Football World Cup
The Football World Cup is the most important competition in international football (soccer). Organised by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's governing body, the World Cup finals tournament is the most widely-viewed and followed sporting event in the world, bigger than the Olympic Games.The finals tournament is held every four years, but the World Cup competition itself takes place over a two year period. Over 160 national teams compete in regional qualifying tournaments for a place in the finals. The finals tournament now involves 32 national teams (increased from 24 in 1998) competing over a 4 week period in a previously nominated host nation. A recent innovation has allowed more than one country to act as joint hosts.
The next football world cup will be held in Germany in 2006.
| Table of contents |
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2 Football World Cup tournaments 3 Top scorers 4 Overall top scorers 5 See also 6 External Links |
The World Cup was not the first international football competition. Amateur football became a part of the official Olympic programme for the first time in 1908 (See: Football at the 1908 Summer Olympics). In Turin in 1909, in what is sometimes described as The First World Cup, Sir Thomas Lipton organised a football tournament to contest the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy. Italy, Germany and Switzerland sent their most prestigious professional club sides to the competition but The Football Association of England refused to be associated with it and declined the offer to send a team. Not wishing to have Britain unrepresented in the competition, Lipton invited West Auckland FC, an amateur side from the north-east of England and mostly made up of coal miners, to take part. West Auckland won the tournament and returned to Italy in 1911 to defend their title. In the second competition West Auckland beat Juventus 6-1 in the final and were awarded the trophy outright.
The first FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay and ran from July 13- 30, 1930. It was organised mainly by Jules Rimet, the FIFA president at the time. Thirteen nations took part - six from South America, five from Europe and two from North America. Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in front of crowd of 93,000 in Montevideo to become the first nation to win the trophy.
In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the Jules Rimet trophy. A new trophy was then designed. Argentina, Germany (both times as West Germany), and Brazil have all won the second trophy twice. However, the current trophy will not be retired until the name plaque has been entirely filled with the names of winning nations. This will not happen until 2038.
Brazil, by a clear margin, are the most successful World Cup team overall, having won the tournament five times in total and finished as runners-up twice. Germany, three-time winners (as West Germany) and four-time runners-up (three times as West Germany), are next, while Italy have also won three trophies. Argentina and Uruguay are both two-time World Champions, although Uruguay's two successes came rather a long time ago, in the early years of the tournament.
The next World Cup finals will be held in Germany, in 2006. As indicated below, the 2010 finals will be held in South Africa. The 2014 finals, which FIFA has earmarked for South America, is expected to be held in Brazil [1]
as CONMEBOL has already backed it as their choice.History
| Year | Host | Final | Third Place Match | ||||
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| Winner | Score | Runner-up | 3rd Place | Score | 4th Place
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| 2014 Football World Cup 2014>Details | South America |
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| 2010 Football World Cup 2010>Details | South Africa |
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| 2006 Football World Cup 2006>Details | Germany |
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| 2002 Football World Cup 2002>Details | South Korea & Japan | Brazil | 2 - 0 | Germany | Turkey | 3 - 2 | South Korea
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| 1998 Football World Cup 1998>Details | France | France | 3 - 0 | Brazil | Croatia | 2 - 1 | Netherlands
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| 1994 Details | USA | Brazil | 0 - 0 Extra time>aet | Italy |  Sweden | 4 - 0 |  Bulgaria |
| 3 - 2 on penalties
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| 1990 Football World Cup 1990>Details | Italy | West Germany | 1 - 0 | Argentina | Italy | 2 - 1 | England
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| 1986 Football World Cup 1986>Details | Mexico | Argentina | 3 - 2 | West Germany | France | 4 - 2 Extra time>aet | Belgium
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| 1982 Football World Cup 1982>Details | Spain | Italy | 3 - 1 | West Germany | Poland | 3 - 2 | France
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| 1978 Football World Cup 1978>Details | Argentina | Argentina | 3 - 1 Extra time>aet | Netherlands | Brazil | 2 - 1 | Italy
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| 1974 Football World Cup 1974>Details | West Germany | West Germany | 2 - 1 | Netherlands | Poland | 2 - 1 | Brazil
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| 1970 Football World Cup 1970>Details | Mexico | Brazil | 4 - 1 | Italy | West Germany | 1 - 0 | Uruguay
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| 1966 Football World Cup 1966>Details | England | England | 4 - 2 Extra time>aet | West Germany | Portugal | 2 - 1 | Soviet Union
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| 1962 Football World Cup 1962>Details | Chile | Brazil | 3 - 1 | Czechoslovakia | Chile | 1 - 0 | Yugoslavia
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| 1958 Football World Cup 1958>Details | Sweden | Brazil | 5 - 2 | Sweden | France | 6 - 3 | West Germany
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| 1954 Football World Cup 1954>Details | Switzerland | West Germany | 3 - 2 | Hungary | Austria | 3 - 1 | Uruguay
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| 1950 Football World Cup 1950>Details | Brazil | Uruguay | 2 - 1(1) | Brazil | Sweden | n/a(1) | Spain
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| 1946 | NOT HELD
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| 1942 | NOT HELD
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| 1938 Football World Cup 1938>Details | France | Italy | 4 - 2 | Hungary | Brazil | 4 - 2 | Sweden
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| 1934 Football World Cup 1934>Details | Italy | Italy | 2 - 1 Extra time>aet | Czechoslovakia | Germany | 3 - 2 | Austria
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| 1930 Football World Cup 1930>Details | Uruguay | Uruguay | 4 - 2 | Argentina | No 3rd place match was played. Both USA and Yugoslavia shared the 3rd place. | ||
1 There was no official World Cup final match in 1950. The tournament was decided in a final group contested by four teams. However, Uruguay's 2-1 defeat of Brazil was the decisive match which put them ahead on points and ensured that they finished top of the group as world champions.
Final group standings: 1st: Uruguay; 2nd: Brazil; 3rd: Sweden; 4th: Spain.
| World Cup | Top scorer | Goals
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|---|---|---|
| 2002 Korea/Japan | Ronaldo (Brazil) | 8 |
| 1998 France | Davor Êuker (Croatia) | 6 |
| 1994 USA | Hristo Stoitchkov (Bulgaria) Oleg Salenko (Russia) | 6 |
| 1990 Italy | Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) | 6 |
| 1986 Mexico | Gary Lineker (England) | 6 |
| 1982 Spain | Paolo Rossi (Italy) | 6 |
| 1978 Argentina | Mario Kempes (Argentina) | 6 |
| 1974 West Germany | Grzegorz Lato (Poland) | 7 |
| 1970 Mexico | Gerd Müller (West Germany) | 10 |
| 1966 England | Eusébio (Portugal) | 9 |
| 1962 Chile | Garrincha (Brazil) | 4 |
| 1958 Sweden | Just Fontaine (France) | 13 |
| 1954 Switzerland | Sándor Kocsis (Hungary) | 11 |
| 1950 Brazil | Ademir (Brazil) | 9 |
| 1938 France | Leónidas (Brazil) | 8 |
| 1934 Italy | Oldrich Nejedly (Czechoslovakia) | 5 |
| 1930 Uruguay | Guillermo Stábile (Argentina) | 8 |
14 Goals
Overall top scorers
10 Goals
9 Goals
8 Goals
See also
External Links
