The semi-finals – to be played in Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte – will start at 9pm while the final, to be held in Rio de Janeiro at the Maracana on 13 July, will kick off at 8pm.

The World Cup will kick off on 12 June 2014, a Thursday, with Brazil playing at a 65,000-seat arena being built at Itaquera in Sao Paulo. The Maracana will stage six matches in addition to the final, but the five-times champions, Brazil, will only play at the stadium if they reach the final.

All 12 host cities get at least four of the 64 matches and teams will fly around the different cities, even during the group stage. Four of the smaller venues are not ready. Officials had previously suggested they would learn from logistical issues at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa by basing four-team groups in one of four clusters to minimise the strain of moving players, fans and officials around. "You can have the best teams, the seeded teams, in all the host cities," the Fifa secretary general Jérôme Valcke said.

Ricardo Teixeira, the World Cup's organising committee chairman, launched the schedule at a Fifa executive committee meeting in Zurich despite being under investigation at home for alleged kickbacks paid by Fifa's former marketing agency.

Brazil's national president Dilma Rousseff has clashed with world football's organising body over delays in passing World Cup laws favourable to Fifa and its sponsors.