The FIFA World Cup (often just called The World Cup, or simply World Cup) is the most prestigious competition in international football (referred to as soccer in the USA & Canada). It is the world's most competitive sports event involving 197 countries and is Organised by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA),football's governing body. Every four years a World Cup Final is played. In a three year period preceding the final round hundreds of matches take place in regional qualifying tournaments. The 2006 FIFA World Cup (officially titled 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, will take place in Germany between 9 June and 9 July 2006. There will be 32 competing national teams. 12 German cities will have games played in their stadiums This year's final tournament is expected to attract at least three billion people viewers world wide (that's half the world's population !) Not even the Olympic Games has that kind of audience. Previous winners of the cup are:Brazil(five times 1958,1962,1970,1994,2002) three time winners: Germany (1954,1974,1990) and Italy (1934,1938,1982).Two time winners Argentina:(1978,1986)and Uruguay( 1930,1950) one time winners :France(1998) and England (1966). The final phase is divided into two stages, a group stage and a knockout stage. For the first stage, teams are put into eight groups of four. In each group, a round-robin tournament is played, with each team playing three matches.Three points are given for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss.Each group produces a winner and a runner up. In the knockout stage, teams play each other in one-off matches. If a match is drawn after the regulation 90 minutes extra time (30 minutes) and penalty shootouts will be used to decide the winner. In the Round of 16 (two teams from each of the eight groups), the winner of each group plays against the runner-up from another group. This is followed by the quarterfinals (eight teams--four matches), the semifinals( four teams-two matches)and the final. The losing semifinalists play for third place in a match. The last round of matches of each group are held simultaneously same time to ensure a fair result. This year final group has fourteen teams from Europe,five from Africa, four each from Asia,South America and North/Central America and the Caribbean and one from Oceania. These are in the eight groups: Group A :Germany,Costa Rica,Poland,Ecuador. Group B: England ,Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago,Sweden. Group C:Argentina,Ivory Coast,Serbia,Netherlands. Group D: Mexico,Iran,Angola,Portugal. Group E:Italy,Ghana,USA, Czech Republic Group F: Brazil,Croatia,Australia,Japan. Group G:France,Switzerland,South Korea, Togo Group H:Spain,Ukraine,Tunisia,Saudia Arabia. Trivia: The smallest nation in the final group is Trinidad and Tobago with a population of 1.2 million. Brazil,the current champions, has featured in seven of the 17 finals winning 5 and losing 2.In 1950 they lost before their home crowd! Germany,this year's host nation has won three times out of the seven times they appeared in the finals.Brazil beat them 2-0 in 2002 in Japan.In their last victory they beat Argentina 1-0 in 1990. Italy has been in 5 finals winning 3 and losing 2.They last won in 1982. Argentina has appeared 4 times in the finals winning 2 and losing 2.They last won by beating Germany 3-2 in 1986 in Mexico. Finalists who have never won:
Czechoslovakia ( 1-2 loss to Italy in 1934 and 1-3 loss to Brazil in 1962).
Netherlands (1-2 loss to Germany in 1974 and 1-3 loss to Argentina in 1978).
Hungary (2-4 loss to Italy in 1938 and 2-3 to Germany in 1954).
Sweden (2-5 loss to Brazil in 1958).
Since 1982 except for France the finalists have included only four teams:Germany (four times:82,86,90,02), Brazil (three times:94,98.02),Argentina (two times:86,90)and Italy (two times:82,94). |
