With few days to the FIFA world Cup in Russia, it will be interesting to note some interesting facts about this great tournament.
The FIFA World Cup is the biggest football festival, born out of the inspiration to bring countries together, it was created by Jules Rimet, who was motivated by the model of the Olympic Games. The 2018 edition will be the 21st in 88 years after the first tournament in Uruguay in 1930. This year's world cup will see the use of Video Assistant Referee (VAR), the technology will assist referees make correct decision and was approved by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 11th time Russia will feature in the tournament but the first time Russia will be hosting this major competition. This year’s world cup has a hosting cost of 600 million US dollars, compared to 14 billion dollars that was spent for Brazil 2014 and 3.2 billion dollars for South Africa 2010. Cost varies with countries, and existing and intended infrastructures. Approximately 1.5 million fans and visitors across the globe is expected to be in Russia during the tournament. Eleven (11) cities in Russia will host 32 football teams and these are Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Sochi, Ekaterinburg, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Samara, Volgograd, and Nizhny Novgorod. Seven new stadiums were constructed by the Rusian government, the rest were renovated to world class standards. The Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow with a capacity of 81,000 will host the opening and closing matches of the event. The tournament will run through the 14th June to 15 July 2018 with the opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia on the 14th of June.
Out of the 32 contending teams, two are first timers (Panama, and Iceland), while Egypt, Morocco and Peru return after over two decades absence. 13 national teams represent Europe, including Russia which qualified as the host country, these are Denmark, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, and Croatia. Five national teams are from the African zone, (Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia). The CONCACAF meaning Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football is represented by Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama. The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) is represented by Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay.
Till date only two continents have won the FIFA World cup (South America and Europe). Brazil holds the record for the highest number of world cup wins (5 times), followed by Germany (4 times winners), Italy (4 times winners), Argentina (2 times), Uruguay (2 times winners), France, England, and Spain have won the Cup once. The European countries have had the most of the World Cup wins 11 compared to the South American 9. Germany are the defending Champions and will be playing in Group F alongside Mexico, Sweden, and Korea. Here is what the Group looks like.
Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay.
Group B: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Iran.
Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark.
Group D: Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria.
Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Croatia, Serbia.
Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Korea.
Group G: Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, England.
Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia, Japan.
Four times world champions, Italy is obviously absent, after failing to qualify for the first time since 1958. Players to watch out for includes Timo Werner (Germany), Paulo Dybala (Argentina), Kylian Mbappé (France), Luis Suárez (Uruguay), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Isco (Spain), Toni Kroos (Germany), Neymar (Brazil) and Lionel Messi (Argentina)
The FIFA world cup remains the most watched event worldwide, during the 2014 edition in Brazil, the event attracted 3.2 billion people globally which represents half of the world’s population. This year viewership numbers will be no different. The official partners for the tournament are: Coca-Cola, adidas, Gazprom, Wanda-Group, Hyundai, Qatar Airways and Visa. Sponsors are Budweiser, Mcdonalds, Hisense, Mengniu, and Vivo. Regional supporters are Alrosa, Russian Railway, Alfa Bank, Rostelecom, and FIFA.COM
The World Cup is not all about the winning the Cup, FIFA has set aside Financial reward for teams that make to each stage of the tournament and a total sum of 791 million dollars has been set aside. Out of this amount, 391 million dollars will go to the various player's participatory club sides as compensation and benefits. There is so much to play for.
As preparatory fee, each 32 teams will get 1.5 million dollars,
For taking part in the group stage each team gets 8 million dollars
For Making it to the round of 16 each team gets 16 million dollars
Fourth place team gets 22 million dollars
Third place team gets 24 million dollars
Runners up gets 28 million dollars
Winner gets 38 million dollars.
Interesting to note that NO FOREIGN COACH HAS EVER WON THE FIFA WORLD CUP.
No African team has made it to the semi-final of the the tournament, the closest was in South Africa 2010 where Ghana was stopped by Uruguay in an historic and memorable match. South Korea remains the only Asian team that has qualified for the semi-final of the world cup, and this was in 2002 when they co-hosted the tournament with Japan, but eventually lost out to Germany. Historically, apart from Sweden 1958, that was won by Brazil, the rest of the tournaments hosted in Europe was won by a European country. We wait to to see if that trend will continue with this year's world cup. Wishing all the teams and fans success.
Looking foward to it!
el futbol mundial que mueve masas, y no solo eso también millones de dolares que quedan en el país anfitrión. Perú mi pais está presente
es impresionante como el football puede reunir a tantas personas por una sola cosa la ganas de ganar y ver quien es el mejor
Let's go Brazil!!!!! We owe the Germans a huge ass-kicking as everyone forgets that in that 7-1 massacre we played without Neymar and our defensive anchor Thiago Silva!!! We coming for your Germany, whacha gonna do, when the Samba Kings come for youuuu brothaaaaa
oh, man, I love Brasil and almost everything about it, but that surgical evisceration by Germany is still one of my all-time favourite moments in sport. Good luck Brasil - I hope this guy's right, and the next meet up with Germany is a closer run thing. Looking forward to a good match up
Big Dreams :D
Players to watch out for : Robert Lewandowski (Poland)
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I will aswell
I only follow few Sports and Football is one of my Favourites.
This Time it will be Fun.
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I also like Football very much and Argentina is my favorite team.
Italy is not qualified this year, it is a national tragedy
that is so sad, and see buffon sad by this is so hard
This post will be needed very soon. All the best!
It will be a great holiday of football. My favorites are the teams of France and Brazil.
Best player in the world.thank you
Great minds think alike
I can't wait for the tournament to start. The World Cup Connects people from different parts of the globe.
It is said that soccer is the people's opium. It is the perfect "smoke curtain" used to hide really important information that some governments don't want to be covered by the medias. So, for an entire month, events that happens in the middle east (Syria, Gaza) are going to be less important than The World Cup...
Yea...I also can't wait for watching this tournament .
nice... upvoted and followed
Yeah.. No continent outside europe and south america has won it.
I hope something different happens this time. Like an african team getting to the semi finals
I can't wait to see the world cup with out Italy how it will look like.
It's hard to believe it's been around 30 years since the U.S. didn't qualify. Should be a great tournament, rooting for any longshot/cinderella story to unfold.
Your post has been very good. Very well, thank you for sharing something good.
Well, the action will begin very soon.
Awesome blog full of valuable information bro
The Fifa world cup is going to forever be the most watched soccer tournament ever. I guess we have 8 days more. I didn't even realise teams were paid as they kept advancing.
I think that this world cup will ne special, i dont know why but i feel something strange will happen !
This is the most interesting information for me ! Woooowww
let see who's gonna win :) :D
Nigeria buddy
hope for the best
Nigeria has the most beautiful kit of this year's edition of the world cup
Well!! I am glad that i was here to know these....very good information about world cup....very interested about the world cup since my young age....looking foreward to it....will support spain also portugal
Is important to know that behind the "14 billion dollars that was spent for Brazil 2014" great part was consumed by corruption. Inclusive, nowaday there are my stadiums that was not finished at all. Brazil is a big country. Its economy is big, no for its efficiency, but due its size. The corruption on this country is a sick impregnated on the classes' political.
Soccer is business. One of the biggest in sports I'd say. And I've met a few people from Rio that were part of the protesting communities when they hosted the World Cup, but it seemed like it didn't make much difference. Money was taken from their healthcare, schools, communities and put into the stadiums and event organizations and the country is dealing with huge poverty any. And I've heard now that a few of these brand new stadiums aren't being used anymore. It's not much different in Russia now.
@joshx Corruption is something about the human been and no one country have solution for that. Only thing that could go against the corruption is a strong law made by each country according each culture. It's really complicated to talked about that and do mainly beleave that don't exists corruption in any country.
@steeminer4up True... but if would maybe leave out the corruption in who gets the next World Cup, specially if the country has not enough funds (without the people starving) to organize it...that's what I ment
You either have just washed brains that carry all Russophobic crap, who has never been in Russia and you can not find it on the map, либо ты бандера - тогда все с тобой ясно
@olega-friend77 I hope that you didn't tell that about my comment. I didn't talk about Russia and I guess that each country have your own problem. I don't live in there and I beleave that if have corruption on Russian that is problem about the russian people as well.
Very usefull post, thank you very much for your work .
Kylian Mbappé is incredibly strong considering he just turned 19 I think he is the player to watch out for, France has a great team to help him shine.
Brazil, Germany, Spain, Argentina and Belgium are the favourites in my opinion though.
hi there!!!
nice post! i am from Mexico and i am soccer fan, always i enjoy watching world cup.
also i think futbol it is a huge business, the owners have a lot alot of money.
well nice post again and good luck.
have a wonderful day!!!
We are waitng you in Yekaterinburg!
I'm from Moscow and look forward to the start of the World Cup, we have a very pleasant atmosphere in the city, fans are starting to come. And I also bought tickets for the most interesting matches. It will be very fun, I wish everyone a fair fight on this great holiday.
So sad for no Italy this time...
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There is a scientific study that says that wining this World cup either for Brazil or for Germany
Great read. Thanks. I can't wait for the tournament. I'm going with Germany to repeat which is a hard feat. I would really like Argentina (Messi) to win, but I just don't think they have enough.
How do you guys like Mohammad Salah?
The 2002 World Cup has gone down in infamy due to the huge number of refereeing mistakes that helped eliminate a string of top nations, and also ensured that co-hosts Korea made it all the way to the semi-finals.
During their final two group games against Croatia and Mexico, Italy had four perfectly good goals disallowed, but somehow managed to scrape through to the second round where they met South Korea. Against Guus Hiddink’s men, Italy again had a valid goal chalked off, a golden goal from Damiano Tomassi which would have taken them to the next round.
Francesco Totti was sent off for diving when replays suggested he had lost his footing, while the Koreans were awarded a controversial penalty for a Christian Panucci tugging offence. Italy eventually lost after Ahn Jung-Hwan’s golden winner, but the match and Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno have gone down in Italian football notoriety.
The Italian nation cried that there had been a conspiracy against them, and they were soon joined by the Spanish, who in the very next game against Korea had two perfectly good goals disallowed as they were eliminated on penalties. At the end of the game, Ivan Helguera had to be held back by team-mates as he attempted to attack the referee.
Italy and Spain were not the only team to be apparently wronged by Korea during the 2002 World Cup. In their final group game against Portugal, the co-hosts continually appeared to win favors from the referee as they won 1-0, thus eliminating the Europeans. source
Thank you so much for this nice information.
My pleasure :)
Thanks for your response.
I cry that day when Ghana lost
Yes, it was really hard on them to lose that way.
Good, my favorite team is Portugal. Because there is Ronaldo. bold
Thank you very interesting facts.!!
Thanks, and the pictures turned out stylish
France to win the World Cup.
4 Days To FIFA World Cup.
Excellent publication, I really loved it. You spoke of all the details in a clear and summarized way. Now to wait for the World Cup to start.
Let's go Iceland!
we can not miss this guy talking about best of the best:
I'm not the biggest soccer (football) fan out there, but I LOVE watching the World Cup. It is impossible to ignore the passion the teams and fans posses while representing their home countries.
One sad component of the World Cup is how many of the cities that host the event fail to build off of the economic boom. Slowly but surely the event structures, stadiums, and new buildings become dilapidated as the countries cannot afford to upkeep them.
Here in Brazil the stadiums aren't finished yet.
France missed their chance at euro cup 2 years ago, loosing to Portugal in the final. I'm pretty sure they'll be solid containder this year!
Fun prediction for y'all. Mexico will be screwed over again and FIFA will stick to their guns and stay away from any thoughts that may include the implementation of a replay system.
As you can tell I am a bit of a Mexico fan.
This year Argentina won 1st World Cup
Very good description of fifa world cup
I love football. love Timo Werner. He's my admirer
Wow .wonderful you are sharing good information of the tournament.
Great post! rich in information about the world cup. I liked!
nice post
upvoted and followed, good information