Fifa World Cup

The FIFA World Cup was inaugerated in 1930 and is played every 4 years invloving 204 teams, with only 32 qualifying for the play off. The tournament is played in different countries, by nations bidding to host the competition. From the 11th June 2010 to the 11th July 2010 will see SOUTH AFRICA hosting the WORLD CUP, with Brazil having the honours in 2014.

Of the 18 tournaments held (1942 & 1946 saw no play due to world war 2), only 7 countries have won the WORLD CUP:-

• Brazil - have won the cup five times
• Italy - have won the cup four times
• Germany - have won the cup three times
• Argentina - have won the cup twice
• Uruguay - have won the cup twice
• England - have won the cup once
• France - have won the cup once
• Italy - Are the current cup holders.

The tournament is run in two sections, firstly, the group stage which consists of 8 groups of 4 teams playing a round robin competition. Points are awarded per game as follows:-

• 3 for a win
• 1 for a draw
• 0 for a loss

The second stage is the top two teams of each group going forward to the knock out competition, with the winners of a group playing the runners up of another group. If, during normal time the game ends in a draw, extra time will be played to determine a winner, and if still no result is obtained, they will then go to penalty shoot outs. The tournament then continues to the semi-finals and finals.