FIFA World Cup - South Africa 2010

The FIFA World Cup, occasionally called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup. It is an international association football competition contested by the 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 first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The qualification currently takes place over the three years preceding the Final. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.

Only seven nations have won the title in the eighteen tournaments held. Brazil is the most successful World Cup team, having won the tournament five times. The current World Champions, Italy, follows with four titles, while Germany holds three. The other former champions are Uruguay and Argentina with two titles each, and England and France with one title each.

The last World Cup Finals were held in Germany, where Italy was crowned champion after beating France in the final. The next World Cup Finals will be held in South Africa, from June 11, 2010 to July 11, 2010, and the 2014 Finals will be held in Brazil.

Trophy

The Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the World Cup winner from 1930 to 1970. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, but in 1946 it was renamed after the FIFA president Jules Rimet who set up the first tournament. In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the trophy permanently. However, the trophy was stolen in 1983.

A new trophy, known as the, FIFA World Cup Trophy was designed after 1970. The experts of FIFA evaluated the 53 presented models, finally opting for the work of the Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The new trophy is 36 cm (14.2 in) high, made of solid 18 carat (75%) gold and weighs 6.175  kg (13.6 lb). The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite while the bottom side of the trophy bears the engraved year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974.

This new trophy is not awarded to the winning nation permanently. World Cup winners retain the trophy until the next tournament and are awarded a gold-plated replica rather than the solid gold original.

Format

Qualification

Since the second World Cup in 1934, qualifying tournaments have been held to thin the field for the final tournament.They are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe), overseen by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams, but also subject to lobbying from the confederations.

The qualification process can start as early as almost three years before the final tournament and last over a two-year period. The formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations. Usually, one or two places are awarded to winners of intercontinental play-offs. From the 1938 World Cup onwards, host nations have received an automatic berth in the finals. This right was also granted to the defending champions between 1938 and 2002, but was withdrawn from the 2006 FIFA World Cup onward, requiring the champions to qualify.

Final tournament

The current finals tournament features 32 national teams competing over a month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: a group stage followed by a knockout stage.

In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Eight teams are seeded and drawn to separate groups. The other teams are assigned to different "pots", usually based on geographical criteria, and teams in each pot are drawn at random to the eight groups. Since 1998, constraints have been applied to the draw to ensure that no group contains more than two European teams or more than one team from any other confederation.

Each group plays a round-robin tournament, guaranteeing that every team will play at least three matches. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to preserve fairness among the teams. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Since 1994, three points have been awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. If two or more teams end up with the same number of points, tiebreakers are used: first is goal difference, then total goals scored, then head-to-head results, and finally drawing of lots.

The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the "round of 16" (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match and the final.

Selection of hosts

Early World Cups were given to countries at meetings of FIFA's congress. The choice of location gave rise to controversies, a consequence of the three-week boat journey between South America and Europe, the two centres of strength in football.

Since the 1958 FIFA World Cup, to avoid future boycotts or controversy, FIFA began a pattern of alternating the hosts between the Americas and Europe, which continued until the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan, was the first one held in Asia and the only tournament with multiple hosts. In 2010, South Africa will become the first African nation to host the World Cup. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Brazi, the first held in South America since 1978, and will be the first occasion where consecutive World Cups are held outside Europe.

The host country is now chosen in a vote by FIFA's Executive Committee. This is done under a single transferable vote system. The national football association of a country desiring to host the event receives a "Hosting Agreement" from FIFA, which explains the steps and requirements that are expected from a strong bid. The bidding association also receives a form, the submission of which represents the official confirmation of the candidacy. After this, a FIFA designated group of inspectors visit the country to identify that the country meets the requirements needed to host the event and a report on the country is produced. The decision on who will host the Cup is currently made six or seven years in advance of the tournament.

For the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the final tournament is rotated between confederations, allowing only countries from the chosen confederation (Africa in 2010, South America in 2014) to bid to host the tournament. The rotation policy was introduced after the controversy surrounding Germany 's victory over South Africa in the vote to host the 2006 tournament .

Winners and finalists

In all, 75 nations have appeared at least once in the World Cup finals tournament. Of these, only 11 have made it to the final match, and only seven have won. The seven national teams that have won the World Cup have added stars to the crest, located on their shirt, with each star representing a World Cup victory.

With five titles, Brazil is the most successful World Cup team and also the only nation to have participated in every World Cup finals tournament to date. Italy follows with four titles, including the most recent one in 2006. Brazil and Italy are also the only nations to have won consecutive titles.

Appearance in final:

Performances by host nations

Six of the seven champions have won one of their titles while playing in their own homeland. Brazil is an exception, they lost the deciding match when they hosted the 1950 tournament.

England (1966) and France (1998) won their only titles while playing as host nations. Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934) and Argentina (1978) won their first titles as host nations but have gone on to win again, while Germany (1974) won their second cup title on home soil.

Other nations have also been successful when hosting the tournament. Sweden (runners-up in 1958), Chile (third place in 1962), Korea Republic (fourth place in 2002), Mexico (quarterfinals in 1970 and 1986 ) and Japan (second round in 2002) all have their best results when serving as hosts. All host nations have progressed beyond the first round.

Best performances by continental zones

To date, the final of the World Cup has only been contested by European and South American teams. The two continents have won nine titles apiece. Only two teams from outside these two continents have ever reached the semi-finals of the competition: USA (North, Central America and Caribbea) in 1930 and Korea Republic (Asia) in 2002 . The best result of an African team is reaching the quarter-finals: Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002. Oceania has only been represented in the World Cup three times, and an Oceanian team has reached the second round on only one occasion, when Australia progressed beyond the group stage in 2006.

All World Cups won by European teams have taken place in Europe. The only non-European team to win in Europe is Brazil in 1958. Only twice had consecutive World Cups been won by teams from the same continent — when Italy and Brazil successfully defended their titles in 1938 and 1962 respectively.