The Basics

For some, the following post might be common knowledge.  Maybe you already know everything I’m about to explain.  But many people don’t.  To me, most of this stuff is second nature; it’s my life.  But I realized from all the questions I’ve been getting lately and the responses I got when I told people about this blog, that the workings of the World Cup are not exactly common knowledge.  So give it a read.  I don’t mean to be condescending or redundant, but a lot of this stuff is not very well known.  If you already know all this stuff, congratulations!  You are in a rare group with maybe 1% of your fellow Americans.  If you’re on the other end of the spectrum, and this is all new to you, even better.  I’m glad to help.  

The World Cup starts a week from today.  I plan on eventually going into detail about certain teams, players, games, etc.  But before we can talk about that, we have to address the most basic questions first. 

So what the heck is this World Cup thing anyway?

The FIFA World Cup is an international soccer tournament, held every four years.  The tournament pits thirty-two of the best national soccer teams against each other in a multi-stage competition.  The World Cup is held in a different nation every four years (hosts can hold the tournament more than once), with a complex bidding process (much like the Olympics) deciding who gets to host each tournament.  This year’s World Cup is in South Africa.  The last world cup, 2006 was in Germany.  The United States hosted the tournament in 1994, and is bidding to host another one (2018 or 2022, sign the petition!) as we speak.

Okay, enough about the where, you still haven’t really told us what it is!

Yeah, sorry, I kind of got carried away there.  Don’t mean to overload you with information, but we’re only just getting started! 

Okay, so I don’t exactly get what type of teams these are…  "National teams"?  Does that mean the best players in each country?

Yes, exactly.  These are not club teams like Manchester United, Barcelona or the LA Galaxy.  These are national teams, made up of the best twenty-three players from each country. The players play for the nation that they identify with (most likely the country they were born or grew up in), not necessarily where the live.  It doesn’t matter where they play their club soccer.  For example, David Beckham plays soccer in America for the LA Galaxy, but he’s still English, so when he plays in international soccer tournaments, he plays for England.  It’s like the Olympics- the athletes represent their countries- even if they play or train somewhere else.  Also like the Olympics, sometimes athletes can be ‘nationalized’ by a different nation than they were born in, due to residency, or heritage.  For example, Freddy Adu was born in Ghana, but moved to America as a child.  He had the choice to play for both nations, but chose the United States, because he said he “felt American”.  

Okay, that makes sense.  But you said there are thirty-two teams in the World Cup… Surely there are way more countries than that with soccer teams?  How do they pick the thirty-two for the World Cup?

What we like to call “The World Cup” here in America is technically The World Cup Finals.  The actual World Cup consists of two stages: the finals (what we’re about to see in South Africa), and the qualification period. 

There are 208 FIFA national teams, and each one gets a chance to compete in the World Cup.  Every national team belongs to a certain continental region.  Each continent is allotted a certain number of spots in the Finals depending on their size, and the strength of their national teams.  For example, Europe has 13 teams in South Africa- nearly half the field, whereas Asia only has four.  Each continent has its own rules for selecting who gets their spots.  Most continents have mini-tournaments, with many rounds (the higher-ranked teams get to skip the early rounds) to decide which national teams get to represent their region at the actual World Cup.  This qualifying period happens in the years between World Cups, part of the reason why the tournament only happens every four years. 

Alright, I understand what the national teams are, and how they get to the World Cup, but how exactly does the Cup itself work?

The finals tournament, held every four years, like the Olympics, also has two stages: the group stage, and the knockout stage.  After all 32 teams have been finalized, a draw takes place and the teams are put into eight “groups” of four.  In the group stage, each team gets to play three games.  They have a mini round-robin tournament with their group, playing each team once.  A win is worth 3 points, and a draw (no overtime or penalty shoot-outs yet) is worth 1 point.

 At the end of the group stage, the two teams with the most points from each group move on.  The group stage eliminates half of the field, leaving sixteen teams for the single-elimination knockout round.  The knockout round is simple enough- think of it like the Sweet Sixteen in March Madness.  It’s just a single-elimination, winner-take-all, tournament.  Games can’t end in draws now.  If the score is still tied after ninety minutes, a thirty-minute (NOT sudden death) overtime is played.  If it’s still level after that, the match goes to a dramatic penalty kick shoot-out. 

Okay, this is beginning to make sense.  But why does it matter?  Who watches? 

 

The World Cup Final is the most watched television event in the world, surpassing the Olympics and Super Bowl.  FIFA claimed an audience of over 1,000,000,000 (yes, that’s a billion) for the 2006 Final, but independent estimates put the number closer to 300 Million.  Even so, that’s just for one game!  The same estimates put the total viewership for the 2006 World Cup (the combined viewers of all 64 games) at 27 billion.  Over 90% of the world’s households with televisions watch at least one match.  The numbers are staggering.  

Soccer is truly the World’s game.  It may not be that popular in America, but it is the number one (and often only) sport in nearly all of the world’s countries.  The world stops during the Cup, as everyone turns their attention to the tournament.  Whole cities literally shut down during matches.  Wars stop (really, they do.  Here's a fabulous article about Didier Drogba and his efforts to bring peace to war torn Ivory Coast).  These are more than games to most of the World.  During the tournament, especially when one’s own country is playing, nothing else matters.



I hope I answered some of the basic questions there.  If you already knew all that stuff, great.  If not, now we're on the same page.  I'm sure you still have many more questions about the World Cup.  If they're about certain players, or teams, or matches, I hope to answer them in the next week- but by all means, ask away.  Especially though, if they're about the format of the World Cup, how exactly the tournament works, or if any of the above was confusing, drop a comment below.  I'll try to answer ASAP.  You don't have to register or anything to comment, it should be really easy.