The FIFA World Cup is the most vital competition in world soccer, and the planet’s most representative team sport event. Organized by Federation Internationale de Soccer organization (FIFA), the game’s ruling body, the world cup is contested by the men’s countrywide soccer groups of FIFA member countries.
Brazil is the current holders, as well as the most successful World Cup team, having won the competition five times, while Germany and Italy follow with 3 titles each. The subsequent soccer World Cup Finals will be held in Germany. The 1st international soccer match was played in 1872 between Britain and Scotland, though at this point the game was infrequently played outside Great Britain. As football started to increase in appreciation, it was held as a demonstration sport (with no gongs awarded) at the 1900, 1904 and 1906 Summer Olympic Games before football became an official competition at the 1908 Summer Olympic Games.
Organized by Britain’s Soccer organization, the event was for beginner players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show instead of a competition. The Britain state beginner soccer team won the event in both 1908 and 1912. With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between beginner groups, Sir Thomas Lipton organized the Sir Thomas Lipton Prize competition in Turin in 1909.
The contest is sometimes described as the 1st World Cup, and featured the most prestigious pro club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland. The 1st tournament was won by West Auckland, a beginner side from north-east Britain that was invited after the Soccer organization declined to be related to the competition. West Auckland returned in 1911 to protect their title, and was given the prize to keep forever, as specified by the rules of the contest. In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognize the Olympic competition as a “world soccer championship for amateurs”, and accepted accountability for organizing the event. This led the way for the planet’s first intercontinental soccer competition, at the 1924 Summer Olympic Games. Uruguay won the tournament, before winning the gold gong again in 1928, with another South Yank team, Argentina, taking silver. With Uruguay now two-time official soccer world champs and due to celebrate their centenary of self-reliance in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country. The 1932 Summer Olympic Games, held in L. A., didn’t plan to incorporate soccer as an element of the program because of the low recognition of soccer in the US. FIFA and the IOC also disagreed over the standing of amateur players, and so football was dropped from the Games. FIFA president Jules Rimet so set about organizing the opening World Cup competition to be held in Uruguay in 1930.
The nation’s associations of selected states were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a location for the contest meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Sea for Western European sides. Indeed, no EU country swore to send a team till 2 months prior to the start of the competition. Rimet finally convinced groups from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total thirteen states took part 7 from South America, 4 from Europe and two from North America. A spin-off competition, the FIFA Ladies’ World Cup, was first held in 1991. It is equivalent to the men’s contest in format, but to this point hasn’t generated the same level of interest.