), Croatia vs. Mexico (June 23) and Germany vs. USA (June 26). In the second round of the tournament, the winner of Group D will play against the runner-up of Group-C.