World Cup Soccer

The FIFA World Cup (also called the Football World Cup, the Soccer World Cup, or simply the World Cup) is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's and women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body.

About World Cup Soccer

The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England, which ended in a 0–0 draw. The first international tournament, the inaugural edition of the British Home Championship, took place in 1884. At this stage the sport was rarely played outside the United Kingdom.

As football grew in popularity in other parts of the world at the turn of the 20th century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics (however, the IOC has retroactively upgraded their status to official events), and at the 1906 Intercalated Games.

After FIFA was founded in 1904, it tried to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were very early days for international football, and the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been a failure. It was not until the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, football became an official competition.

On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship itself, outside of the Olympics. With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament.

The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930 (for the men), except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The first Women's World Cup tournament, named the Women's World Championship, was held in 1991, sixty-one years after the men's first FIFA World Cup tournament in 1930, and is also held every four years.

FIFA World Titles (Men):

Brazil: 5
Italy: 4
Germany: 3
Uruguay: 2
Argentina: 2
England: 1
France: 1
Spain: 1

FIFA World Titles (Women):

United States: 2
Germany: 2
Norway: 1

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