Thursday, December 27, 2007


The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international football competition contested by the men's national football teams of the member nations 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, due to World War II.
The tournament's final phase, often called the World Cup Finals, is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final. The current format of the Finals involves thirty-two national teams competing at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. To determine the participating teams, qualifying rounds take place over the three years preceding the Finals.
In the eighteen tournaments held, only seven nations have won the title. Brazil is the most successful World Cup team, having won the tournament five times. The current Cup holder, Italy, follows with four titles, while Germany holds three. The other former champions are Uruguay (who won the inaugural tournament) and Argentina with two titles each, and England and France with one title each.
The most recent World Cup Finals were held between June 9 and July 9, 2006 in Germany, where Italy was crowned champion after beating France in the final, winning the penalty shootout 5-3 after the match finished 1-1 after extra time. Germany placed third after beating Portugal 3-1. The next World Cup Finals will be held in 2010 in South Africa.
Since 1991, FIFA has also organized the FIFA Women's World Cup every four years.

Football World Cup History
The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England, Uruguay then won the Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928. In 1928 FIFA made the decision to stage their own international tournament outside of the Olympics. 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.

Previous international competitions
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 football 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.

First 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.
The 1950 World Cup 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 a foreign influence on football,
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. .

Growth

Main article: FIFA World Cup Trophy Trophy

Format

Main article: FIFA World Cup qualification Qualification
The current finals tournament features 32 national teams competing over a month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: a group stage followed by a knockout stage.
In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. The finals draw, held six months before the tournament in the host nation, determines the groups. Eight teams are seeded (including the hosts, with the other teams selected using a formula based on both the FIFA World Rankings and 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 the 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.
Below are the various formats used in previous tournaments:

1930: A group stage, followed by a knockout stage with 4 teams (group winners; note that no third-place match was played)
1934–1938: Single-elimination tournament; these are the only tournaments without a group stage
1950: A first group stage, followed by a final group stage with 4 teams (group winners); this is the only tournament without an official final match
1954–1970: A group stage, followed by a knockout stage with 8 teams (group winners and runners-up)
1974–1978: A first group stage, followed by a second group stage with 8 teams (first round group winners and runners-up), followed by the final (second round group winners; second round group runners-up played in the third-place match)
1982: A first group stage, followed by a second group stage with 12 teams (first round group winners and runners-up), followed by a knockout stage with 4 teams (second round group winners)
1986–1994: A group stage, followed by a knockout stage with 16 teams (group winners, runners-up and the four best third-placed teams)
1998–present: A group stage, followed by a knockout stage with 16 teams (group winners and runners-up) Final tournament

Main article: FIFA World Cup hosts Selection of hosts
After the 2010 FIFA World Cup was allocated to Africa, the 2014 FIFA World Cup was allocated to South America in 2003, which will be the first held in South America since 1978. Brazil and Colombia had formally expressed interest in hosting the tournament,

Bidding for the 2014 FIFA World Cup
The 2018 FIFA World Cup has not been allocated to any continent; in fact, the policy of continental rotation may not continue beyond 2014. Countries which have expressed an interest in hosting the 2018 World Cup include Australia, Nigeria, England, Russia, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and the United States, while the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) are planning a joint bid, after Belgium and the Netherlands successfully co-hosted the 2000 UEFA European Football Championship.

Bidding for the 2018 FIFA World Cup
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.
Each FIFA World Cup since 1966 has its own mascot. World Cup Willie, the mascot for the 1966 competition, was the first World Cup mascot. Mascots for the 2006 World Cup were Goleo, a lion, and Pille, a football.
See also: FIFA World Cup mascots

Media coverage

World Cup summaries
In all, 78 nations have qualified at least once for the World Cup Finals. Of these, only eleven have made it to the final match, and only seven have won. The seven national teams that have won the World Cup have added stars to the crest, located on their shirt, with each star representing a World Cup victory.
With five titles, Brazil is the most successful World Cup team and also the only nation to have participated in every World Cup Finals so far. Italy follows with four titles, including the most recent one in 2006. Brazil and Italy are also the only nations to have won consecutive titles, each winning their first two titles back-to-back (Italy: 1934 and 1938; Brazil: 1958 and 1962). In 1970 and 1994, Brazil and Italy were finalists, each having a chance to become the first team to win a third title (and allowing them to keep the Jules Rimet trophy permanently) and a fourth title respectively. Brazil won both matches, and added a record fifth title in 2002. They have won the World Cup in the four continents that the World Cup has been hosted at (Europe: 1958; South America: 1962; North America: 1970 & 1994; Asia: 2002). The only other team to win a World Cup outside its own continental zone is Argentina (1986 in North America).
Italy, Brazil, West Germany, Argentina, as well as non-champions Netherlands, are the only teams to have ever appeared in consecutive finals, while Brazil and West Germany are the only two teams ever to appear in three consecutive World Cup final matches (1994, 1998, 2002 and 1982, 1986, 1990, respectively). Brazil won two out of the three (1994, 2002) and West Germany won only one (1990). Of the eighteen World Cup final matches, only twice have the same two teams contested the match. Brazil and Italy played in 1970 and 1994, and West Germany and Argentina in 1986 and 1990 (West Germany and Argentina also became the only two teams to meet in consecutive finals). Every final match has also featured at least one out of Brazil, Italy, (West) Germany, and Argentina, the four teams with the most appearances in the final match.
Below is a list of the 24 teams that have finished in the top four in a World Cup. Germany lead all nations with 11 top four finishes. Brazil and Germany lead all nations with the most appearances in the final match with seven appearances each.
* = hosts
^ = includes results representing West Germany between 1954 and 1990
# = states that have since split into several independent nations

Successful national teams
Six of the seven champions have won one of their titles while playing in their own homeland, the exception being Brazil, who lost the deciding match (known as Maracanazo) when they hosted the 1950 tournament.
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 cup title on home soil.
Other nations have also been successful during their spell as hosts. Sweden (runners-up in 1958), Chile (third place in 1962), South Korea (fourth place in 2002), Mexico (quarterfinals in 1970 and 1986) and Japan (second round in 2002) all have their best results when serving as hosts. In fact, all host nations have progressed at least beyond the first round.

Performances by host nations
See also: National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup#Performance by confederation
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: the USA (in 1930) and South Korea (in 2002). African teams have had some success of late but have never reached the semi-finals. Oceania have only been represented in the World Cup three times, and only once did a Oceanian team reached the second round.
Interestingly, all World Cups won by European teams have taken place in Europe. The only non-European team to win in Europe is Brazil in 1958. Only twice had consecutive World Cups been won by teams from the same continent - when Italy and Brazil successfully defended their titles in 1938 and 1962 respectively.

Best performances by continental zones

Main article: FIFA World Cup awards Awards

Main article: FIFA World Cup records Records and statistics

Flag of Brazil Ronaldo
Flag of Germany Gerd Müller
Flag of France Just Fontaine
Flag of Brazil Pelé
Flag of Germany Jürgen Klinsmann
Flag of Hungary Sándor Kocsis
Flag of Argentina Gabriel Batistuta
Flag of England Gary Lineker
Flag of Germany Miroslav Klose
Flag of Germany Helmut Rahn
Flag of Peru Teófilo Cubillas
Flag of Poland Grzegorz Lato
Flag of Brazil Ademir
Flag of Germany Hans Schäfer
Flag of Hungary Lajos Tichy
Flag of the Netherlands Johnny Rep
Flag of Poland Andrzej Szarmach
Flag of Argentina Mario Kempes
Flag of Austria Erich Probst
Flag of Brazil Bebeto
Flag of Brazil Rivelino
Flag of Bulgaria Hristo Stoichkov
Flag of Croatia Davor Šuker
Flag of France Thierry Henry
Flag of Germany Helmut Haller
Flag of Germany Lothar Matthäus
Flag of Germany Max Morlock
Flag of Hungary György Sárosi
Flag of Hungary Gyula Zsengellér
Flag of Italy Salvatore Schillaci
Flag of the Netherlands Dennis Bergkamp
Flag of the Netherlands Rob Rensenbrink
Flag of Poland Zbigniew Boniek
Flag of Russia Oleg Salenko
Flag of Switzerland Josef Hügi
Flag of Austria Hans Krankl
Flag of Belgium Marc Wilmots
Flag of Brazil Garrincha
Flag of Brazil Romário
Flag of Brazil Zico
Flag of Cameroon Roger Milla
Flag of the Czech Republic Tomáš Skuhravý
Flag of England Geoff Hurst
Flag of France Michel Platini
Flag of France Zinedine Zidane
Flag of Italy Alessandro Altobelli
Flag of Italy Silvio Piola
Flag of Germany Franz Beckenbauer
Flag of the Netherlands Johan Neeskens
Flag of Northern Ireland Peter McParland
Flag of Spain Estanislao Basora
Flag of Spain Emilio Butragueño
Flag of Spain Fernando Hierro
Flag of Spain Fernando Morientes
Flag of Spain Raúl
Flag of Sweden Kennet Andersson
Flag of Sweden Henrik Larsson
Flag of Uruguay Pedro Cea
Flag of Uruguay Juan Alberto Schiaffino Overall top goalscorers

Fastest goals
*Did not play but was part of the squad.

FIFA World Cup winning captains and managers

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