How many teams participate in FIFA?
2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
FIFA had considered the prospect of increasing the number of teams from 16 to 24, to reflect the growing global popularity of women's football and the Women's World Cup. However, on 14 March 2008, the FIFA Executive Committee decided to keep the number of participants at 16, concerned that more teams would dilute the quality of play. The idea of having 20 teams taking part, which had been discussed briefly, was ruled impossible to implement in terms of fixture planning and logistics. During the 2007 Women's World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter had campaigned for the idea to increase the number of teams, although this proposal was not unquestioned. In particular the 11–0 victory of over in the opening game of the 2007 tournament had caused a debate over whether there were 24 national teams on a comparable level.
2019 Copa América
Apart from all ten CONMEBOL national teams which are eligible to enter. CONMEBOL initially planned to hold a 16-team tournament by inviting six teams from outside CONMEBOL. On 16 March 2018, CONMEBOL announced three teams from CONCACAF and three teams from Asian Football Confederation (AFC) would be invited to participate in the 2019 Copa América. On 12 April 2018, it was announced that Qatar, the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, accepted the invitation to participate in the tournament. On 4 May 2018, CONMEBOL announced that the tournament would instead be played with 12 teams, the same number as previous editions since 1993 (apart from the Copa América Centenario held in 2016), with the two guest teams being Qatar and Japan from the AFC.
Japan at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
FIFA World Cup
The 2026 FIFA World Cup was chosen to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico, marking the first time a World Cup has been shared by three host nations. The 2026 tournament will be the biggest World Cup ever held, with 48 teams playing 80 matches. Sixty matches will take place in the US, including all matches from the quarter-finals onward, while Canada and Mexico will host 10 games each.
1966 FIFA World Cup qualification
The 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the five FIFA confederations. The 1966 FIFA World Cup featured 16 teams with one place reserved for the host nation, England, and one reserved for defending champions, Brazil. The remaining 14 places were determined by a qualification process in which the other 72 teams, from the five FIFA confederations, competed. UEFA, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL qualification was determined within the confederations, whilst AFC and CAF teams (alongside Australia) competed for one place at the tournament.
2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)
44 Asian teams are affiliated with FIFA, but Cambodia, Philippines, Bhutan and Brunei decided not to take part, and Myanmar was banned from the competition (for refusing to play a qualifier in Iran during 2002 qualifying), so a total of 39 teams took part, competing for 4.5 places in the World Cup.
African nations at the FIFA World Cup
Association football is the most popular sport in nearly every African country, and 13 members of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) have competed at the sport's biggest event – the men's FIFA World Cup.
The team ranking in each tournament is according to FIFA. The rankings, apart from the top four positions (top two in 1930), are not a result of direct competition between the teams; instead, teams eliminated in the same round are ranked by their full results in the tournament. In recent tournaments, FIFA has used the rankings for seedings for the final tournament draw.
2018 FIFA World Cup squads
The 2018 FIFA World Cup was an international football tournament held in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018. The 32 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 23 players, including three goalkeepers. Only players in these squads were eligible to take part in the tournament.
FIFA 08
"FIFA 08" includes 621 licensed teams, 43 national teams, with 30 leagues and more than 15,000 licensed players. Several teams from other leagues also appear in a "Rest of World" category. Of the 621 teams that comprise the game, 29 appear unlicensed, 13 of them being national teams.
1970 FIFA World Cup qualification
FIFA rejected the entry of Albania and both Iceland and Malta withdrew before the draw. The remaining 29 teams were divided into 8 groups of 3 or 4 teams each (three groups with 3 teams and five groups with 4 teams). The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.
2022 FIFA World Cup
On 12 April 2018, CONMEBOL requested that FIFA expand the 2022 FIFA World Cup from 32 to 48 teams, four years before the 2026 FIFA World Cup as initially planned. FIFA President Gianni Infantino expressed willingness to consider the request. However, the FIFA congress rejected the request shortly before the beginning of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Infantino said the global football governing body would not discuss the possibility of having a 48-team World Cup, and that they would first discuss the matter with the host country.
Vatican City national football team
The Vatican is one of only nine fully recognized sovereign states whose national team is not a FIFA member. The others are the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom (though the UK's four "home countries" (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have individual FIFA teams each of which is also a member of the IFAB). In May 2014, Domenico Ruggerio, president of the national football association, stated that "I prefer to be amateur...To join FIFA, at that level, will be like a business" after stating "The important message of friendship and love is demonstrated by the sport — the real sport, not the business that is in football these days...It is not just important to win a match; it is how you carry yourself." Therefore, that, he added, meant that "the ethos of the Vatican’s soccer team was, at odds with FIFA membership."
African nations at the FIFA World Cup
51 African countries entered the race for 5 spots at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in a qualification process that doubled as one for the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations. In the final qualification round, teams were organized into five groups of six teams, with winners qualifying for the World Cup and the top three for the continental tournament. More matches were needed to qualify – while at both the 1998 and 2002 32-team World Cups, 3 of the 5 African teams played only 6 matches to get to the finals, here 3 of the 5 teams that qualified played 12 matches.
Four of Africa's five representatives to the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals were debutants, in contrast to 2002 when four of five had appeared at the previous World Cup.
2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
With the establishment of the qualifying rounds, FIFA decided to standardise each World Cup, meaning that from this World Cup onwards, each confederation would have the same number of teams participating in each World Cup and that the 16 teams would be split up into four groups of four teams, with the top two teams moving on to the quarter finals.
North, Central American and Caribbean nations at the FIFA World Cup
For the first time, the World Cup finals expanded from 16 to 24 teams. The North, Central American and Caribbean zone was allocated two places (out of 24) in the final tournament. A total of 15 CONCACAF teams entered the qualification. This edition was marked by an upset as Mexico, traditional CONCACAF heavyweights and needing a win to go through, were eliminated by Honduras. The 0–0 tie between Mexico and Honduras qualified El Salvador to participate in the World Cup as the CONCACAF runners-up. El Salvador also became the first Central American team to qualify for more than one World Cup (a record that has been broken by Costa Rica).
FIFA 10
There are 30 leagues and over 500 teams in the game, as well as 41 national teams. New to "FIFA 10" is the Russian Premier League, which is not featured in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. Unlike previous versions of "FIFA", the Netherlands is included as a fully licensed national team. Due to promotion/relegation and other league expansions, there are 46 teams that were not included in "FIFA 09", including 25 that have never appeared in a "FIFA" game before.
List of FIFA World Cup opening matches
The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition established in 1930. It is contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has taken place every four years, except in 1942 and 1946, when the competition was cancelled due to World War II.
Gibraltar Football Association
Current FIFA and UEFA members include several federations which cannot be said to represent independent nations, such as the UK Home Nations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), the Faroe Islands, Hong Kong, Macau, Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipei, Tahiti and New Caledonia. French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin each have national teams which, despite not being FIFA members, are allowed to compete at the CONCACAF confederation level. FIFA has also accepted members from other British overseas territories who compete in FIFA World Cup qualification tournaments despite not being sovereign states, including Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands.
Haiti at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
Italy at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
List of FIFA country codes
There are currently 211 FIFA members, each one with its unique country code.
The following codes refer to countries or dependent areas that are currently not affiliated with FIFA, but whose codes either appear in the FIFA results database, or are used regularly by confederation websites.
FIFA Club World Cup
The new tournament, planned to start in 2021, would be held every four years instead of annually, would feature 24 teams and 31 matches. It would include all UEFA Champions League winners, runners-up and Europa League winners from the four seasons up to and including the year of the event. Aside from the 12 European teams, there would be four or five from South America, none or one from Oceania and two each from Asia, North America and Africa. They would be divided into eight groups of three with the group winners progressing to the knockout stage. Gianni Infantino has said that investors can promise $25 billion in revenue from 2021 to 2033.
2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
The 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 205 teams entered the qualification competition, with South Africa, as the host, qualifying for the World Cup automatically. The first qualification matches were played on 25 August 2007 and qualification concluded on 18 November 2009. Overall, 2341 goals were scored over 852 matches, scoring on average 2.74 per match.
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
Fourteen defendants affiliated with FIFA were indicted under the RICO act on 47 counts for "racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offenses, in connection with the defendants' participation in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer." The defendants include many current and former high-ranking officers of FIFA and its affiliate CONCACAF. The defendants had allegedly used the enterprise as a front to collect millions of dollars in bribes, which may have influenced Russia and Qatar's winning bids to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, respectively.
FIFA World Cup
On 10 January 2017, FIFA approved a new format, the 48-team World Cup (to accommodate more teams), which consists of 16 groups of three teams each, with two teams qualifying from each group, to form a round of 32 knockout stage, to be implemented by 2026.
FIFA Confederations Cup
The eight qualified teams are drawn into two round-robin groups: two teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn in a group, except if there are three teams from the same confederation (something that happened for the first time in the 2017 edition when hosts Russia were joined by World Cup champions Germany and European champions Portugal). Every team plays all other teams in their group once, for a total three matches.
2018 FIFA World Cup squads
League systems with 20 or more players represented are listed. In all, World Cup squad members play for clubs in 57 countries, and play in 54 national league systems, as the league systems of England and France include clubs from Wales and Monaco respectively, and one league system covers both the United States and Canada.Clubs with 10 or more players represented are listed.
Ghana at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
This article is about the recent FIFA World Cup history of one of the leading nations in African football, Ghana.
2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
Bhutan, Brunei, Guam and Mauritania did not enter, and South Sudan joined FIFA after the qualification process started and therefore could not take part. The qualification process consisted of 820 matches, reduced from 824 after the late withdrawals of the Bahamas and Mauritius.
2014 FIFA World Cup
Thirty-one national teams advanced through qualification competitions to join the host nation in the final tournament (with Bosnia and Herzegovina as only debutant). A total of 64 matches were played in 12 venues located in as many host cities across Brazil. For the first time at a World Cup finals, match officials used goal-line technology, as well as vanishing spray for free kicks. FIFA Fan Fests in each host city gathered a total of 5 million people, and the country received 1 million visitors from 202 countries. Every World Cup-winning team since the first tournament in 1930 – Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Uruguay – qualified for this tournament. Spain, the title holders, were eliminated at the group stage, along with England and Italy. Uruguay were eliminated in the round of 16, and France exited in the quarter-finals. Host nation Brazil, who had won the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, lost to Germany 7–1 in the semi-finals and eventually finished in fourth place.
FIFA U-20 World Cup
24 teams appear in the final tournament. 23 countries, including the defending champions, have to qualify in the youth championships of the six confederations. The host country automatically qualifies.Below are the 36 nations that have reached at least the semifinal in the U-20 World Cup finals.
List of footballers with 100 or more caps
FIFA recognises only matches played within the FIFA World Cup (including qualifying competitions), continental competitions (including qualifiers), friendly matches between senior national teams and Olympic final and qualifying matches played up to and including 1948 (with certain exceptions) as international "A" matches. This affects some players who were formerly included in FIFA's 'Century Club'. Therefore, the records established by the associations with regard to these players may differ from the FIFA Century Club.
List of men's national association football teams
There are seven United Nations member and observer states which are not members of FIFA or any of its affiliated continental confederations. Five of them, however, have fielded national teams in unofficial friendlies, Olympic-level tournaments (such as the Pacific Games or Micronesian Games), or in tournaments held outside the auspices of FIFA. These teams are listed below.
FIFA World Cup
Among the national teams, Germany and Brazil have played the most World Cup matches (109), Germany appeared in the most finals (8), semi-finals (13), quarter-finals (16), while Brazil has appeared in the most World Cups (21), has the most wins (73) and has scored the most goals (229). The two teams have played each other twice in the World Cup, in the 2002 final and in the 2014 semi-final.
Non-FIFA international football
FIFA is the international governing body of association football, charged with overseeing football globally and with running international representative matches. However, some international football takes place outside its ratification. This often consists of matches involving sub-national entities such as islands, colonies or autonomous regions. Representative matches also occur involving states with limited international recognition who are unable to qualify for FIFA membership. There are also a limited number of states whose representative teams are not affiliated to FIFA. Historically, a number of competitions occurred outside FIFA's auspices.
South American nations at the FIFA World Cup
Nine of ten members of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) have competed in the men's FIFA World Cup finals. National association football teams from CONMEBOL have won the tournament nine times, including Brazil's record five championships. CONMEBOL countries have hosted the finals five times.
The team ranking in each tournament is according to FIFA. The rankings, apart from the top four positions (top two in 1930), are not a result of direct competition between the teams; instead, teams eliminated in the same round are ranked by their full results in the tournament. In recent tournaments, FIFA has used the rankings for seedings for the final tournament draw.
2014 FIFA World Cup
The 32 participating teams were drawn into eight groups. In preparation for this, the teams were organised into four pots with the seven highest-ranked teams joining host nation Brazil in the seeded pot. As with the previous tournaments, FIFA aimed to create groups which maximised geographic separation and therefore the unseeded teams were arranged into pots based on geographic considerations. The draw took place on 6 December 2013 at the Costa do Sauípe resort in Bahia, during which the teams were drawn by various past World Cup-winning players. Under the draw procedure, one randomly drawn team – Italy – was firstly relocated from Pot 4 to Pot 2 to create four equal pots of eight teams.
Czech Republic at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
Only 8 of the 45 countries have failed to appear in a FIFA controlled World Cup. Peru (5) have appeared in the most competitions without any one of those being under FIFA's control. Meanwhile, Iran (7) have appeared in the most FIFA sanctioned tournaments without having ever appeared in the old World Championships before 2005.
FIFA 13
The leagues in "FIFA 13" have been confirmed by EA Sports through their website, with EA calling it "the most authentic football game on the planet with 30 of the world's best leagues" All leagues from "FIFA 12" are included, with the addition of the Saudi Professional League for the first time in the series history.
There are 46 international teams on "FIFA 13" as confirmed on the EA website. The Czech Republic and Paraguay are returning. India, Bolivia and Venezuela return to the main series after an 11-year hiatus since "FIFA Football 2002". Croatia was removed from the international teams, as they could not reach the licensing agreement.
Costa Rica at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
FIFA 10
"FIFA 10" has 41 teams in its international division. The most notable exclusion is Japan (who made it into the round of 16 in the 2002 World Cup and the 2010 World Cup, but whose licensing rights currently belong to Konami). The following international teams are playable in the current generation consoles. But not all the teams are fully licensed e.g. South Africa and Russia.
Paraguay at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
2006 FIFA World Cup qualification – OFC First Round
The below 10 teams were divided in two groups of five teams each, and played against each other once. The two teams with most points in each group advanced to the Second Round.
New Caledonia was not a member of FIFA at the time of the draw, and only joined FIFA when its participation in the First Round, and in the 2006 World Cup qualifications, had ended.
North, Central American and Caribbean nations at the FIFA World Cup
A total of 34 teams took part competing for 3.5 places in the World Cup. Mexico, the United States, and Costa Rica qualified at once for the World Cup. Trinidad and Tobago advanced to the AFC-CONCACAF play-off. Trinidad and Tobago was awarded a place in 2006 FIFA World Cup after winning the playoff 2–1 on aggregate against Bahrain. Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the finals for the first time. Costa Rica made its debut in the opening match in Munich against the host Germany, losing the match 4–2. However, the good performance in that game did not translate over to the other games, where they fell 0–3 against Ecuador, and 1–2 against Poland. At the ranking remained the 31 place. Mexico was one of eight seeded teams in the first round at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Mexico was put in Group D with Iran, Angola and Portugal.
Mexico won their opening match 3–1 against Iran, with two goals from Omar Bravo and one by Sinha. In their second match, Mexico played to a 0–0 draw against Angola. Mexico joined Portugal as a qualifier in the Round of 16, despite losing to the Portuguese 2–1. During the match, Bravo missed a penalty. In the second round, Mexico played against Argentina. Mexico scored in the 5th minute with a goal by captain Rafael Márquez assisted by Pável Pardo. Four minutes later, Argentina equalized the match thanks to an own goal from Jared Borgetti. The score remained 1–1 after ninety minutes, and in extra time, a volley by Maxi Rodríguez in the second period of extra time brought about a 2–1 win for Argentina. At the ranking remained the 15 place. U.S. was drawn into Group E along with the Czech Republic, Italy, and Ghana.
The United States opened its tournament with a 3–0 loss to the Czech Republic. The team then drew 1–1 against Italy, thanks to an own goal from Zaccardo, ending up being the only opponent together along with France the Italian side failed to defeat in the tournament (officially, according to FIFA, France and Italy drew 1–1, although Italy won the tournament after a penalty shoot out). The United States was then knocked out of the tournament when beaten 2–1 by Ghana in its final group match, with Clint Dempsey scoring their only goal in the tournament. The team finished 25 out of the 32 teams.
2018 FIFA World Cup
Of the 32 nations qualified to play at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, 20 countries competed at the previous tournament in 2014. Both Iceland and Panama qualified for the first time, with the former becoming the smallest country in terms of population to reach the World Cup. Other teams returning after absences of at least three tournaments include: Egypt, returning to the finals after their last appearance in 1990; Morocco, who last competed in 1998; Peru, returning after 1982; and Senegal, competing for the second time after reaching the quarter-finals in 2002. It is the first time three Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland and Sweden) and four Arab nations (Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia) have qualified for the World Cup.
List of men's national association football teams
The main condition for joining FIFA is thus general international recognition as a nation state and membership of the UN. However, this rule is not applied retroactively, and 26 of FIFA's members are not internationally recognised sovereign nations.
Switzerland at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
Association football
The major international competition in football is the World Cup, organised by FIFA. This competition takes place every four years since 1930 with the exception of 1942 and 1946 tournaments, which were cancelled due to World War II. Approximately 190–200 national teams compete in qualifying tournaments within the scope of continental confederations for a place in the finals. The finals tournament, which is held every four years, involves 32 national teams competing over a four-week period. The World Cup is the most prestigious association football tournament in the world as well as the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games; the cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup was estimated to be 26.29 billion with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the final match, a ninth of the entire population of the planet. The current champion is France, which won its second title at the 2018 tournament in Russia. FIFA Women's World Cup has been held every four years since 1991. Under the tournament's current format, national teams vie for 23 slots in a three-year qualification phase. (The host nation's team is automatically entered as the 24th slot.) The current champion is the United States, after winning their third title in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.
2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup
The 24 participating teams were distributed between six groups of four teams each, according to a draw held on 3 March 2007. The groups are contested on a league system, where each team plays one time against the other teams in the same group, for a total of six matches per group. Each group winner and runner-up teams, as well as the best four third-placed teams, qualify for the first round of the knockout stage (round of 16).
The Chile–Nigeria quarter-final match took place on FIFA's "Say No To Racism Day." During extra time, Chile's Jaime Grondona scored at the 96th minute. The Nigerians argued that it was offside, though referee Howard Webb allowed the goal to stand. Replays showed that a defender was caught out of place on an offside trap. Goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa was shown the yellow card for his protest.
Ukraine at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
A total of 24 teams qualified for the final tournament. Each team's FIFA Rankings in December 2018 are shown in parenthesis.
Chile, Jamaica, Scotland, and South Africa will make their Women's World Cup debuts, while Italy will take part in the event for the first time since 1999 and Argentina will take part in the event for the first time since 2007. Brazil, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, and the United States qualified for their eighth World Cup, continuing their streak of qualifying for every World Cup held so far.
2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 197 teams entered the qualification process for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, for the first time ever, the defending champion (Brazil) did not qualify automatically. The hosts (Germany) retained their automatic spot. In 1934, the defending champions (Uruguay) declined to participate and the hosts (Italy) had to qualify, but in the tournaments between 1938 and 2002 (inclusive), the hosts and the defending champions had automatic berths.
2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup
Each team's squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup will consist of 21 players. Each participating national association had to confirm their final 21-player squad by 21 September 2017. A total of 504 players will be participating in the tournament. The squads were announced by FIFA on 26 September 2017.
Gibraltar national football team
In 2008 Gibraltar accepted an invitation to participate in The Four Nations Tournament, the most prominent senior football tournament that Gibraltar had ever participated in. The 2008 Four Nations Tournament, won by England C, was played in North Wales, and was contested between Wales Semi-Pro, England C, Scotland B and guest nation Gibraltar after Northern Ireland decided not to take part. Though Gibraltar eventually finished bottom of the group, they pushed tournament winners England C close.After becoming a member of UEFA (see below), the GFA aimed to become a full FIFA member in time to participate in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification. On 26 September 2014, it was announced that Gibraltar's application for FIFA membership was denied, with president Sepp Blatter stating that Gibraltar is ineligible because it is not an independent country. This was despite FIFA at the time including 22 members that are not independent countries, including five in UEFA (Faroe Islands and the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom). The Gibraltar Football Association then announced that it planned to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the same process by which Gibraltar successfully gained UEFA membership in 2013. The CAS heard Gibraltar's case on 21 May 2015. At which time no time frame for a verdict was announced and further legal arguments would still be heard. It was expected that no decision would be reached before the FIFA congress coming the following week. A ruling was announced on 2 May 2016, nearly a year after the CAS heard Gibraltar's case. As part of the ruling, FIFA was ordered to transmit Gibraltar's application for membership to the FIFA congress which was set to take place the following week in Mexico City. Additionally, FIFA was ordered to take "all necessary steps to admit the Gibraltar Football Association as a full member of FIFA without delay." If the vote held at the congress was successful, it was believed that Gibraltar would be a last-minute addition to 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification. In FIFA's official statement regarding the ruling, the organization said that the it expected to discuss the matter at the upcoming congress and discuss a course of action, including potentially altering the congress agenda to submit Gibraltar's application for membership. On 13 May 2016, Gibraltar was accepted as a member of FIFA with a vote of 172 to 12 in favour. Gibraltar became FIFA's 211th member immediately after the Football Federation of Kosovo was voted member 210.
FIFA Women's Club World Cup
A possible format of the tournament is not announced. The men's FIFA Club World Cup involves seven teams, including the six continental club champions and the host nation's national club champions. In the women's tournament the winners of that year's Copa Libertadores Femenina (South America) and UEFA Women's Champions League (Europe) will likely enter. As of 2018, no Asian, African, North American or Oceanic continental tournaments are being played.
National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Football Association). The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 when it was not held due to the Second World War. The competition originally featured 16 teams, and later 24, before settling on its current format of 32 teams starting with the 1998 tournament. Teams initially compete in a group stage, with the final 16 progressing to knockout stages to decide the winner.
FIFA Club World Cup
The current format of the tournament involves seven teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about two weeks; the winners of that year's AFC Champions League (Asia), CAF Champions League (Africa), CONCACAF Champions League (North America), Copa Libertadores (South America), OFC Champions League (Oceania) and UEFA Champions League (Europe), along with the host nation's national champions, participate in a straight knock-out tournament. The host nation's national champions dispute a play-off against the Oceania champions, from which the winner joins the champions of Asia, Africa and North America at the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners go on to face the European and South American champions, who enter at the semi-final stage, for a place in the final.
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (video game)
The game was announced on 26 January 2010 during a GameSpot interview with Simon Humber, one of the producers of the game, and released April 27, 2010 in North America. 199 of the 204 teams that took part in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification are included in the game. British commentary Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend are provided again which previously is "UEFA Euro 2008".
FIFA World Rankings
In December 1992, FIFA first published a listing in rank order of its member associations to provide a basis for comparison of the relative strengths of these teams. From the following August, this list was more frequently updated, to be published most months. Significant changes were implemented in January 1999 and again in July 2006, as a reaction to criticisms of the system. Historical records of the rankings, such as listed at FIFA.com, reflect the method of calculation in use at the time, as the current method has not been applied retrospectively to rankings prior to July 2006. Membership of FIFA has expanded from 167 to 211 since the rankings began; all 211 members are currently included in the rankings.
2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
The draw for the main 2010 World Cup qualifying groups was held in Durban, South Africa on 25 November 2007. 34 teams had been eliminated before the actual draw — 6 from OFC, 5 from CAF and 23 from AFC — and CONMEBOL qualification also had started (no draw was required for this confederation, as all 10 members play in the same group, with the order of fixtures the same as for the 2006 qualification rounds). The 4 remaining teams from OFC had also started playing the final stage as a single group, and no draw was needed. Therefore, the draw of 25 November involved 156 FIFA members from the original 205 entries, divided as follows: UEFA–53 entries in draw; CAF–48 entries in draw (original 53 minus 5 preliminary round losers and withdrawals); AFC–20 entries in draw (original 43 minus 23 1st and 2nd round losers and withdrawals); and CONCACAF–35 entries in draw.
FIFA Women's World Cup
Qualifying tournaments are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe), and are organised by their respective confederations: Confederation of African Football (CAF), Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), South American Football Confederation CONMEBOL, Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and Union of European Football Associations UEFA). For each tournament, FIFA decides beforehand the number of berths awarded to each of the continental zones, based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams. The hosts of the World Cup receive an automatic berth in the finals. Since the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, the number of finalists increased from 16 to 24.
Economics of the FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup has a significant impact on the global economy. FIFA, football’s global governing body with 204 member countries, is beginning to view itself as a global "big business".
FIFA World Cup qualification
Qualifying tournaments are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe), and are organized by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides beforehand the number of places in the finals allocated to each of the continental zones, based on the numbers or relative strength of the confederations' teams.
1970 FIFA World Cup
A total of 75 teams entered the 1970 FIFA World Cup, and 73 were required to qualify. Due to rejected entries and withdrawals, 68 teams eventually participated in the qualifying stages, including eight for the first time. Mexico as the host nation and England as reigning World Cup champions were granted automatic qualification, with the remaining fourteen finals places divided among the continental confederations.
Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup
The competition bares many similarities to the FIFA Confederations Cup in association football, with each of the six confederations of FIFA (UEFA, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, CAF, AFC, OFC) represented by at least one nation, however is not so strict on entry requirements – those countries competing do not necessarily have to be regional champions, but nevertheless will still be one of the best performing nations from their confederation's most recent regional championship. The tournament hosts and reigning World Cup champions also take part, taking the total number of participants to eight.
Senegal at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
List of FIFA World Cup finals
In the 21 tournaments held, 79 nations have appeared at least once. Of these, 13 have made it to the final match, and eight have won. With five titles, Brazil is the most successful World Cup team and also the only nation to have participated in every World Cup finals tournament. Italy and Germany have four titles. Current champion France, along with past champions Uruguay and Argentina, have two titles each, while England and Spain have one each. The team that wins the finals receive the FIFA World Cup Trophy, and their name is engraved on the bottom side of the trophy.
List of men's national futsal teams
There are currently 158 men's national futsal teams affiliated to the "Fédération Internationale de Football Association" (FIFA), the world's football governing body, through their national football associations. They are eligible to enter the FIFA Futsal World Cup and matches between them are recognized as official international matches. Based on their match results, the Futsal World Ranking, published weekly, compare the relative strengths of the national teams.
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (video game)
The game contains all of the 203 national teams that took part in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification process. The national teams of Bhutan, Brunei, Guam, Mauritania, Mauritius and South Sudan, all of which did not participate in World Cup qualifying, despite being FIFA members, do not feature in the game. Some teams have licensed kits as well as kits worn during the World Cup for select teams, while most get generic unlicensed kits which resemble their official kits.
2026 FIFA World Cup
The 2026 FIFA World Cup (; ) will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three North American countries; 60 matches, including the quarterfinals, semi-finals, and the final, will be hosted by the United States while neighboring Canada and Mexico will each host 10 matches. The tournament will be the first hosted by three nations.
Asian nations at the FIFA World Cup
A total of 21 AFC and OFC teams and Israel entered the competition. However, South Vietnam could not compete after being annexed by Vietnam. The Asian zone was allocated one place (out of 16) in the final tournament. The 21 teams would be divided into 5 groups. Sri Lanka, North Korea, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates withdrew. Hong Kong, South Korea, Iran, Kuwait and Australia won in their group. Iran won the final group and qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time.
FIFA (video game series)
When the series began in late 1993, it was notable for being the first to have an official licence from FIFA, the world governing body of football. The latest installments in the series contain many exclusively licensed leagues including leagues and teams from around the world, including the German Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga, English Premier League and EFL Championship, Italian Serie A and Serie B, Spanish La Liga and La Liga 2, French Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, Portuguese Primeira Liga, Turkish Süper Lig, Dutch Eredivisie, Scottish Premiership, the Swiss Super League, Russian Premier League, Polish Ekstraklasa, Mexican Liga MX, American Major League Soccer, South Korean K-League, Japanese J1 League, the Chinese Super League, Arabic Saudi Professional League, Australian A-League, Chilean Primera División, Brazilian Campeonato Série A and Argentine Superliga Argentina, allowing the use of real leagues, clubs and player names and likenesses within the games. Popular clubs from around the world, including some teams from Greece, Ukraine and South Africa, are also included, without those nations' entire leagues. The main series has been complemented by additional installments based on single major tournaments, such as the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League, and UEFA European Football Championship, as well as a series of football management titles.
History of the FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup was first held in 1930, when FIFA, the world's football governing body, decided to stage an international men’s football tournament under the era of FIFA president Jules Rimet who put this idea into place. The inaugural edition, held in 1930, was contested as a final tournament of only thirteen teams invited by the organization. Since then, the World Cup has experienced successive expansions and format remodeling, with its current 32-team final tournament preceded by a two-year qualifying process, involving over 200 teams from around the world.
1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
The 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 1994 FIFA World Cup featured 24 teams with one place reserved for the host nation, United States, and one place for the defending champions, Germany. The remaining 22 places were determined by a qualification process, in which 147 teams, from the six FIFA confederations, competed. Most of the successful teams were determined within these confederations, with a limited number of inter-confederation play-offs occurring at the end of the process.
North, Central American and Caribbean nations at the FIFA World Cup
A total of 35 CONCACAF teams entered the qualification. Mexico, the United States, and Costa Rica qualified for the World Cup. During the World Cup the results were mixed, losing to Brazil (tournament champion) 5–2 (only team to score 2 goals against Brazil at this World Cup), tying with Turkey (third in the championship) 1–1 and soundly beating the selection of China 2–0. This tournament it was in 3rd place in the group behind Turkey on goal difference. The team finished 19 out of the 32 teams. Mexico reached the finals and was placed in Group G alongside Italy, Croatia, and Ecuador. Mexico opened its participation with a 1–0 win over Croatia. In the second match, Mexico earned a 2–1 win over Ecuador with goals from Jared Borgetti and Gerardo Torrado. Mexico then achieved a 1–1 draw against Italy thanks to a goal from Borgetti that was regarded as one of the best of the tournament. The team reached the knockout stage after a 1–1–1 record in the group stage. It started with a surprising 3–2 win over Portugal, followed by a 1–1 tie with co-host and eventual fourth-place finisher, South Korea. It then lost its third and final match 1–3 to Poland but still qualified for the second round when Park Ji-Sung of South Korea stunned Portugal with the eventual game-winning goal. This set the stage for a Second round face-off with familiar continental rivals Mexico. Although the teams had played many times in both friendlies and in qualifying, they had never met in the World Cup. The U.S. would win the game 2–0. Brian McBride opened the scoring early in the match and Landon Donovan scored a second goal from a header off an Eddie Lewis cross. Mexico finished 11 out of the 32 teams. United States advanced to the quarterfinals, where they met Germany. The team lost 1–0; after being denied a penalty when Torsten Frings handled the ball to prevent a Gregg Berhalter goal. At the ranking remained the 8 place.
2022 FIFA World Cup
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to be the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Qatar in 2022. This will be the first World Cup ever to be held in the Arab world and the first in a Muslim-majority country. This will be the first World Cup held entirely in geographical Asia since the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan (the 2018 competition in Russia featured one geographically Asian venue, Yekaterinburg). In addition the tournament will be the last to involve 32 teams, with an increase to 48 teams scheduled for the 2026 tournament. The reigning World Cup champions are France.
FIFA Manager
The game consists of over 1000 officially licensed clubs, featuring more than 35,000 players, across more than 70 licensed leagues. FIFA MANAGER 14 retains all of the licenses from FIFA Manager 13, but with the addition of Brazil's Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Chile's Campeonato Nacional Petrobras, Colombia's Liga Postobón, Argentine Primera División and the Polish Ekstraklasa. There is also the addition of licensed squads for all of the teams in the Ukrainian Premier League, Croatian Prva HNL and the Czech Gambrinus Liga.
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
Following the success of the inaugural FIFA tournament in 2005, the number of teams at the finals was increased by FIFA to a record 16 and so the governing body along with BSWW met with individual confederations to set up a standard qualifying process for each world cup, by establishing regional championships for each continent. The winners of these championships would be crowned the best team in the region, promoting regional competitiveness, and most importantly act as a consistent method of qualification to the World Cup for the best teams of each confederation. This would also help increase the sport's awareness across all corners of the globe and make sure all confederations were represented at the finals at every following World Cup, unlike in the past.
FIFA 08
"FIFA 08" has 44 teams in its international division. The most notable exclusion is Japan (who made it into the round of 16 in the 2002 World Cup, but whose licensing rights currently belong to Konami). The following international teams are playable in the current generation consoles. But not all the teams are fully licensed e.g. Netherlands and Spain.
Oceanian nations at the FIFA World Cup
A total of 21 AFC and OFC teams entered the competition. However, Iran withdrew before the draw was made. For the first time, the World Cup finals expanded from 16 to 24 teams. This allowed more teams, especially from Africa and Asia, to participate. New Zealand, Australia, Fiji got to group 1 and respectively ranked 1, 2, 5 places. Only New Zealand advanced to the Final Round. China PR and New Zealand finished level on points and goal difference, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify. Match between New Zealand - China was played in Singapour. New Zealand won 2-1 and participated in the World Cup for the first time.
New Zealand lost 2–5 Scotland in their first game at the World Cup, 0-3 USSR, 0-4 Brazil and were eliminated. At the ranking finished 23 of 24.
History of association football
Over 90,185 spectators attended the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup and nearly 1 billion viewers from 70 countries tuned in. By the FIFA Women's World Cup 2003, 16 teams competed in the championship finals. Of the four tournaments held to date (2015), the USA (1991, 1999, 2015) is the most successful team with three; and Germany (2003, 2007) have won the championship twice; Norway (1995) and Japan (2011) have each won once. Women's confederations are the same as men's: Oceania (OFC), European (UEFA), North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF), South American (CONMEBOL), Asian (AFC) and African (CAF).
Portugal at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup
Source: The inaugural FIFA World Cup tournament in 1930 featured 13 teams. Since then, every instance of the competition has featured at least one team making their debut appearance.
FIFA
FIFA was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, its membership now comprises 211 national associations. Member countries must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania, and South America.
2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
After the 2005 World Cup, beach soccer continued to grow and spread worldwide at a fast rate. Therefore, FIFA established the "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers", to try to allow more nations to play in the World Cup, as well as getting more national teams involved in the sport. FIFA also increased the number of participating teams in the World Cup from 12 to a record-high 16 teams. This also meant that nations would no longer be invited to play in the World Cup but would have to qualify.
Asian nations at the FIFA World Cup
Forty-four Asian teams are affiliated with FIFA, but Cambodia, Philippines, Bhutan and Brunei decided not to take part, while Myanmar was banned from the competition, so a total of 39 teams took part to compete for 4.5 places in the World Cup. Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan and Iran qualified for the 2006 World Cup finals.
FIFA World Cup
Following the magazine's publication, Blatter's would-be opponent for the FIFA Presidency, UEFA President Michel Platini, responded that he intended to extend the World Cup to 40 national associations, increasing the number of participants by eight. Platini said that he would allocate an additional berth to UEFA, two to the Asian Football Confederation and the Confederation of African Football, two shared between CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, and a guaranteed place for the Oceania Football Confederation. Platini was clear about why he wanted to expand the World Cup. He said: "[The World Cup is] not based on the quality of the teams because you don't have the best 32 at the World Cup ... but it's a good compromise. ... It's a political matter so why not have more Africans? The competition is to bring all the people of all the world. If you don't give the possibility to participate, they don't improve."
1966 FIFA World Cup
Despite the Africans' absence, there was another new record number of entries for the qualifying tournament, with 70 nations taking part. After all the arguments, FIFA finally ruled that ten teams from Europe would qualify, along with four from South America, one from Asia and one from North and Central America.
Ivo Sajh
In December 28, 2013 he have prepared the new system for FIFA World Cup with 4o Teams in eight groups with five National Teams in Final Stage. Anyway FIFA Council Members in January 10, 2017 have decided that from the year 2026 World Cup Final will be in format of 48 National Teams.
FIFA World Cup
The current format of the competition involves a qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase, which is often called the "World Cup Finals". After this, 32 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation(s), compete in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month.
2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
44 Asian teams are affiliated with FIFA, but Cambodia, Philippines, Bhutan and Brunei decided not to take part, and Myanmar was banned from the competition, so a total of 39 teams took part, competing for 4.5 places in the World Cup.
2014 FIFA World Cup Group A
The 32 teams at the 2014 FIFA World Cup were split into eight groups of four, labelled A–H. Group A comprised Brazil, Croatia, Mexico and Cameroon. The first match was played on 12 June 2014, with the last two played concurrently on 23 June.The two teams had met in two previous matches, including in the 2006 FIFA World Cup group stage, won by Brazil 1–0. Croatia forward Mario Mandžukić was suspended for the match, after being sent off in the team's final qualifier against Iceland.
FIFA World Rankings
The FIFA World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, currently led by Belgium. The teams of the member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. The rankings were introduced in December 1992, and eight teams (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain) have held the top position, of which Brazil have spent the longest ranked first.
FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
Qualifying tournaments are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe), and are organised by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides beforehand the number of berths awarded to each of the continental zones, based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams. The hosts of the World Cup receive an automatic berth in the finals. Since the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, the number of finalists increased from 16 to 24.
Sweden at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
FIFA (video game series)
The game features over 40 national sides, fully integrated seasons, set piece selections, increased physical contact, new facial animations, shielding ability and tougher tackling.
2018 FIFA World Cup
The finals involved 32 teams, of which 31 came through qualifying competitions, while the host nation qualified automatically. Of the 32 teams, 20 had also appeared in the previous tournament in 2014, while both Iceland and Panama made their first appearances at a FIFA World Cup. A total of 64 matches were played in 12 venues across 11 cities.
1994 FIFA World Cup
The following 24 teams, shown with final pre-tournament rankings, qualified for the final tournamentː
Three nations bid for host duties: United States, Brazil, and Morocco. The vote was held in Zurich on 4 July 1988, and only took one round with the United States bid receiving a little over half of the votes by the Exco members. FIFA hoped that by staging the world's most prestigious tournament there, it would lead to a growth of interest in the sport. One condition FIFA imposed was the creation of a professional football league – Major League Soccer was founded in 1993 and began operating in 1996. There was some initial controversy about awarding the World Cup to a country where football was not a nationally popular sport, and at the time, in 1988, the U.S. did not have a professional league of its own anymore; the North American Soccer League, set up in the 1970s, had folded in 1984 after attendance faded. Success of the 1984 Summer Olympics and particularly the football tournament also contributed to FIFA's decision. Despite the controversy, the U.S. staged a hugely successful tournament, with average attendance of nearly 70,000 breaking a record that surpassed the 1966 FIFA World Cup average attendance of 51,000, thanks to the large seating capacities the stadiums in the United States provided for the spectators in comparison to the smaller venues of Europe and Latin America. To this day, the total attendance for the final tournament of nearly 3.6 million remains the highest in World Cup history, despite the expansion of the competition from 24 to 32 teams at the 1998 World Cup in France. Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, Italy and the United States were seeded for the final draw, which took place in Las Vegas on 19 December 1993.
Mexico at the FIFA World Cup
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final. Along with Brazil, Mexico holds the record for most consecutive 2nd round appearances.
1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
A total of 39 UEFA teams entered qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. However, Liechtenstein withdrew before the draw was made. Moreover, firstly the CIS, then Russia took the spot of Soviet Union after the Soviet Union was dissolved, and Yugoslavia were suspended by FIFA due to United Nations sanctions stemming from the Yugoslav wars. The European zone was allocated 13 from 24 places in the final tournament. Germany, the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 12 spots open for competition between 37 teams.