Despite the health issues that the Zika virus has brought to Brazil, it has not stopped everyone's excitement about the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. For football fans, the drawing will be held in the legendary Maracanã Stadium.

Drawing in Maracanã Stadium

The men and women participants in the football tournament will make the draw at the Maracanã Stadium on April 14 at 10:30 a.m. local time. The said draw will determine whom each group will be facing in the upcoming games.

The competition will be staged in seven stadiums in six cities. Among the stadiums that will be joining the Maracanã Stadium are Amazônia Arena in Manaus, Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Fonte Nova Arena in Salvador, Mané Garrincha Stadium in Brasília, Mineirão in Belo Horizonte and Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. However, the stadium will host the women's and men's finals on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20.

Pattern of Drawing

The men's tournament will includes 16 teams, which will be divided into four groups with four teams each. Meanwhile, there will be 12 teams for the women's competition, and they will be drawn into three groups with four teams each. The top two teams in each group both for men's and women's division will proceed to the quarterfinals including the two-best third-placed teams.

History of Maracanã Stadium

Estádio Mário Filho is the official name of the stadium. It was renamed in 1966 following the death of Brazilian journalist Mario Filho. The stadium was built to serve as the "flagship venue for the 1950 World Cup and was meant to be the biggest football stadium in the world."

The construction of the building, which took two years to complete, began in August 1948. It officially opened on June 16, 1950, with a friendly selection of players from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Eight days later, they hosted the opening match of the 1950 World Cup between Brazil and Mexico. The stadium also hosted seven matches during the 2014 World Cup.

Maracanã Stadium Controversy

Eight months before the anticipated 2016 Olympics, the administrators of Maracanã stadium fired 75 percent of their staff. The layoffs aimed to cut costs while the facility is under Olympic control. Currently, the ownership of the stadium belongs to a private consortium, Odebrecht, which is involved in the massive corruption issue in the country's state-run oil company, Petrobras.