The World Cup Diaries

Its World Cup year and the excitement, euphoria and anticipation has risen as we draw closer to the main kick-off. Russia won the bid to host this year’s World Cup amid lots of controversies which began a whole chain of investigations and a complete haul in the leaderships of both FIFA and UEFA. But that is not up for discussion today, in this World Cup diaries we are going to countdown to the main event by profiling the country Russia, the venues that will host the football fiesta, the groups and national teams, as well as the history of the tournament. The Greenturf’s got you covered so sit back relax and enjoy the ride. What better way to start than the history of the tournament.

The Genesis

Following the success of the Olympic football tournament in the 1900 and 1904, the calls for a flagship football tournament began to intensify and FIFA’s and the then FIFA president, Jules Rimet’s wish to hold this tournament became a strong desire. After member associations supported the idea through questionnaires distributed by FIFA, a proposal by the Executive Committee was good enough to convince everybody present at a FIFA congress in Amsterdam on 28th May 1928 that a world football tourney is to be staged. Uruguay won the right to become the first country to host the tournament after European countries; Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Sweden withdrew their candidatures. Uruguay remained the only country wiling to bear all costs, including the travel and accommodation of the participating teams with the profits being shared. In a FIFA congress in Barcelona, 1929, Uruguay were confirmed as hosts.

However, the maiden edition did not actually go to plan. Given the world crisis at that time, most European countries pulled out and organizers, Uruguay began to worry about the success of the tournament. Only four European teams (France, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Romania) managed to make the trip to Uruguay to participate in the tournament. The tournament opened at the new Estadio Centenario in Montevideo on 18 July, 1930. The tournament then proceeded to be staged three times in the 1930s before the Second World War put a 12-year stop to it before it resumed in 1950.

The Journey

Sixteen countries have hosted the twenty tournaments that have been staged. Up until 2002 in Korea-Japan, the hosting rights have been shared among the Americans and the Europeans. With the Americans hosting it for seven times and the Europeans, nine times. Only Mexico, Italy, France, Germany( West Germany till after the 1990 edition) and Brazil have hosted the event on two occasions and Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca and Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana have hosted two World Cup finals. Since its inception, the World Cup has expanded the number of teams that participate from an thirteen nations from only two continents to thirty-two from all the continents. In Italy 1934, the number increased from the initial 13 nations to a 16-nation tournament and it was the first to have qualifying rounds. Spain then hosted an expanded 24-team world cup in 1982 where Africa was represented by Cameroon and Algeria as debutants. In 1998, France then had the privilege to host another expanded World Cup. 32 teams qualified for the tournament in France and the ‘Golden goal’ rule was debuted in this tournament. It has been 32 teams since 1998 till date even though there are advanced discussions to expand to a 48-nation tournament.

Here’s a list of the hosts and winners of each edition since 1930;

Year Hosts Winners

1930 Uruguay Uruguay

1934 Italy Italy

1938 France Italy

1950 Brazil Uruguay

1954 Switzerland West Germany

1958 Sweden Brazil

1962 Chile Brazil

1966 England England

1970 Mexico Brazil

1974 West Germany West Germany

1978 Argentina Argentina

1982 Spain Italy

1986 Mexico Argentina

1990 Italy West Germany

1994 U.S.A Brazil

1998 France France

2002 Japan and South Korea Brazil

2006 Germany Italy

2010 South Africa Spain

2014 Brazil Germany