The world’s 12 best visually impaired football teams will go into battle at the Football 5-a-side World Championship in Tokyo, which starts on Sunday (16 November), with a special prize at stake: a place at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Brazil will be out for their fourth world title, having won in 1998, 2000 and 2010, although they already have their place at Rio 2016 guaranteed as host nation. If the Samba Boys reach the final on Monday 24 November, their opponents will have their spot in Rio confirmed before the match starts.

The Brazilians, who have won all three Paralympic Games gold medals available to date, view the world championship as an important step in their preparations for the Rio 2016 Games.

“Our objective is to win the title and I’m sure that, with the training we’ve done, we have a very good chance of taking a fourth world title,” said Marquinhos, who was part of the team that won 1998 world title. “It’s a very important tournament, and if we win, that makes us a strong contender in 2016.”

Brazil’s main rival is Argentina, who won the world title in 2002 and 2006, Paralympic silver in 2004 and bronze in 2008. The Murciélagos (bats) are anxious to get back on top.

“We want to bring the trophy back home and are going all out to achieve this objective,” said the Argentine number 10, David Peralta. “We are strong contenders. We have a lot of confidence and have worked hard for many years for this. Let’s hope we win a place at Rio 2016.”

London 2012 silver medallists France will be one of the European challengers in Japan (Photo: Getty Images/Matthew Loyd)

In addition to the South American contenders, France and Spain, who took the silver and bronze medals, respectively, at the London 2012 Games, along with Beijing 2008 runners-up China are expected put up a strong fight.

“The world championship is a beautiful tournament, second only to the Paralympics,” said France’s Martin Baron, who was in the team that lost 2-0 to Brazil in the London 2012 final. “I’m confident we can perform well. We want to better our past performances. A place on the podium would be an enormous success.”

The 12 teams are split into three groups: France, Japan, Morocco and Paraguay form group A, with Brazil, China, Colombia and Turkey in group B, and Germany, Argentina, South Korea and Spain in group C. The top two teams in each group, as well as the two best third-placed teams, will go through to the quarter-finals.

In addition to Brazil and the world champions, a further six teams – to be decided in continental qualifiers in 2015 – will compete at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Qualifying for the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a continual process and the final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). Places are recommended by national federations or the sporting organisations of each country and its respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee, who will decide the final places.