History of the World Cup

In 1928 FIFA(International Federation of Association Football) President Jules Rimet desired to start an international soccer tournament. The tournament began as a simple 13 team tournament with those teams being invited by FIFA.

Over time, this event has become the most popular event in the world and has expanded to a 32 team tournament. The tournament goes well past these 32 teams however as there is now a two year qualification process including more than 200 teams world-wide.

The World Cup came about in response to a decision from the Olympics to not include soccer in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Olympic committee did not believe it would be a good idea as soccer was not yet popular in the United States. FIFA responded by implementing the first World Cup Tournament in Uruguay in 1930. Uruguay went on to win this tournament, beating Argentina in the finals to become the first World Cup Champions.

Four years later the World Cup was held in Italy and was the first World Cup in which qualifications preceded the tournament. This year the field expanded to 16 teams and the popularity of the World Cup began to grow. Though things appeared to be looking up there were many problems ahead for the World Cup.

In 1938 a few South American teams determined to boycott the World Cup in response to a second consecutive World Cup taking place in Europe. This same year the World Cup implemented the tradition of automatic qualification for the country that hosted the competition.

Problems continued for the World Cup with the start of World War II as there were two consecutive cancellations of the event. This left a 12 year span without a World Cup. This span ended in 1950 with a World Cup hosted by Brazil.

Popularity of the World Cup has since continued to grow, even sparking a Women’s World Cup to start taking place every four years as well.  The women’s world cup has not yet generated the same interest that is present in the Men’s world cup.

In the 5 Women’s World Cups teams from Germany and the United States have each won two of the championships. Over time the most successful country for the men’s World Cup has been Brazil with a total of 5 World Cup Tournament championships. Italy follows in number of championships with 4 total, including a victory in the most recent 2006 World Cup.