The history of FIFA World Cup

There is nothing in football that can compare with the World Cup. Even though the UEFA Champions League may produce games of the same quality, it can't overreach the status earned from the long tradition and the fact that one team represent a whole country. No other sport event can compete in significance: the latest FIFA World Cup reached over three billion television viewers worldwide and one billion watched the final.

Background

Before the World Cup was inaugurated, the football tournament arranged as part of the Summer Olympics was given the most prestige. But in the 1920s, the game was facing a transition to professionalism that wasn't consistent with the Olympic spirit. Therefore, the government body, FIFA, made plans to organize a World Cup. The decision of arranging the first edition was officially declared on May 26, 1928.

All World Cup tournaments

The first official World Cup was played in Uruguay 1930, and since when the tournament has been held every fourth year (with exceptions for interruption due to the Second World War). There were, however, unofficial pre-FIFA World Cups already in the late 1800s, in a time when only few national teams existed. Another unofficial "world cup" arranged before 1930 was Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy held in 1909 and 1911. Besides that, the Summer Olympic football competitions would be a mark of which the best national teams were before 1930. The Olympic tournaments consisted, however, only of amateur teams – the World Cup became the "real deal".

Teams with most titles and finals

Statistics of all national teams that have won or played a final together with numbers of participation in World Cup, concerning the period 1930-2022.

World Cup finals

All finals including winners of World Cup tournaments 1930-2022.

* The home and away team are only technical.
† No final was played since the tournament was decided by a group phase in which the listed match was the most decisive.
a.e.t. stands for after extra time.
pen. stands for penalties, meaning the match was decided after extra time and the result includes the penalty shootout.

The home advantage

One noticeable aspect in the World Cup history is that the home team has been over performing. On six occasions have the home team won the competition. Besides, many teams that normally doesn’t compete with the greatest teams have gone far in the tournament then playing on home ground. For example, Sweden in 1958, reaching the final, and South Korea in 2006, reaching the semi-finals.

Top goalscorers

These players have made most goals in a single World Cup.

There are many players that have done six goals in one World Cup and these are: Erich Probst (1954), Josef Hügi (1954), Max Morlock (1954), Pelé (1958), Helmut Rahn (1958), Helmut Haller (1966), Mario Kempes (1978), Paolo Rossi (1982), Gary Lineker (1986), Salvatore Schillaci (1990), Hristo Stoichkov (1994), Oleg Salenko (1994), Davor Šuker (1998), James Rodríguez (2014) and Harry Kane (2018).

The five players that have made most goals overall are Ronaldo (18 goals in 4 tournaments), Miroslav Klose (16 goals in 4 tournaments), Gerd Müller (14 goals in 2 tournaments), Just Fontaine (13 goals in 1 tournament) and Péle (12 goals in 4 tournaments).

World Cup awards

In connection to the World Cup, several awards are given to some players. The most known is The Golden Ball that is awarded to the best player in a FIFA World Cup. Candidates are decided by FIFA which media representatives votes on. Besides the Golden Ball there are also the Silver Ball and the Bronze Ball together with the Golden Boot (top goalscorer) and the Golden Glove (best goalkeeper).

World Cup by continents

A performance comparison by continents (World Cup tournaments 1930-2022).

Numbers of participants and games

Table 5 shows the numbers of participating team in per World Cup tournament. The numbers in the second column concern the final stage and the third column all teams that took part in the qualification. In addition, the numbers of games played (qualification games excluded) is shown in the fourth column.

Prize money

The prize money for the tournament has increased massively during the years. The total prize money for the FIFA World Cup 2022 was $440 million (the winners received $42 million), which can be compared to $20 million for the FIFA World Cup 1982.