The FIFA World Cup, also called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930,
except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not contested because of World War II.
The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing
for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of
about a month – this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase,
which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to
determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host
nation(s).
During the 18 tournaments that have been held, seven nations have won the title. Brazil have won the World Cup a record five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. Italy, the current champions, have won four titles, and Germany are next with three titles. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each.
The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England, with the first international tournament, the inaugural edition of the British Home Championship, taking place in 1884. At this stage the sport was rarely played outside the United Kingdom. As football began to increase in popularity in other parts of the world at the turn of the century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer
Olympics (however, the IOC has retroactively upgraded their status to official events), and at the 1906 Intercalated Games.
After FIFA
was founded in 1904, there was an attempt made by FIFA to arrange an
international football tournament between nations outside of the
Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were very early days
for international football, and the official history of FIFA describes
the competition as having been a failure.
With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin
in 1909. The Lipton tournament was a championship between individual
clubs (not national teams) from different nations, each one of which
represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as
The First World Cup,
and featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy,
Germany and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated
with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional
team. Lipton invited West Auckland, an amateur side from County Durham,
to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and
returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title, and were given the
trophy to keep forever, as per the rules of the competition.
In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for managing the event.This paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition, at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and thirteen European teams, and won by Belgium.Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928.
Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with PresidentJules Rimet
the driving force, again started looking at staging its own
international tournament outside of the Olympics. On 28 May 1928, the
FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship organised by FIFA.
With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions (as 1924
was the start of FIFA's professional era) and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament.
The national associations of selected nations were invited to send
a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant
a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides.
Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months
before the start of the competition. Rimet eventually persuaded teams
from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make
the trip. In total thirteen nations took part: seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America.
The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously on 13 July 1930, and were won by France and USA, who defeated Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France. In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and in doing so became the first nation to win the World Cup.
World Cups before World War II
After the creation of the World Cup, the 1932 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, did not plan to include football as part of the schedule due to the low popularity of the sport in the United States, as American football had been growing in popularity. FIFA and the IOC also disagreed over the status of
amateur players, and so football was dropped from the Games. Olympic football returned at the 1936 Summer Olympics, but was now overshadowed by the more prestigious World Cup.
The issues facing the early World Cup tournaments were the
difficulties of intercontinental travel, and war. Few South American
teams were willing to travel to Europe for the 1934 and 1938 tournaments, with Brazil the only South American team to compete in both. The 1942 and 1946 competitions were cancelled due to World War II and its aftermath.
World Cups after World War II
The 1950 World Cup, held in Brazil, was the first to include British participants. British teams
withdrew from FIFA in 1920, partly out of unwillingness to play against
the countries they had been at war with, and partly as a protest
against foreign influence on football, but rejoined in 1946 following FIFA's invitation. The tournament also saw the return of 1930 champions Uruguay,
who had boycotted the previous two World Cups. Uruguay won the
tournament again by defeating the host nation Brazil in one of the most
famous matches in World Cup history, which was later called the "Maracanazo" (Portuguese: Maracanaço).
Map of countries' best results
In the tournaments between 1934 and 1978, 16 teams competed in each tournament, except in 1938, when Austria was absorbed into Germany after qualifying, leaving the tournament with 15 teams, and in 1950, when India, Scotland and Turkey withdrew, leaving the tournament with 13 teams.
Most of the participating nations were from Europe and South America,
with a small minority from North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
These teams were usually defeated easily by the European and South
American teams. Until 1982, the only teams from outside Europe and
South America to advance out of the first round were: USA, semi-finalists in 1930; Cuba, quarter-finalists in 1938; Korea DPR, quarter-finalists in 1966; and Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1970.
Expansion to 32 teams
The tournament was expanded to 24 teams in the 1982, and then to 32 in 1998,
allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part.
In recent years, teams from these regions have enjoyed more success,
and those who have reached the quarter-finals include: Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1986; Cameroon, quarter-finalists in 1990; Korea Republic, finishing in fourth place in 2002; and Senegal and USA,
both quarter-finalists in 2002. European and South American teams have
remained the stronger forces; for example, the quarter-finalists in
2006 were all from Europe or South America.
An equivalent tournament for women's football, the FIFA Women's World Cup, was first held in 1991 in the People's Republic of China. The women's tournament is smaller in scale and profile than the men's, but is growing; the
number of entrants for the 2007 tournament was 120, more than double that of 1991.
Football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games except 1896 and 1932. Unlike many other sports, the men's football tournament at the Olympics is not a top-level tournament, and since 1992, an under-23 tournament with each team allowed three over-age players. Women's football made its Olympic debut in 1996, and is contested between full national sides with no age restrictions.
The FIFA Confederations Cup
is a tournament held one year before the World Cup at the World Cup
host nation(s) as a dress-rehearsal for the upcoming World Cup. It is
contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation
championships, along with the FIFA World Cup champion and the host
country.
From 1930 to 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the World Cup winner. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, but in 1946 it was renamed after the FIFA president Jules Rimet who set up the first tournament. In 1970, Brazil's
third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the trophy
permanently. However, the trophy was stolen in 1983, and has never been
recovered, apparently melted down by the thieves.
After 1970, a new trophy, known as the FIFA World Cup Trophy,
was designed. The experts of FIFA, coming from seven different
countries, evaluated the 53 presented models, finally opting for the
work of the Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The new trophy is 36 cm (14.2 in) high, made of solid 18 carat (75%) gold and weighs 6.175 kg (13.6 lb). The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite while the bottom side of the trophy bears the engraved year and name of
each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974.
The description of the trophy by Gazzaniga was: "The lines spring out
from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world.
From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the
sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of
victory."
This new trophy is not awarded to the winning nation permanently.
World Cup winners retain the trophy until the next tournament and are
awarded a gold-plated replica rather than the solid gold original.
Format
Qualification
Since the second World Cup in 1934, qualifying tournaments have been held to thin the field for the final tournament. They are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, and Europe),
overseen by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA
decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones
beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the
confederations' teams.
The qualification process can start as early as almost three years
before the final tournament and last over a two-year period. The
formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations.
Usually, one or two places are awarded to winners of intercontinental play-offs.
For example, the winner of the Oceanian zone and the fifth-placed team
from the Asian zone entered a play-off for a spot in the 2010 World Cup. From the 1938 World
Cup
onwards, host nations have received automatic qualification to the
final tournament. This right was also granted to the defending
champions between 1938 and 2002, but was withdrawn from the 2006 FIFA World Cup onward, requiring the champions to qualify. Brazil, winners in 2002, thus became the first defending champions to play in a qualifying match.
The current final tournament features 32 national teams competing
over a month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: the group
stage followed by the knockout stage.
In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four
teams each. Eight teams are seeded, including the hosts, with the other
seeded teams selected using a formula based on the FIFA World Rankings and/or performances in recent World Cups, and drawn to separate groups.
The other teams are assigned to different "pots", usually based on
geographical criteria, and teams in each pot are drawn at random to the
eight groups. Since 1998, constraints have been applied to the draw to ensure that no group contains more than two European teams or more
than one team from any other confederation.
Each group plays a round-robin tournament,
guaranteeing that every team will play at least three matches. The last
round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to
preserve fairness among all four teams. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Since 1994, three points have been awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss
(prior to this, winners received two points rather than three). If two or more teams end up with the same number of points, tiebreakers are used: first is goal difference, then total goals scored, then head-to-head results, and finally drawing of lots (i.e., determining team positions at random).
The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts
used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the "round of
16" (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays
against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the
quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the
final.
Selection of hosts
Early World Cups were given to countries at meetings of FIFA's
congress. The choice of location gave rise to controversies, a
consequence of the three-week boat journey between South America and
Europe, the two centres of strength in football. The decision to hold
the first World Cup in Uruguay, for example, led to only four European nations competing. The next two World Cups were both held in Europe. The decision to hold the second of these, the 1938 FIFA World Cup, in France was controversial, as the American countries had been led to understand
that the World Cup would rotate between the two continents. Both Argentina and Uruguay thus boycotted the tournament.
Since the 1958 FIFA World Cup,
to avoid future boycotts or controversy, FIFA began a pattern of
alternating the hosts between the Americas and Europe, which continued
until the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan, was the first one held in Asia, and the only tournament with multiple hosts. In 2010, South Africa will become the first African nation to host the World Cup. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Brazil, the first held in South America since 1978, and will be the first occasion where consecutive World Cups are held outside Europe.
Wikinews has related news: FIFA receives eleven bids for 2018 and 2022 World Cup
The host country is now chosen in a vote by FIFA's Executive Committee. This is done under a single transferable vote
system. The national football association of a country desiring to host
the event receives a "Hosting Agreement" from FIFA, which explains the
steps and requirements that are expected from a strong bid. The bidding
association also receives a form, the submission of which represents
the official confirmation of the candidacy. After this, a FIFA
designated group of inspectors visit the country to identify that the
country meets the requirements needed to host the event and a report on
the country is produced. The decision on who will host the World Cup is
usually made six or seven years in advance of the tournament. However,
there have been occasions where the hosts of multiple future
tournaments were announced at the same time, as will be the case for
the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
For the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the final tournament is rotated
between confederations, allowing only countries from the chosen
confederation (Africa in 2010, South America in 2014) to bid to host
the tournament. The rotation policy was introduced after the controversy surrounding Germany's victory over South Africa in the vote to host the 2006 tournament.
However, the policy of continental rotation will not continue beyond
2014, so any country, except those belonging to confederations that
hosted the two preceding tournaments, can apply as hosts for World Cups
starting from 2018.
This is partly to avoid a similar scenario to the bidding process for
the 2014 tournament, where Brazil was the only official bidder.
Organisation and media coverage
The World Cup was first televised in 1954 and is now the most
widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even
the Olympic Games. The cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 World Cup is estimated to be 26.29 billion.[1]
715.1 million individuals watched the final match of this tournament (a
ninth of the entire population of the planet). The 2006 World Cup draw,
which decided the distribution of teams into groups, was watched by 300
million viewers.
Each FIFA World Cup since 1966 has its own mascot or logo. World Cup Willie, the mascot for the 1966 competition, was the first World Cup mascot. Recent World Cups have also featured official match balls specially designed for each World Cup.
^
There was no official World Cup Third Place match in 1930; The United
States and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals. FIFA now recognizes the
United States as the third-placed team and Yugoslavia as the
fourth-placed team, using the overall records of the teams in the
tournament.
^ ab There was no official World Cup final match in 1950.
The tournament winner was decided by a final round-robin group
contested by four teams (Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden, and Spain). However, Uruguay's 2–1 victory over Brazil
was the decisive match (and also coincidentally one of the last two
matches of the tournament) which put them ahead on points and ensured
that they finished top of the group as world champions. Therefore, this
match is often considered the final of the 1950 World Cup. Likewise, Sweden's 3–1 victory over Spain (played at the same time as Uruguay vs Brazil) ensured that they finished third.
Map of winning countries
In all, 76 nations have played in at least one World Cup. Of these, seven national teams have won the World Cup, and they have added stars to their crests,
with each star representing a World Cup victory. (However, Uruguay are
an exception to this unwritten rule; They choose to display four stars
on their crest, representing their two gold medals at the 1924 and 1928
Summer Olympics and their two World Cup titles in 1930 and 1950). With
five titles, Brazil are the most successful World Cup team and also the
only nation to have played in every World Cup to date.
Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) are the only nations
to have won consecutive titles. Brazil and Germany have both made the
most appearances in the final, with seven, while Germany have made the
most appearances in the top four, with eleven.
Six of the seven champions have won one of their titles while playing in their own homeland, the exception being Brazil, who finished as runners-up after losing the deciding match on home soil in 1950. England (1966) and France (1998) won their only titles while playing as host nations. Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934) and Argentina (1978) won their first titles as host nations but have gone on to win again, while Germany (1974) won their second title on home soil.
Other nations have also been successful when hosting the tournament. Sweden (runners-up in 1958), Chile (third place in 1962), Korea Republic (fourth place in 2002), Mexico (quarter-finals in 1970 and 1986), and Japan (second round in 2002) all have their best
results when serving as hosts. So far, all host nations have progressed beyond the first round.
Best performances by continental zones
To date, the final of the World Cup has only been contested by European and South American
teams. The two continents have won nine titles apiece. Only two teams
from outside these two continents have ever reached the semi-finals of
the competition: USA (North, Central America and Caribbean) in 1930 and Korea Republic (Asia) in 2002. The best result of an African team is reaching the quarter-finals: Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002. Only one Oceanian qualifier, Australia in 2006, advanced to the second round.
Brazil's
victory in 1958 in Sweden is the only time a non-European team won a
World Cup in Europe. A European team has never won the World Cup
outside of Europe, as all World Cups hosted in either South America,
North America, or Asia have been won by a South American team. Only
twice have consecutive World Cups been won by teams from the same
continent – when Italy and Brazil successfully defended their titles in 1938 and 1962 respectively.
At the end of each World Cup, awards are presented to the players
and teams for accomplishments other than their final team positions in
the tournament. There are currently six awards:
The Golden Ball for the best player, determined by a vote of media members (first awarded in 1982); the Silver Ball and the Bronze Ball are awarded to the players finishing second and third in the voting respectively;
The Golden Shoe (sometimes called the Golden Boot) for the top goalscorer (first awarded in 1982, but retrospectively applied to all tournaments from 1930); most recently, the Silver Shoe and the Bronze Shoe have been awarded to the second and third top goalscorers respectively;
The Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper, decided by the FIFA Technical Study Group (first awarded in 1994);
The Best Young Player Award
for the best player aged 21 or younger at the start of the calendar
year, decided by the FIFA Technical Study Group (first awarded in 2006).
The FIFA Fair Play Trophy for the team with the best record of fair play, according to the points system and criteria established by the FIFA Fair Play Committee (first awarded in 1978);
The Most Entertaining Team
for the team that has entertained the public the most during the World
Cup, determined by a poll of the general public (first awarded in 1994);
An All-Star Team consisting of the best players of the tournament is also announced for each tournament since 1998.
The overall top goalscorer in World Cups is Brazil's Ronaldo, scorer of 15 goals in three tournaments. West Germany's Gerd Müller is second, with 14 goals in two tournaments. The third placed goalscorer, France's Just Fontaine, holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup. All his 13 goals were scored in the 1958 tournament.
Brazil's Mário Zagallo and West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer
are the only people to date to win the World Cup as both player and
head coach. Zagallo won in 1958 and 1962 as a player and in 1970 as
head coach. Beckenbauer won in 1974 as captain and in 1990 as head coach.Italy's Vittorio Pozzo is the only head coach to ever win two World Cups. All World Cup winning head coaches were natives of the country they coached to victory.
As of the end of the 2006 tournament, Brazil and Germany have both
played 92 matches, the most by any nation, with Brazil scoring the most
goals, 201. The two teams have played each other only once in the World Cup, in the 2002 final.
9 July 2010:
A look back at the matches, the fans and the atmosphere in South Africa
through an array of pictures from Tom Jenkins and audio from John
Domokos and Peter Sale
John Domokos speaks to
people from all parts of the South Africa who reflect on their
favourite memories of this World Cup and discuss what it meant for them
and the country
World Cup 2010 statistics: every match and every player in data
As South Africa gets ready for the World
Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands, we bring you the most
comprehensive statistical guide to every player and every team's
performance in the tournament so far
World cup 2010 statistics: Paul the octopus chooses Spain to win the final this Sunday Photograph: Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images
This Sunday, Spain will play the Netherlands in the world cup 2010 final. But how important has this tournament been - and which teams have played their best?
Opta (this is their Twitter feed), which covers 30 different sports in around 70 countries, has agreed to let the Datablog publish the complete statistical analysis of all the games so far in the tournament.
And, for the first time, we can give you the full list of each player - and how they've performed. Thanks to Many Eyes, we can show you how each performance looks
As it is, this tournament has seen plenty of records broken. Interesting facts about the World cup from Opta include:
• Italy have now drawn 21 games at World Cup Finals – more than any other side • Brazil have now scored in 25 successive group matches at the World Cup, since drawing 0-0 with Spain in 1978 • South Africa became the first host nation to be eliminated from the World Cup at the Group Stage • After 15 wins and three draws, Spain lost for the first time ever to Switzerland • It is now seven games without a win at an international tournament for France • South American sides lost just one of 15 Group Stage matches • The last time there was a World Cup group with no team winning more than one game was in 2002 and also involved England • Italy's goalkeepers made just one save at this World Cup, conceding five goals from six shots on target • Spain were the first
team since Hungary in 1986 not to collect a single card in the group stage • England haven't won a World Cup finals match where the opposition have scored since beating Cameroon in 1990 • Wayne Rooney has never scored a World Cup finals goal in eight appearances • Holland's win over Brazil was the South American side's first World Cup defeat outside Europe since 1950 • Germany's 3rd place play-off match against Uruguay is their 99th match at the World Cup finals •
The only World Cup semi-final won by more than a one-goal margin since
1986 was Germany v Italy in 2006 and that was after extra time • Holland join France, Hungary and Italy as the only sides to have
beaten Brazil twice at the World Cup
The data can be downloaded below - see how it compares to our player ratings, too.
World cup 2010 statistics: Paul the octopus chooses Spain to win the final this Sunday Photograph: Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images 
