After the FIFA World Cup history, we have listed interesting information about the most comprehensive football organization in the world, which is held regularly every 4 years, even though it was interrupted twice due to the Second World War in 1942 and 1946.
History of the FIFA World Cup
When the FIFA World Cup began to be organized, the champion team was awarded the Jules Rimet Cup for four years, to be transferred to the winner of the next tournament.
According to FIFA regulations, the three-time champion team would qualify for the trophy permanently. Brazil, who won the 1970 World Cup for the third time, was entitled to receive the trophy permanently. But the trophy was stolen from Brazil in 1983 and could not be found.
The design of Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, consisting of two human figures holding the globe, seated on a circular two-layered malachite pedestal, was chosen, among 53 designs from 7 countries, to replace the stolen trophy.
Given until 1970 and inspired by the Greek Goddess of Victory, the Jules Rimet Cup was made of sterling silver and lazuli. The mug, which dates back to 1970, is made of 18 carat gold.
At the base of the new cup, the years of the tournaments held since 1974 and the champion teams are written.
According to FIFA’s amended regulations, the trophy has not been awarded permanently since 1974. Instead, a gold-plated replica is delivered to the team.
FIFA World Cup Mascots
The FIFA World Cup was first introduced with the mascot in 1966.
The first mascot used in 1966 was a lion wearing a UK flag shirt named World Cup Willie.
In the 1970 World Cup, the boy mascot, named Juanito, wore a sombrero with the inscription MEXICO ’70 on the jersey of Mexico, which hosted the tournament.
In 1974, two children’s mascots, Tip and Tap, were in Germany jerseys with WM (Weltmeisterschaft meaning ‘World Cup’ in German) ’74 written on them.
In 1978, he was a boy representing gaucho wearing a hat, scarf, whip and Argentina jersey with Argentina ’78 on it.
In 1982, an orange, named Naranjito, with a picture of fruit grown in host Spain, was used as the mascot, wearing the country’s jersey.
In 1986, the mascot named Jalapeno Pique was a jalapeno pepper wearing a sombrero and having a mustache.
In 1990, it was a stickman named Ciao made up of the colors of the Italian flag.
In 1994, it was a dog named Striker who wore USA ’94 on it and wore the USA jersey.
In 1998, it was a rooster named Footix, wearing a navy blue suit with France ’98 on his chest.
In 2002, three computer-generated mascots were created, bearing the names Ato, Kaz, and Nik in orange, purple, and blue.
In 2006, it was a talking soccer ball named Pille with a lion named Goleo wearing 06 and wearing the German jersey.
In 2010, the yellow leopard named Zakumi; He represented the host South Africa in green hair, green shorts and a white T-shirt with South Africa 2010 written on it.
In 2014, Fuleco, the Brazilian three-belt armadillo, wore a white T-shirt with Brasil 2014 on it and green shorts.
In 2018, the wolf named Zabivaka, who wore a white T-shirt with navy blue sleeves and a white t-shirt with Russia 2018 on it, was chosen as the mascot of the World Cup.
Stars in National Team Jerseys
All teams that are champions in the World Cup add a star above the crest on their jerseys.
The only exception is Uruguay, which won the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics. The Uruguayan national team’s jersey has 2 more stars.
Bests in the FIFA World Cup
300 people watched the 1930 World Cup final.
For the first time at the World Cup held in Brazil in 1950, the number of spectators exceeded 1 million.
In 1982, the increase in both the number of matches and the number of teams in the tournament held in Spain increased the number of spectators to 2 million.
The 1994 World Cup held in the USA was the most watched World Cup with more than 3.5 million viewers.
In 2014, the World Cup was watched by approximately 3.2 billion viewers. This figure represents almost half of the world’s population.
Movies About the World Cup
Since the 1954 World Cup, FIFA has started to broadcast an official documentary film for each tournament. In addition, tournaments have been treated as themes in some films or have been the direct subject of the film:
The 2003 production Das Wunder von Bern, describing the championship of West Germany in the 1954 World Cup,
2005’s The Game of Their Lives, about the USA’s 1-0 win over England in the 1950 World Cup.
Video Games about FIFA World Cup
The World Cup Carnival video game released in 1986 is the first World Cup themed game.
World Championship Soccer, which was released in 1989, was about the FIFA 1990 World Cup.
World Cup USA ’94 was released in 1994 to coincide with the tournament.
From 1998, video games related to the FIFA World Cup began to be developed by EA Sports. Examples of the games developed by EA Sports are World Cup ’98, 2002 FIFA World Cup and 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, which were released in the same year as the tournaments, and FIFA: Road to World Cup ’98 and FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup.
Women’s World Football Cup
The Women’s World Football Cup was first hosted by the People’s Republic of China in 1991.
The first champion of the tournament was the United States.
Yellow and Red Card
Until the 1970s, the referees communicated their decisions verbally to the player they kicked out of the match.
In the quarter-final match played between England and Argentina in 1966, as a result of confusion about who was kicked out of the match, the English referee suggested Ken Aston’s idea of using a card that could be seen by everyone. Aston drew inspiration from traffic lights for the color of the cards.
Thus, the practice of yellow and red cards was introduced for the first time in the 1970 World Cup. However, no player was shown a card in the tournament.
Chilean Carlos Caszely was the first player to receive a red card in 1974.
Short Short
Except for the 1930 and 1950 World Cups, at least one European team took part in all World Cup finals.
The Brazilian national team has never lost a match between Pelé and Garrincha.
At the 1950 World Cup, India did not participate as they were not allowed to play barefoot.
The 2002 World Cup was the first tournament organized by two countries: South Korea and Japan.
Italy is the team with the most draws in World Cup history with 21 draws.
2018 FIFA World Cup, Russia
The 21st World Cup events in Russia are held in 11 different cities and 12 stadiums, 9 of which are new.
Russia, which spent about 12 billion dollars for the organization, is much less than the money spent for the World Cup held in Brazil in 2014.
After Russia, the 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar. The 2022 tournament will be the last tournament where 32 teams will compete. From 2026, 48 national teams will face each other in the World Cup.
Iceland and Panama are participating in the tournament for the first time this year.
The World Cup held in Russia is the first World Cup held in both Europe and Asia.
