The FIFA World Cup has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to World War II. The reigning champions are Argentina, who won their third title at the 2022 World Cup by defeating France.
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The world’s first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England. Then the first international tournament for nations, the inaugural British Home Championship in 1884. This included games between England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. As football grew in popularity in other parts of the world at the start of the 20th century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics.
FIFA was founded in 1904. Subsequently, it tried to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906.
WORLD CUP
Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with President Jules Rimet as the driving force, again started looking at staging its own international tournament outside of the Olympics. Subsequently, on 28 May 1928, the FIFA in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship. 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. 13 teams participated, and Uruguay won the tournament, defeating Argentina 4-2 in the final.
In the tournaments between 1934 and 1978, 16 teams competed in each tournament. Then the tournament was expanded to 24 teams in 1982. Then to 32 with France 1998, allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part. In October 2016, FIFA president Gianni Infantino stated his support for a 48-team World Cup in 2026. Subsequently, on 10 January 2017, FIFA confirmed the 2026 World Cup will have 48 finalist teams.
For more domestic tournaments see Football4Cast‘s other pages.
