Around the World - but not in 80 Days

A Brief History of the World Cup

The idea of a world football championship is as old as FIFA itself. The interest in international Football was greatly helped by the Oliympic Tournaments which were first held in 1908.


Only FIFA has the right to organise a world football championship and it was the success of the Olympic tournaments of 1924 and 1928 which convinced them that it was a viable proposition. By this time FIFA had 41 member countries.


It was not until 1929 that FIFA gave Uruguay permission to stage the first World Cup tournament in 1930.


The choice of Uruguay for the first competition meant that the strongest European countries did not enter. Only France, Belgium and Yugoslavia embarked on the two-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.


There were only thirteen entries in all. As expected Uruguay - the Olympic Champions - won beating Argentina 4-2.


The competition has been held every four years (with the exception of war years) since 1930. Today the World Cup tournament rivals the Olympic Games as the world’s most important sporting occasion.


World Cup Hosts

The last five countries to host a World Cup Competition are:


Click on a flag for more information

1994 - USA

1998 - France

2002 - Japan jointly with South Korea

2010

2014

2018

2006 - Germany


Altogether there have been 17 World Cup Competitions. These were hosted by the following countries.
1934 World Cup logo - Italy 1938 World Cup logo - France

1939 - 1945

There were no International Football Competition held during the Second World War

 1950 World Cup logo - Brazil


1930 Uruguay

.


1934 Italy


1938 France


1950 Brazil
1954 World Cup logo - Switzerland 1958 World Cup logo - Sweden 1966 World Cup logo - England 1970 World Cup logo - Mexico


1954 Switzerland

.


1958 Sweden


1962 Chile


1966 England


1970 Mexico
1974 World Cup logo - Germany 1978 World Cup logo - Argentina 1982 World Cup logo - Spain 1986 World Cup logo - Mexico 1990 World Cup logo - Italy


1974 Germany.


1978 Argentina


1982 Spain


1986 Mexico


1990 Italy
1994 World Cup logo - America 1998 World Cup logo - France 2002 World Cup logo - Korea/Japan

1994 US America


1998 France


2002 Korea-Japan


2006 -Germany


In 2006 The 18th World Cup Competition will be staged by Germnany


World Cup Results 1930 - 2002
.

Date

Winners

Runners-Up

Date

Winners

Runners-up

1930

Uruguay

Argentina

1970

Brazil

Italy

1934

Italy

Czechoslovakia

1974

West Germany

Netherlands

1938

Italy

Hungary

1978

Argentina

Netherlands

1942

No Competition

- - - -

1982

Italy

West Germany

1946

No competition

- - - -

1986

Argentina

West Germany

1950

Uruguay

Brazil

1990

West Germany

Argentina

1954

West Germany

Hungary

1994

Brazil

Italy

1958

Brazil

Sweden

1998

France

Brazil

1962

Brazil

Czechoslovakia

2002

Brazil

Germany

1966

England

West Germany

2006


2002 was a World Cup of 'Firsts'.

It was the first

  • World Cup competition of the new millennium
  • to be hosted by two countries
  • for which every stadium had been specially built
  • to be held outside of Europe and the Americas

The Trophy

The World Cup trophy itself is the second in the lifetime of the competition. The first, The Jules Rimet Trophy was named after a french player who pioneered the first World Cup competition.

It took 68 years for France to win the tournament

The Jules Rimet trophy, was won by Brazil for the third time in 1970 and awarded to them as a permanent honour.

A new solid gold trophy called the FIFA World Cup was used for the first time in 1974.