The FIFA World Cup is the biggest and most watched sporting event in the world, with 715 million people watching the final at the last World Cup in 2006. The 2010 competition is the 19th World Cup and promises to be the biggest and best so far. The World Cup competition began in 1930 and has been held every 4 years since then, except for 1942 and 1946 when the competition was cancelled because of the Second World War.
World Cup Hosts and History
The competition is played in a different country every time, chosen by the governing body of FIFA, and in its current format is contested by 32 countries. The host country, this time South Africa, qualifies for the World Cup finals automatically, while the other 31 teams have to qualify through preliminary groups in the year running up to the competition.
Since it began the most successful country at the World Cup has been Brazil, who have won it 5 times and are the only team to have played in all of the competitions since the first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930. As well as Brazil there have been 6 other winners of the World Cup and here is the list of winners, runners-up and hosts.
World Cup Winners and Hosts 1930-2006
- Year - Winner - Runner-up - Final Score - Host
- 1930 - Uruguay - Argentina - 4-2 - Uruguay
- 1934 - Italy - Czechoslovakia - 2-1 (a.e.t) - Italy
- 1938 - Italy - Hungary - 4-2 - France
- 1950 - Uruguay - Brazil - (final group stage) - Brazil
- 1954 - West Germany - Hungary - 3-2 - Switzerland
- 1958 - Brazil - Sweden - 5-2 - Sweden
- 1962 - Brazil - Czechoslovakia - 3-1 - Chile
- 1966 - England - West Germany - 4-2 (a.e.t) - England
- 1970 - Brazil - Italy - 4-1 - Mexico
- 1974 - West Germany - Netherlands - 2-1 - West Germany
- 1978 - Argentina - Netherlands - 3-1 (a.e.t) - Argentina
- 1982 - Italy - West Germany - 3-2 - Spain
- 1986 - Argentina - West Germany - 3-2 - Mexico
- 1990 - West Germany - Argentina - 1-0 - Italy
- 1994 - Brazil - Italy - 0-0 (3-2 pens) - USA
- 1998 - France - Brazil - 3-0 - France
- 2002 - Brazil - Germany - 2-0 - Japan/Korea Republic
- 2006 - Italy - France 1-1 (5-3 pens) - Germany
World Cup Most Wins in History
Brazil have won the World Cup the most times with 5 victories, second is Italy with 4 followed by West Germany winning it 3 times before unification, Argentina and Uruguay have both won it twice and England and France have clinched the title just once each. The Netherlands, Hungary and Czechoslovakia have all been runners-up twice yet have never won the World Cup.
In terms of continents the World Cup has only ever been won by countries from South America and Europe with both continents wining it 9 times each. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa promises to be a lively and colourful one with many tipping Spain as the likely winners, a country that has never won the World Cup but did win the last European Cup in 2008.
Matthew Read - I love writing! Over the last 6 years I have written CD reviews, book reviews, interviews and features for music magazines like No-Title, ...
