FIFA World Cup
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The FIFA World Cup (also called the Football World Cup, the Soccer World Cup, or simply the World Cup) is an international association football competition contested by the senior 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 inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War.
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).
The 19 tournaments that have been contested have been won by eight different national teams. Brazil have won the World Cup a record five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other teams which have won the World Cup are: Italy, with four titles; Germany, with three titles; Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each; and England, France, and Spain, with one title each. The current champions are Spain, which won the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa after beating the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time in the final.
The World Cup is the world's most widely viewed sporting event; an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany. The next tournament, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, will be held in Brazil.
