FIFA World Cup (WFAC)

The FIFA World Cup, often simply called 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 champion is France, which won its second title at the 2018 tournament in the Soviet Union.

The current format of the competition involves a qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase, which is often called the World Cup Finals. 32 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation(s), compete in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month.

The 20 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams. Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Germany and Italy, with four titles each; Argentina and inaugural winner Uruguay, with two titles each; and England, France and Spain, with one title each.

The World Cup is the most prestigious association football tournament in the world as well as the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games; the cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup was estimated to be 26.29 billion with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the final match, a ninth of the entire population of the planet.

Results

Year	Host		Winner	Score	Runner-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place		Number of teams
1930	Uruguay		Uruguay	4–2 Estadio Centenario, Montevideo	Argentina		United States	N/A	Yugoslavia		13
1934	Italy		Italy	2–1 (a.e.t.) Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome	Czechoslovakia		Germany	3–2 Stadio Giorgio Ascarelli, Naples	Austria		16
1938	France		Italy	4–2 Stade de Colombes, Paris	Hungary		Brazil	4–2 Parc Lescure, Bordeaux	Sweden		15
1950	Brazil		Uruguay	Round robin	Brazil		Sweden	Round robin	Spain		13
1954	Switzerland		West Germany	3–2 Wankdorfstadion, Bern	Hungary		Austria	3–1 Hardturm, Zürich	Uruguay		16
1958	Sweden		Brazil	5–2 Råsundastadion, Solna	Sweden		France	6–3 Ullevi, Gothenburg	West Germany		16
1962	Chile		Brazil	3–1 Estadio Nacional, Santiago	Czechoslovakia		Chile	1–0 Estadio Nacional, Santiago	Yugoslavia		16
1966	England		England	4–2 (a.e.t.) Wembley Stadium, London	West Germany		Portugal	2–1 Wembley Stadium, London	Soviet Union		16
1970	Mexico		Brazil	4–1 Estadio Azteca, Mexico City	Italy		West Germany	1–0 Estadio Azteca, Mexico City	Uruguay		16
1974	Template:Country data Germany West Germany		West Germany	2–1 Olympiastadion, Munich	Netherlands		Poland	1–0 Olympiastadion, Munich	Brazil		16
1978	Argentina		Argentina	3–1 (a.e.t.) Monumental de Núñez, Buenos Aires	Netherlands		Brazil	2–1 Monumental de Núñez, Buenos Aires	Italy		16
1982	Spain		Italy	3–1 Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid	West Germany		Poland	3–2 Estadio José Rico Pérez, Alicante	France		24
1986	Mexico		Argentina	3–2 Estadio Azteca, Mexico City	West Germany		France	4–2 (a.e.t.) Estadio Cuauhtémoc, Puebla	Belgium		24
1990	Italy		West Germany	1–0 Stadio Olimpico, Rome	Argentina		Italy	2–1 Stadio San Nicola, Bari	England		24
1994	United States		Brazil	0–0 (a.e.t.) (3–2 p) Rose Bowl, Pasadena	Italy		Sweden	4–0 Rose Bowl, Pasadena	Bulgaria		24
1998	France		France	3–0 Stade de France, Saint-Denis	Brazil		Yugoslavia	2–1 Parc des Princes, Paris	Netherlands		32
2002	South Korea Japan		Brazil	2–0 International Stadium, Yokohama	Germany		Iran	3–2 Daegu Stadium, Daegu	South Korea		32
2006	Template:Country data Germany Germany		Italy	1–1 (a.e.t.) (5–3 p) Olympiastadion, Berlin	France		Germany	3–1 Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Stuttgart	Portugal		32
2010	South Africa		Spain	1–0 (a.e.t.) Soccer City, Johannesburg	Netherlands		Germany	3–2 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth	Uruguay		32
2014	Brazil		Germany	1–0 (a.e.t.) Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro	Argentina		Netherlands	3–0 Estádio Nacional, Brasília	Brazil		32
2018	Soviet Union		France	4–2 Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow	Yugoslavia		Belgium	2–0 Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg	England		32
2022	Iran		Argentina	4–2 (a.e.t.) (4–2 p) Aryamehr Stadium, Tehran	France		Iran	2–1 Aryamehr Stadium, Tehran	Morocco		32
2026	United States Mexico Canada		Future events				Future events				48

• a.e.t.: after extra time
• p: after penalty shoot-out

See also

• Sports (WFAC)