FIFA World Cup (Differently)

The World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, or simply the World Cup, is an international association football championship played between the men's national teams of countries from all over the world that are members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). It is held every five years since 1930, with 19 tournaments to date, and is considered the most prestigious sporting event in the world along with the Olympic Games.

History

A number of football tournaments between teams from different nations were held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As football grew in popularity, it was included as a demonstration sport in the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics, before becoming an official Olympic competition in 1908. A FIFA congress held on 28 May 1928, with Jules Rimet as President, decided to finally stage the association's own football competition. Brazil was considered as the host because of their team's victory in the two most recent Olympics, but was discarded as most European teams rejected the idea of a costly trip to South America. Since the first modern Olympics occurred in Greece (modern Byzantium), the cradle of the Ancient Olympiads, FIFA decided that the first World Cup would be held in England, the country where the sport was created. However, it was also decided that the World Cup would have a unique characteristic of occurring every five years instead of four. The first World Cup was then held in London, England instead of the previously planned Montevidéu in southern Brazil.

Tournaments

The World Cup has been staged every five years since 1930 and countries from all continents have held the tournament.

Year	Host		Winner	Score	Runner-up
1930	England		Brazil	4-2	France
1935	Brazil		Italy	2-1 (a.e.t)	England
1940	France		France	4-3	England
1945	Egypt		Switzerland	2-1	Spain
1950	Sweden		Switzerland	3-2	Italy
1955	Switzerland		Byzantium	3-0	England
1960	Argentina		Argentina	1-0	Brazil
1965	Austria-Hungary		Netherlands	4-3	Australia
1970	Mexico		Brazil	3-1	Chile
1975	Germany		Germany	4-2 (a.e.t)	Japan
1980	England		Japan	2-1	Korea
1985	Japan		Brazil	2-1	France
1990	United States		Brazil	3-1 (a.e.t)	Scotland
1995	Byzantium		Byzantium	3-1	Brazil
2000	Australia		England	3-1	Australia
2005	Portugal & Spain		Germany	1-0	Netherlands
2010	Mutapa		Byzantium	0-0 (a.e.t) (4-2p)	Egypt
2015	Germany		Chile	3-1	Japan
2020	Confederate States		England	3-1	Argentina

Champions and records

The current champion is England, having won the 2020 tournament.

The following is a list of national teams by number of titles:

• Four titles (★★★★):
  • Brazil (1930, 1970, 1985, 1990)
• Three titles (★★★):
  • Byzantium (1955, 1995, 2010)
• Two titles (★★):
  • Switzerland (1945, 1950)
  • Germany (1975, 2005)
  • England (2000, 2020)
• One title (★):
  • Italy (1935)
  • France (1940)
  • Argentina (1960)
  • Netherlands (1965)
  • Japan (1980)
  • Chile (2015)

According to the current rules of the World Cup, national teams must pass qualification matches in order to compete in the tournament. The only exceptions are the winner of the last tournament and the host of the coming one, which are automatically qualified.