SpecialistStudies2: World Cup history

The World cup is an International football tournament where the best international teams compete for the World cup trophy. The tournament is held every four years and the host country for the world cup also changes at each tournament. The first tournament was in 1930 and has continued since except four the years 1942 and 1946 because of World War 2.

How the tournament works is that 32 teams compete in 8 groups of four and they play each other twice and the top two teams with the most points from each group go through to the knock out stages where who ever wins progresses to the final and the whole tournament is held over a month. Brazil are the only country to have played in all 18 tournaments and there have been 7 nations that have won the title including Brazil who have won the title 5 times, Italy who are the current champions have won it 4 times, and Germany have won it 3 times. Uruguay and Argentina have won the title twice whilst England and France have won it once.

Below is a list of the host countries and past winners of the World Cup.

YEAR HOST WINNER

1930 Uruguay Uruguay
1934 Italy Italy
1938 France Italy
1950 Brazil Uruguay
1954 Switzerland W. Germany
1958 Sweden Brazil
1962 Chile Brazil
1966 England England
1970 Mexico Brazil
1974 W. Germany W. Germany
1978 Argentina Argentina
1982 Spain Italy
1986 Mexico Argentina
1990 Italy W. Germany
1994 U.S.A Brazil
1998 France France
2002 Korea & Japan Brazil
2006 Germany Italy
2010 S. Africa ?

Below is a picture of the World Cup trophy which is solid gold.

Below is the new logo for the World cup upcoming which is going to be held in South Africa 2010.

Below are the host cities for the World cup matches:

Johannesburg - Soccer city stadium / Ellis Park stadium
Below is a link to where you can view the Soccer City stadiums development and artist impressions of what the stadium will look like once it is finished
http://www.soccercity2010.co.za/gallery.asp

Pretoria - Loftus Versfeld Stadium