Brazil World Cup schedule released

(GETTY IMAGES)

The match schedule for the 2014 World Cup hosted by Brazil has been unveiled by Fifa.

The opening game of the tournament, taking place in Sao Paulo, will kick-off at 5pm local time while the final at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro will get underway at 4pm local time.

The kick-off times for the group stage of the tournament are 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and 10pm. The quarter-finals will be at 1pm and 5pm, the semi-finals at 5pm and the third-place play off also at 5pm.

For those following the World Cup at home in England, the kick-off times are ideally scheduled for prime-time viewing, although a few late nights may be in order to catch all the action.

Brazil has four time zones but the major cities including Rio, Sao Paulo and Brasilia, where the majority of the games are taking place, are three-hours behind during British Summer Time. This means the group games will start at the earliest of 4pm and at the latest 1am. The opening match will be at 8pm, while the final will kick-off at 7pm.