The World Cup

The FIFA World Cup is the most prestigious football tournament in the world and is held every four years.  Eighteen tournaments has been held and except in 1942 and 1946 the World Cup was not held because of World War II. The World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world as approximately 715.1 million people watched the 2006 World Cup final match held in Germany. 

 The Brazilian football team has won the world cup the most times with five victories. The tournament started in 1930 with Uruguay serving as the host nation and winning the cup, beating Argentina 4  - 2 in the final. For their victory the Uruguayans received the Jules Rimet Trophy which is seen left. 

The Italian won the cup in 1934 and 1938 and the teams from Uruguay, West Germany, Brazil, England, Argentina, Brazil, West Germany and Italy won the the competitions in 1950, 1954, 1958 and 1962, 1966 and 1970 in that order. In 1974 FIFA or the Fédération Internationale de Football Association which is the international football governing body commissioned a replacement trophy for that years world cup titled the FIFA World Cup Trophy.

From then on the World Cup has been won in 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and in 2006 by the West German, Argentinian, Italian, Argentinian, West German, Brazilian, French, Brazilian and Italian teams respectively. 

The next World Cup will be held in South Africa, between 11 June and 11 July 2010. The web site http://www.skybet.com  predicts that  Spain, Brazil, England, Argentina and Germany are in that order the countries being being tipped to win the FIFA World Cup Trophy which is seen below.  

 

The 2010 world cup should be an exciting and interesting tournament. Let's all hope that it will be.