Football History - Worl Cup Football

Part Two

The FIFA World Cup usually known the Football World Cup but referred to simply as the World Cup. It is an international association football competition contested by the men’s national teams of the members of FIFA. Every four years, the championship has been awarded since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946.

The current format of the contest involves 32 teams by competing for the title at venues through the host nation over a period of about a month. This stage is often called the World Cup Finals.

Seven nations have won the title during the 18 tournaments that have been held. A record five times, Brazil has won the World Cup and they are the only playing team to have played in every tournament. Italy who is the current champions, have won four titles and Germany are next with three titles. Another former champion is Uruguay. It was the winners of the opening tournament and Argentina also with two titles each. England and France got with one title each.

The World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting incident in the world, where an expected 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 World Cup which is held in Germany. The next World Cup will be held in South Africa between 11 June and 11 July 2010, and the 2014 World Cup will be held in Brazil.

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