World cup was non-existent until the nature of the tournament was declined in the Summer Olympics. Everything happens for a reason. A world cup is a world-wide sport competition where participants compete over the title of a world champion. There are many events linked to World Cup but FIFA World Cup became popular on its launch in early 1930. The world cup champion takes the title until the next time event which is usually held every after two or four years. The format of participants is common in team sports.
The tournament involves the least of 32 teams to battle through claiming the title at venues within the host nation for a period of one month. A preliminary qualification phase takes place three years before the final competition. This phase determine which teams qualify for the tournament. Both categories of the competition promote football and give wonderful opportunities such as promoting val
ues like respect, fair play and discipline given that the whole world is watching. The recent FIFA World Cup held in Brazil had 204 entries across continents competing for the 31 available slots. The world cup has been won by eight different national teams having Brazil on the top of the list with five titles. They are the only team to have perfect attendance in al the 19 tournaments. Next on the list is Italy with four titles, Germany with three, Argentina and Uruguay with two and England, France and Spain with one title each. The event is the most watched sport tournament giving an estimated 715 million people who watched the final match of the 2006 event held in Germany. The 2010 event in South Africa was broadcasted to 204 countries on 245 different channels. There were at most six million people who attended public viewing in sixteen sites across the world. 350,000 fans have attended the International FIFA Fan Best in Berlin for the semis match between Spain and Germany. The number of fans has increased over the years and has formed groups over the web.
177, 853 accreditations for the last FIFA World Cup were printed and the hospitality program attracted almost 250,000 guests. Three quarters of a million liters of beer were sold in the stadiums and a massive number of hot dogs were sold in the public stands. Imagine a whole stadium filled with hotdogs, the number is equivalent. Most international visitors descended from South Africa. The event brings in the needed resources from the association’s partners and the TV rights have allowed FIFA to invest in social activities that is related to the tournament. The world cup has gathered many football fans and proved over the years that the sport has gained incredible fame.
FIFA also supports advocacies aside from the sport itself. In South Africa, there are already 20 centers that aims to promote public health, quality education and football in communities that are less fortunate with the said resources. The next two world cups will be hosted by Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
