06 Mar 2018

FIFA World Cup- Evolution, Interesting Facts and Records

Posted in Miscellaneous By attemptnwin On March 6, 2018

FIFA World Cup 2018 is fast approaching. Get ready with some FIFA World Cup facts to face penalty from your friends.

Initial stages of FIFA and evolution of FIFA World Cup

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association(FIFA- French) means International Federation of Association Football in English. It was founded in 1904. Football was featured in the Olympics held in 1900 and 1904. FIFA supervised the Olympic football competition in 1908. In 1914, FIFA recognised the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs". But, all its attempts prior to 1930 to conduct international football matches outside the framework of Olympics had failed.

First FIFA world cup was held in 1930. It had only the final round as against the present format of qualifier round and world cup finals. Number of participants was less. Thirteen teams contested for the cup in the first tournament. Presently, 32 teams participate in the world cup finals. The number of participants in the final round will increase to 48 starting FIFA World Cup 2026.

FIFA federation, at present has 211 national associations as members. For the first time, FIFA World Cup 2018 witnessed all membership countries registering for qualifier round. Adddas has been the official match ball provider since 1970. FIFA World Cup 2018 matches will use Telstar 18 footballs by Adidas.

FIFA World Cup Football records

Let us glance through the major FIFA World Cup records

•   Brazil has won the World Cup for maximum number of times. They won 5 times followed by Germany and Italy who have won 4 times each. Argentina has won twice.
•   Only 8 nations have won the World Cup so far. They are Brazil (5), Germany(4), Italy(4), Uruguay(2), Argentina(2), England(1), France(1), Spain(1).
•   Germany holds the record for maximum number of appearance , eight times, in the final match. They won 4 times.
•   Italy and Brazil are the two teams who could defend their titles. Italy won in 1934 and 1938, while Brazile could win in 1958 and 1962
•   Based on the FIFA World Cup Ranking, Brazil occupies the first position with 227 points, followe by Germany (218) and Italy( 156)
•   12 goals were scored in the 1954 match between Austria and Switzerland(7-5). Three other World Cup final round matches witnessed 1o goals each.
•   Hungary is the only team that could score 10 or more goals in a World Cup final round matche. They defeated El Salvador 10-1 in 1982.
•   Miroslav Klose of Germany holds the record of maximum number of goals. He scored 16 goals from 24 matches played. He is followed by Ronaldo of Brazil who scored 15 goals from 19 matches.
•   Sandor Kocsis of Hungary scored 11 goals from 5 matches at an average of 2.20 goals per match. He is followed by Just Fontaine of France who scored 13 goals from 6 matches at an average of 2.17
•   50 is the number of Hat-tricks scored in over 800 matches over 20 editions.
•   Gabriel Batistuta of Argentina is the only player to score a hat-trick at two World Cups.
•   41 is the number of own goals scored during World Cups
•   Only 8 nations have won the World Cup so far.