FIFA WORLD CUP HISTORY

FIFA World Cup History         The FIFA World Cup, occasionally called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup,is an international football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Federation International 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 when it was not contested because of World war ІІ.

The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England, with the first international tournament, the inaugural edition of the British Home Championship, taking place in 1884. At this stage the sports was rarely played outside the United Kingdom. After FIFA was founded in 1904, there an attempt made by FIFA to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside of the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognize the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for managing the event. This paved the way for the world's first international football competition at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and thirteen European teams, and won by Belgium. Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournament in 1924 and 1928.

Estadio Centenario, the location of the first World Cup final in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay. The first two world cup matches took place simultaneously on July 1930, and were won by France and USA, who defeated Mexico 4-1 and Belgium 3-0 respectively. The first goal in world cup history was scored by Lucian laurent of France. In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and in doing so become the first nation to win the World Cup

The 1942 and 1946 competitions were cancelled due to World War ІІ and its aftermath. After the World War ІІ the 1950 World Cup, held in Brazil, was the first to include British Participants. British teams withdraw from FIFA in 1920, party out of unwillingness to play against the countries they had been at war with, and party as a protest against foreign influence on football, but rejoined in 1946 following FIFA's invitation

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 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 World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 final.

198 nations attempted to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, while a record a 204 countries entered qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This World Cup will be held in South Africa, between 11 June and 11 July 2010, and the 2014 FIFA World Cup will be held in Brazil