World Cup Official Site
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Football World Cup Kit Sale. England Kit, Italy Kit, Portugal Kit, Germany Kit and many more
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2010 FIFA FOOTBALL WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICAOfficial website for 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
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The FIFA World Cup (often called the Football WorldCup, Soccer WorldCup or simply the World Cup) is the most important men's competition in international football. The world's most representative team sport event, the World Cup is contested by the men's national football teams of Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) (the sport's largest governing body) member nations. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930 (except in 1942 and 1946 due to World War II). However, it is more of an ongoing event as the qualifying rounds of the competition take place over the three years preceding the final rounds. In 1991, FIFA added a separate Women's World Cup.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup will
be the 19th FIFA World Cup, the premier international football
tournament. It is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July
2010 in South Africa. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the culmination of
a qualification process that began in August 2007 and involved 204 of
the 208 FIFA national teams. As such, it matches the 2008 Summer
Olympics as the sports event with the most competing nations. The men's final tournament phase (often called the "Finals") involves 32 national teams competing over a four-week period in a previously nominated host nation, with these games making it the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world. In the 17 tournaments held, only seven nations have ever won the World Cup Finals. Brazil is the current holder, as well as the most successful World Cup team, having won the tournament five times, while Germany and Italy follow with three titles each. HISTORYThe first international football match was played in 1872 between England and Scotland, although at this stage the sport was rarely played outside Great Britain. As football began to increase in popularity, it was held as a demonstration sport (with no medals awarded) at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics, and at the 1906 Intercalated Games before football became an official competition at the 1908 Summer Olympics. Organised by the Football Association, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. The England national amateur football team won the event in both 1908 and 1912. With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin in 1909. The competition is often described as The First World Cup, and featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland. The first tournament was won by West Auckland, an amateur side from north-east England that was invited after the Football Association refused to be associated with the competition. West Auckland returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title, and were given the trophy to keep forever, as per the rules of the competition. In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for organizing the event. This led the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition, at the 1924 Summer Olympics. Uruguay won the tournament, before winning the gold medal again in 1928, with another South American team, Argentina, taking silver. On 28 May 1928, FIFA made the decision to stage their own international tournament. With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions and due to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country. The first official World CupThe Estadio Centenario, the location of the first WorldCup final in 1930 in Montevideo, UruguayThe 1932 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, did not plan to include football as part of the programme due to the low popularity of football in the United States. FIFA and the IOC also disagreed over the status of amateur players, and so football was dropped from the Games.[5] FIFA president Jules Rimet thus set about organizing the inaugural World Cup tournament to be held in Uruguay in 1930. The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides. Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition.[4] Rimet eventually persuaded teams from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total 13 nations took part — seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America. The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously, and were won by France and the USA, who beat Mexico 4-1 and Belgium 3-0, respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France. Four days later, the first World Cup hat-trick was achieved by Bert Patenaude of the USA in the Americans' 3-0 win against Paraguay. In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and became the first nation to win a World Cup. GrowthThe issues facing the early World Cup tournaments were the difficulties of intercontinental travel, and war. Few South American teams were willing to travel to Europe for the 1934 and 1938 tournaments, with Brazil the only South American team to compete in both. The 1942 and 1946 competitions were cancelled due to World War II and its aftermath. The 1950 World Cup was the first to include British participants. British teams withdrew from FIFA in 1920, partly out of unwillingness to play against the countries they had been at war with, and partly as a protest against a foreign influence to football, but rejoined in 1946 following FIFA's invitation. The tournament also saw the return of 1930 champions Uruguay, who had boycotted the previous two World Cups. In the tournaments between 1934 and 1978, 16 teams qualified for each finals tournament (except in a few cases where teams withdrew after qualifying). Most were from Europe and Latin America, with a very small minority from Africa, Asia and Oceania. These teams were usually defeated easily by the European and Latin American teams (with the notable exception of North Korea, who reached the 1966 quarterfinals). The finals were expanded to 24 teams in 1982, then 32 in 1998, allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part. In recent years, these comparatively new participants have enjoyed more success, with Cameroon reaching the quarter-finals in 1990, and South Korea, Senegal and USA all reaching the elimination rounds in 2002. 197 nations attempted to qualify for the 2006 edition, and all but three of the 207 FIFA member nations have previously entered the competition, with recent new members Comoros and East Timor not yet having the chance to do so, and Bhutan the only other current member never to have entered. An equivalent tournament for women's football, the FIFA Women's World Cup, was first held in 1991. It's format is similar to the men's tournament and the qualifying rounds are ongoing over a four year cycle. FIFA Women's World Rankings uses a more accurate rating formula, similar to the Elo rating system and has generated rapidly increasing interest. Football World Cup TrophyFIFA World Cup Trophy on a German stampFrom 1930 to 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the Cup winner. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde but was renamed in 1946 in honour of the FIFA president who organized 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, and has never been recovered. After 1970, a new trophy, known as the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was designed. This is not awarded to the winning nation permanently, irrespective of how many World Cups they win.[10] Argentina, Germany (as West Germany) and Brazil have all won the second trophy twice. It will not be retired until the name plaque has been entirely filled with the names of winning nations in 2038.
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