50 Facts about FIFA World Cup (Part 1) | Amazing Facts 4U
- FIFA stands for The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (in English, the International Federation of Association Football).
- FIFA has in fact 208 Member Associations vs the United Nations has 192 Member States.
- US and Canada are in fact the only countries in the World where Football is called Soccer.
- FIFA World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an amazing three billion people watching this competition every four years.
- The FIFA World Cup in fact surpasses comfortably the Olympics in a number of viewers.
- The first FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay back in 1930 and 13 countries participated in the tournament. World Cup is played every 4 years.
- The first-ever World Cup was won by Uruguay in 1930. The World Cup was not played in 1942 and 1946 because of World War.
- Lucien Laurent of France scored the first goal in World Cup history on July 13, 1930.
- The 20 FIFA World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams.
- In the 20 times the World Cup has been played, the host country has triumphed only six times: Uruguay in 1930, Italy in 1934, England in 1966, Germany in 1974, Argentina in 1978 and France in 1998.
- The amazing fact is that for the first time in FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil, any nation from outside South America has won the World Cup on South American soil ( Germany ).
- Only seven nations have won the World Cup; Brazil, Italy, West Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, England and France.
- After winning their 2nd World Cup title in 1938, Italy went on amazing 44-year drought before winning their third title in 1982.
- Germany holds the top spot for most eight appearances in the World Cup finals. Next is Brazil with 7 appearances in the finals.
- Germany has played 99 World Cup matches before FIFA world cup 2014 making them a Nation to have played the most World Cup matches.
- The Germans now have 223 goals since 1930 in all World ups, three more than Brazil.
- Mexico holds the record for most defeats in World Cup history, losing 22 matches.
- The record for most World Cup titles won goes to Brazil who has in fact won the tournament 5 different times.
- Brazil is the only country to have appeared in every World Cup tournament since 1930.
- No host Country had ever been eliminated during the first round, until South Africa in 2010.
- Two World Cup finals have been decided on penalties. Brazil beat Italy in 1994, and Italy beat France in 2006.
- Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and Hungary are the most successful teams to have never won the tournament. They all made two finals but never won the World Cup.
- Argentina knocked England out of the 1986 World Cup, courtesy of the goal scored by Diego Maradonna off of his hand. This goal is known as the Hand of God.
- Amazingly Scotland made the World Cup qualifications 8 different times and is the only country that was actually eliminated from the tournament during the first round every time in 1954, 1958, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1998.
- The U.S.’s best showing came in 1930 when the American team placed third in the World Cup.
- Brazil hosted the 1950 World Cup but Germany & Japan were prohibited from participating in the qualifying process.
- Amazingly Canada has qualified for the World Cup only once, in 1986.
- The highest-scoring World Cup match was in 1954 when Austria beat Switzerland 7-5.
- The highest-scoring final happened when Brazil beat then host country Sweden by a score of 5-2.
- Brazil has become the fifth country to host a World Cup tournament for the second time and it has been 36 years since a South American team has hosted (Argentina, 1978).
- Italy, the long-standing defending champions (winners in 1934 and 1938), travelled by boat rather than a plane to the 1950 World Cup, a journey of three weeks from Naples (Italy) to Santos (Brazil).
- The first penalty shootout in World Cup history was taken in the Semi-Final match of the 1982 World Cup in Spain between West Germany and France, West Germany won 5-4.
- German player Uli Stielike missed the first penalty of the first penalty shootout in World cup history
- Amazingly a national team with a foreign coach has never won the FIFA World Cup. The 18 winning coaches to date have all been in charge of their home nation.
- Only once in FIFA World Cup history has there been no European team in the final, in 1930 when neighbours Argentina and Uruguay battled it out. Since then, there has always been a European representative in the finals.
- In 1982, the field of nations increased from 16 to 24. For the first time, a country from every continent was represented.
- The 1998 FIFA World Cup in France featured 32 countries for the first time when for the first time the field of teams competing was expanded from 24 to the current 32.
- Chosen to host the final of Brazil 2014, the Maracana is only the second stadium to have staged the final twice together with Mexico’s Estadio Azteca.
- In terms of averages, Switzerland 1954 still leads the way with 140 goals in just 26 matches an impressive average of 5.38 per game.
- To this day, 76 national sides have taken part in at least one FIFA World Cup.
- 3 World Cup qualifiers travelled more than 14,000 km in the World Cup 2014.
- Bosnia And Herzegovina are the only countries to have qualified for the First Time in 2014. The breakup of Yugoslavia resulted in the formation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Germany played their 100th World Cup Match when playing Portugal in the 2014 World cup.
- Italia ’90 World Cup produced only 115 goals, a meagre average of 2.21 goals per match, the lowest average ever.
- Argentina is 26 wins, 1 loss in all World Cup games where they have led at half-time.
- Russia (in 2018) and Qatar (2022) will host the next two World Cups.
- The 2002 World Cup was the first and to date only tournament to feature two host nations: South Korea and Japan.
- The United States has qualified for every World Cup finals since 1990. Before 1990 there was a period of 40 years when it couldn’t qualify.
- 203 of FIFA’s 208 members participated in the qualifying process for the 2014 World Cup.
- The biggest loss for the USA came in 1934 when it lost to Italy 7-1.
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