A Brief History And Interesting World Cup Facts

World Cup Illustration (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Every four years, the world goes crazy for one of the greatest sporting events of all time, the FIFA World Cup. This international football tournament has an average audience of 3.2 billion, 400 million less than the Olympics.

Around the world, people gather in coffee shops, sports bars, and other public places to share the wins and losses of their favorite teams. The energy from such a crowd was exhilarating!

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— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) April 8, 2022

World Cup History

To fully understand what this sporting tournament is and why it draws so many spectators, we need to know more about its history and how it was organized.

Quoted from various sources, FIFA, or the Federation Internationale de Football Association, is an organization founded in 1904 by representatives from seven European countries: France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. They codify the rules of the game in international matches and organized competitions.

However, they did not initially envision hosting a World Cup event.

First World Cup

From that first international football match, interest in global competition began to grow. However, the Olympic Football competition has existed as an event every four years.

Amid a tense and ongoing debate between FIFA and the International Olympic Committee over the amateur status of athletes, FIFA chose to host their own international competitions, which allow national teams to select players from local professional football clubs.

The first FIFA World Cup tournament was held in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay which involved thirteen teams. This location was chosen because Uruguay won Olympic gold for football in 1924 and 1928, and many lavish celebrations have been planned in honor of the country's 100th anniversary.

Unfortunately, only four European countries attended, due to the economic problems in Europe and the fear the players would lose their day jobs if they took a lot of time off to take part in the event.

The first match of the 1930 World Cup tournament was played on July 13 between France and Mexico (France won 4 -1) and the United States and Belgium (US won 3-0). At the end of the tournament, Uruguay held the first World Cup trophy.

Named the Victory, and colloquially known simply as the "World Cup", the trophy was renamed the Jules Rimet in 1946 in honor of the FIFA president who initiated the first tournament.

After Brazil won its third World Cup, the Jules Rimet trophy was retired and a new trophy, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was used from 1974 onwards. The winning team receives a gold plated replica of the pure gold trophy and each player on the team receives a medal.

This event continues every four years to this day, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to the outbreak of World War II. The match was held again in 1950, where Uruguay won for the second time in World Cup history.

Ten Interesting Facts

1. Only 13 teams competed in the first World Cup: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, France, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, USA, Uruguay and Yugoslavia.

2. No country outside of Europe or South America has ever won the World Cup. The full list:

Brazil - 5 times champions Germany - 4 times champions Italy - 4 times champions Uruguay - 2 times champions Argentina - 2 times champions England - 1 time champions France - 1 time champions Spain - 1 time champions

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— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) May 6, 2022

3. Brazil is the only country that has not missed a World Cup since the tournament started in 1930.

4. India actually qualified for the 1950 World Cup, but opted out of the tournament. The reason being, they were not allowed to play barefoot, which was the only way the team was training at the time.

5. Pickles, a British dog owned by David Corbett, found a suspicious package while on a walk with his owner in 1966. The unexpected hero found the Jules Rimet trophy, which had been stolen six days earlier in London.

6. The Jules Rimet trophy was again lost because it was stolen from Brazil in 1983. The trophy is believed to have been cashed because it has never been found until now.

7. In 2002, the World Cup was finally held in Asia. This year is also the first time the World Cup has had two hosts – South Korea and Japan.

8. Brazil won the World Cup five times. The Samba Team's first win came in 1958, followed by 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002.

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— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) April 25, 2022

9. Germany has scored the most goals in World Cup history with 224 goals in 106 matches.

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— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 3, 2022

10. Pelé has collected the most World Cup trophies of any player. The best football player of the 20th century was part of his country's national team which won the 1958, 1962 and 1970 World Cups.