We are so tantalizingly close to the World Cup, the excitement is palpable. Tonight, millions of soccer fans will go to bed and slip into fantastic dreams about their country's team making a heroic run in the cup. Tomorrow, the wait will be over as the first ball is kicked and the first matches played for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. But how did the World Cup become such a huge deal?THE FIFA WORLD CUP
The World Cup as Americans know it is actually the final stage of a two and a half year long competition involving 205 countries and more than 900 matches. The World Cup Final is contested by the remaining 32 teams who have qualified to compete for the trophy every four years.
Brief History
The brainchild of then FIFA president Jules Rimet, the first World Cup Final was held in 1930 with Uruguay as the host. While all FIFA member countries were invited to take part in the tournament, due to the travel expenses, very few teams outside the Americas made the trip. Uruguay went on to win the tournament in front of a crowd of 93,000 people. An international phenomenon was born.
The World Cup has been contested in some form every four years for the past eight decades (with the exception of 1942 and 1946, due to a tiny global snafu known as World War II). Only seven countries have won the tournament, and only five of those countries have done it more than once. For the record: Brazil has won the World Cup 5 times (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002), Italy 4 times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), Germany 3 times (1954, 1974, 1990), Argentina and Uruguay have both won 2 times (1978, 1986 and 1930, 1950, respectively), and both France and England have won the tournament 1 time (1998 and 1966, respectively, and both while hosting).
While the exact details of qualification change every four years, the current system of all eligible teams competing for 32 spots in a group round robin followed by a single elimination tournament was only introduced in 1998.
Qualification
The international soccer community is divided into six geographic confederations, each of which is giving a certain number of slots at the finals:
- Africa (6 places, including 2010 host)
- Asia (4 or 5 places)*
- Europe (13 places)
- North America, Central America and the Caribbean (3 or 4 places)*
- Oceania (0 or 1 places)*
- South America (4 or 5 places)*
* For many of the regions, the total number of spots allotted depends on inter-continental playoffs between countries in the final rounds of qualification, hence why the weaker countries of the Oceania confederation - teams such as Fiji, the Solomon Island and New Zealand - are not guaranteed a spot in the finals. To qualify for the 2010 tournament, New Zealand (the winner of Oceania qualification) had to defeat the fifth place team from Asia's qualification. Likewise, as the fifth place finisher in South America, Uruguay had to beat North America's fourth place finisher for a spot in the finals. For complete details on the qualification process, see here.
The first rounds of qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final in South Africa began in the October 2007 and finished two years later in November 2009.
The Finals
Once the final 32 teams have qualified, they are divided into 8 groups of 4 teams each. In the opening stages of the tournament (known as the group stage), the teams play three matches, one against each of the other teams in the group. The teams receive 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. The two teams with the most points advance to the knock out rounds of the tournament.
The final four stages of the tournament are single elimination knock-out until a champion is crowned. A game to determine third and fourth place is also played. The entire tournament takes a month.
Why should I care?
Quite simply because there is nothing like the World Cup. Nothing. And in 90 minutes, anything can happen. Anything. There are the favorites to win, to be sure, but every four years a few teams of which nothing is expected shock the world and strike down the great powers on their way to unthinkable glory (think the USA and South Korea in 2002). It's as compelling as sports gets and it's the most universal sport humanity has. There. Is. Nothing. Like. It.
Tomorrow on Soccer 101: The freaking World Cup. Go watch it already! ... But if you want to swing by here, we'll have Saturday's TV listings (tomorrow's World Cup TV listings will be posted later today).
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