The World Cup

Credit: Nile International

The World Cup is an international tournament of football that is played every four years in a different country each time. The tournament runs over a period of a month, generally around June/July. The competition is organised by FIFA who hosted the first world cup in Uruguay in 1930. The layout of the tournament goes by qualification to a group stage with 8 groups of four which leads to a round of sixteen knockout stage. 211 nations compete to get their spot in the 32 team competition. So far there has been 20 world cups held. The most recent being Brazil 2014 where Germany beat Argentina in the final in Rio. Germany have won 4 world cups in total coming second only to Brazil with 5.

The next World Cup is being held controversially in Russia for 2018. Then in 2022 the current host is set to be Quatar which many people believe to be chosen as a result of the corruption within FIFA in 2015. In 2006 there was 715 million people watching the final Italy vs France, which is more views than the Olympics has ever gotten.



FIFA

(Fédération Internationale de Football Association)

FIFA is the official world football association that organises events such as The World Cup and the Euros, they also set the official rules of football and produce referees. 211 countries are members of the international organisation. The organisation all started 113 years ago in Paris, France in a back room of the French Sport and Athletic Society Union building, this was on the 21st of may 1904. Then 4 years later FIFA organised an official football tournament in the 1908 Olympics in London. However the association nearly collapsed due to the lack of numbers involved during the first World War. But after a couple of tough years FIFA got back on its feet when they hosted the first ever football World Cup in Uruguay. Since then, the number of members grew from 12 to 211. Now the giant organisation is worth over £5 billion. The current president is Gianni Infantino.

Where Football started

Where did football originate?

Generally it is said that the modern version of football all started in England around the Nineteenth  century. However it seems that there was earlier versions of the game going all the way back to Ancient China where they played a game called 'Cuju' which translates into English as kick ball. Another early version of football was played in Ancient Greece and Rome. These games would have been slightly different to modern football, the names of these games were 'Phaininda' and 'Episkyros'. These games would have allowed the use of hands, which could make them relate to other sports such as rugby.

       The game of football as we know today would have started around public schools in England. But the problem was that the game could have varied through out different schools and areas so standardised rules were beginning to be set in place by roughly 1840 - 1850. Finally after a few years, the Football Association was created in 1863. The first ever meeting was in London on the 26th of October of that year in Great Queen Street. By the end of 1863 the two main rules had been set, no using the hand to bring the ball around the pitch and no vicious kicking or attacking to stop a player on or off the ball.