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The World Cup - 2010

The World Cup is a quadrennial tournament that will be hosted by South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014. First played in Uruguay in 1930 the World Cup brings together national soccer teams from the six FIFA confederations.

Competition Format
Thirty two teams will be vying for the World Cup in South Africa after teams will have played hundreds of qualifying games during 2008 and 2009. The numbers of teams qualifying per confederation are as follows: UEFA, the largest confederation, 13 teams, COMNEBOL 4, CONCACAF 3, Asia 4 and Africa 5 - that's 29 teams. The 30th team is the host nation South Africa and 2 other teams come from playoffs between COMNEBOL and CONCACAF and Asia and Oceania.

Teams will be grouped into eight divisions of four after the determination of certain seedings, to ensure that the best teams do not play each other in the earlier rounds. Each team will play the other three teams in the group for a total of 48 first round games (8 groups x 6 games per group).

The top two teams in each division will advance to the knockout stage of the tournament, the round of 16 - 8 games. Winners will then advance to the quarterfinals (4 games), then to the semi-final (2 games) and final (1 game). There will also be a 3rd Place game for losing semi-finalists - for a grand total of 64 games.

Billions of people around the world are expected to watch the 2010 month long tournament - the largest single sporting event in the world.

World Cup Final Results

1930 (Uruguay) Uruguay 4 Argentina 2
1934 (Italy) Italy 2 Czechoslovakia 1
1938 (France) Italy 4 Hungary 2
1950 (Uruguay) Uruguay 2 Brazil 1
1954 (Switzerland ) West Germany 3 Hungary 2
1958 (Sweden) Brazil 5 Sweden 2
1962 (Chile) Brazil 3 Czechoslovakia 1
1966 (England) England 4 West Germany 2
1970 (Mexico) Brazil 4 Italy 1
1974 (West Germany) 2 Netherlands 1
1978 (Argentina) Argentina 3 Netherlands 1
1982 (Spain) Italy 3 West Germany 1
1986 (Mexico) Argentina 3 West Germany 2
1990 (Italy) West Germany 1 Argentina 0
1994 (USA) Brazil 0 Italy 0 (Brazil won on PK's)
1998 (France) France 3 Brazil 0
2002 (Japan*) Brazil 2 Germany 0 (* & South Korea)
2006 (Germany) Italy 1 France 1 (Italy won on PK's)

Of the 18 winners of the World Cup Brazil have won 5 times, Italy 4, West Germany 3, Uruguay 2, Argentina 2, England 1 and France 1.

Where to see the World Cup
* 2010 Final games (English) - ESPN English speaking outlets
* 2010 Final games (Spanish) - Univision inc Telefutura & Galavision
* 2010 qualifying games - Gol TV, Setanta, FSC, ESPN Deportes

For a full summary of World Cup Qualifying Groups
See standings

Explanation of acronyms noted above, acronyms that will likely feature in any article or discussion of world soccer.

FIFA - Federation Internationale de Football Association. FIFA is the governing body for world soccer. In the US the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) is the governing body.

In England the governing body is The Football Association or FA. A few years ago a certain Mr. Sweet used to work there and would answer the 'phone thus "Hello, Sweet FA" (in a Kenneth Williams voice).

UEFA - Union of European Football Associations

COMNEBOL - Confederacion Sudamericana de Futbol.

CONCACAF - Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Football Associations

Finally, if you're not sure of where the word "soccer" comes from it's a derivation of association as in association football.