FIFA World Cup the Biggest Single-Event Sporting Competition
Football is the most popular in the world. The FIFA World Cup, often simply 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 champions are Germany, who won the 2014 tournament.
Here is the history of FIFA World Cup since 1930.
| Year | Host | Winners | Runners up | Score | Number of teams |
| 1930 | Uruguay | Uruguay | Argentina | 4-2 | 13 |
| 1934 | Italy | Italy | Czechoslovakia | 2-1 | 16 |
| 1938 | France | Italy | Hungary | 4-2 | 16/15 |
| 1950 | Brazil | Uruguay | Brazil | 16/13 | |
| 1954 | Switzerland | West Germany | Hungary | 3-4 | 16 |
| 1958 | Sweden | Brazil | Sweden | 5-2 | 16 |
| 1962 | Chile | Brazil | Czechoslovakia | 3-1 | 16 |
| 1966 | England | England | West Germany | 4-2 | 16 |
| 1970 | Mexico | Brazil | Italy | 4-1 | 16 |
| 1974 | West Germany | West Germany | Netherlands | 2-1 | 16 |
| 1978 | Argentina | Argentina | Netherlands | 3-1 | 16 |
| 1982 | Spain | Italy | West Germany | 3-1 | 24 |
| 1986 | Mexico | Argentina | West Germany | 3-2 | |
| 1990 | Italy | West Germany | Argentina | 1-0 | 24 |
| 1994 | United States | Brazil | Italy | 0-0 (3-2 p.) | 24 |
| 1998 | France | France | Brazil | 3-0 | 24 |
| 2002 | South Korea & Japan | Brazil | Germany | 2-0 | 32 |
| 2006 | Germany | Italy | France | 1-1 (5-3 p.) | 32 |
| 2010 | South Africa | Spain | Netherland | 1-0 | 32 |
| 2014 | Brazil | Germany | Argentina | 1-0 | 32 |
- Brazil are the most successful world cup team, with five titles and also only team that have played in every world cup.
- Italy and Brazil are the only nations to have won two consecutive titles.
- Germany have made most appearance in top four finishes, with twelve and sharing the record of most top- two finishes with Brazil, with seven.
- Brazil and West Germany are the only nations that appeared in three consecutive top-two finishes.
- 1st world cup was played by 13 teams and there is no official World Cup Third Place match in 1930.
- In 1938 world cup Austria withdraw after the draw of Anschluss with Germany; some Austrian players subsequently joined the German squad, leaving the tournament with 15 teams.
- In 1950, only 13 teams participated. 16 teams entered the seeding groups draw. However, Turkey and Scotland both withdraw before draw; France was invited as a replacement, after the draw India and France both withdraw, so only 13 teams participated in the tournament.
- There was no official World Cup final match in 1950.The tournament winner was decided by a final round-robin group contested by four teams (Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden, and Spain). Coincidentally, one of the last two matches of the tournament pitted the two top ranked teams against each other, with Uruguay’s 2–1 victory over Brazil thus often being considered as the de facto final of the 1950 World Cup.
- In all, 76 nations have played in at least one World Cup. Of these, eight national teams have won the World Cup, and they have added stars to their badges, with each star representing a World Cup victory
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