Saturday, 12 November 2016

The History of the FIFA World Cup


No other sporting event captures the world's imagination like the FIFA World Cup. Ever since the first tentative competition in Uruguay in 1930, FIFA's flagship has constantly grown in popularity and prestige.

A group of visionary French football administrators, led in the 1920s by the innovative Jules Rimet, are credited with the original idea of bringing the world's strongest national football teams together to compete for the title of World Champions. The original gold trophy bore Jules Rimet's name and was contested three times in the 1930s, before the Second World War put a 12-year stop to the competition.

When it resumed, the FIFA World Cup rapidly advanced to its undisputed status as the greatest single sporting event of the modern world. Held since 1958 alternately in Europe and the Americas, the World Cup broke new ground with the Executive Committee's decision in May 1996 to select Korea and Japan as co-hosts for the 2002 edition.

Since 1930, the 16 tournaments have seen only seven different winners. However, the FIFA World Cup has also been punctuated by dramatic upsets that have helped create footballing history - the United States defeating England in 1950, North Korea's defeat of Italy in 1966, Cameroon's emergence in the 1980s and their opening match defeat of the Argentinean cup-holders in 1990....

Today, the FIFA World Cup holds the entire global public under its spell. An accumulated audience of over 37 billion people watched the France 98 tournament, including approximately 1.3 billion for the final alone, while over 2.7 million people flocked to watch the 64 matches in the French stadia.

After all these years and so many changes, however, the main focus of the FIFA World Cup remains the same - the glistening golden trophy, which is the embodiment of every footballer's ambition.

Past Winners of Football World Cup
YEAR WINNERS RUNNERS-UP HOSTS & TOTAL TEAMS
1930 Uruguay flag footballUruguay Argentina Uruguay: 13 teams were invited. no qualification
1934 italyItaly Czechslovakia Italy: 16 teams qualified through qualification round
1938 italyItaly Hungary France: 16 teams qualified but Austria withdrew
1950 Uruguay flag footballUruguay Brazil Brazil: 13 teams competed after 3 teams withdrew
1954 GermanyWest Germany Hungary Switzerland: 16 teams from 4 regions
1958 BrazilBrazil Sweden Sweden: 16 team from three regions (no asia)
1962 BrazilBrazil Czechslovakia Chile: 16 teams (no teams from Asia or Africa)
1966 England cricket flagEngland West Germany England: 16 teams 4 regions (North Korea Asian)
1970 BrazilBrazil Italy Mexico: 16 teams 5 regions (Morocco 1st africa side)
1974 GermanyWest Germany Netherlands West Germany: 16 teams 5 regions
1978 argentinaArgentina Netherlands Argentina: 16 teams
1982 italyItaly West Germany Spain: Expanded to 24 teams from 6 confederations
1986 argentinaArgentina West Germany Mexico: 24 teams and 52 matches made it biggest
1990 GermanyWest Germany Argentina Italy: 24 teams (More than 1 Asian team for first time)
1994 BrazilBrazil  Italy  United States: 24 teams 5 confenderations
1998 FranceFrance  Brazil France: Expanded to 32 teams (8 groups of 4 teams)
2002 BrazilBrazil  Germany Korea/Japan: 32 teams, (first time in hosted in asia)
2006 italyItaly  France Germany: 32 teams, 64 matches, record attendance
2010 SpainSpain  Netherlands South Africa: 32 teams (first time in Africa)
2014 GermanyGermany  Argentina Brazil: 32 team (most viewed world cup in history)
table seperater


table seperater
Most Successful FIFA World Cup Team: Brazil has won the competition record 5 times (2002, 1994, 1970, 1962 and 1958) they also lost two finals in (1998 and 1950). Pele is the only player to have won three world cups which is a unique record and from the looks of things will stay forever.Germany and Italy has won four world cups each. West Germany was by far the most consistent team after 1950 as they not only won 4 world cups but also lost 4 world cup finals. Netherlands is the only team to have appeared in the final more than 2 teams and fail to win the world cup. They lost three finals (1974, 1978 and 2010). Only European or South American teams has won the world cup so far. Only United States and Turkey are the only teams (outside Europe and South America) to have finished 3rd in world,
         Germany won the most recent FIFA World Cup in 2014 and it was their fourth title but first since      coming a unified country.

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