By Yin Nwe Ko
FOOTBALL! OK. It is loved from pole to pole. It is the most popular sport in the world. There are billions of fans from the young to the aged. If one makes a query to show the matches which were the most interesting events on earth, he would be surely indicated The World Cup matches as countless numbers of fans have been watching up to now.
Before the World Cup was inaugurated, the football tournament arranged as part of the Summer Olympics was given the most prestige. But in the 1920s, the game was facing a transition to professionalism that was not consistent with the Olympic spirit. Therefore, the government body, FIFA, made plans to organize a World Cup. The decision of arranging the first edition was officially declared on 26 May 1928.
The first official World Cup was played in Uruguay from 3 July to 30 July 1930 with 13 nations, and since then the tournament has been held every fourth year (with exceptions for interruption due to the Second World War). There were, however, unofficial pre-FIFA World Cups already in the late 1800s, at a time when only a few national teams existed. Another unofficial “world cup” arranged before 1930 was Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy held in 1909 and 1911. Besides that, the Summer Olympic football competitions would be a mark of which the best national teams were before 1930. The Olympic tournaments consisted, however, only of amateur teams – the World Cup became the “real deal”.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup kicked off in early November, with more than 30 teams participating. In the tournament’s 92-year history, only eight countries have won: Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, Argentina, Spain, Uruguay, and England. This year, Brazil goes in as the big favourite, with odds of 9 to 2. The host nation automatically earns an invite, though Qatar will need a miracle to cinch the trophy. Their odds of winning are 250 to 1.
This is the first time the Cup is being held in the Middle East, during the Northern Hemisphere’s winter. Summer temps in Qatar regularly top 100 degrees, so for the safety of both athletes and spectators, organizers pushed the month-long contest out to late November, when the weather is milder.
A committee votes to select the World Cup host country years in advance. Since Qatar’s bid was won back in 2010, the Qataris in charge of that bid have been accused of bribing for votes. They wouldn’t be the first. Former FIFA official Chuck Blazer admitted to taking bribes for the 1998 World Cup in France and the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
Qatar is the smallest nation ever to host the World Cup in terms of population and land area. Qatar has a population of only 2.6 million, which makes it the smallest nation to host an event of this magnitude. This will be the second time an Asian country has hosted the event, following South Korea and Japan in 2002. Qatar will be the first Arab country to host the FIFA World Cup. In any case, Qatar will be the first Arab or Muslim nation to host the full event. More than $220 billion was spent by Qatar on hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. For comparison, Brazil spent $20 billion on the 2014 FIFA World Cup and Russia invested $15 billion in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Organizers expect the tournament to boost Qatar’s economy by $20 billion. A new airport, metro, and roads were built in Qatar for the finals, as well as seven stadiums. A new stadium, that also hosts nine other matches, will host the World Cup 2022 Final, which is the centrepiece of the new city.
Uruguay was the first host and winner of the World Cup in 1930. The final match was played out in front of 60,000 spectators. The most recent World Cup final in Moscow in 2018 attracted a crowd of 78,000. Another 1.12 billion tuned in live streaming at home or at their local soccer bar.
No World Cup was held between 1938 and 1950 due to World War II. The 1950 tournament in Brazil featured separate East and West German squads. It wasn’t until the 1994 World Cup that Germany took part as a unified team. West Germany won in 1954.
That 1950 Cup was also the first to feature England, despite soccer being an English invention. That year, Team USA beat England 1-0, though some British newspapers reported the result as USA 1, England 10, as editors believed the real score had a typo. Both sides believed it would be an easy win for England, and double-digit goals were expected. This match is considered by many one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history.
US soccer fans baulked when their team failed to qualify for the 2018 Cup: The US had not sat out since 1986. This year, the fans are back in, with odds to win of 80 to 1. One of the best players is Timothy Weah. He was eligible to play for a few countries, including Liberia (where his father, George Weah, is the current president), but chose his native United States. The elder Weah was a soccer star in his own right and was named the 1995 FIFA World Player of the Year.
While the US men have never won a World Cup title, the US women’s team has won four, including the previous two tournaments. The first women’s World Cup started many decades after the men’s, in 1991. That first one was held in China, but the Americans left with the trophy. The American team is so dominant that they have won half of all the World Cups to date. The women play every four years, just like the men, but not on the same schedule. The next women’s World Cup will be held in 2023 in Australia and New Zealand.
Budweiser is a major sponsor of this year’s Cup. The problem? Public drinking is outlawed in Qatar. In an attempt at compromise, drinks will be sold before and after the matches but not during, and they won’t be allowed in stadium seating areas. Tournament organizers tested similar arrangements at a 2019 preliminary match in Qatar. Bus trips from the drinking zone they set up at a separate venue to the soccer stadium where the game was taking place took more than an hour with traffic.
France could become the first team to claim consecutive World Cups since 1962 when Brazil won it back to back. But the Dutch want to make their own history, having finished in the top four in four previous tournaments, then losing all three of their final matches.
Whoever wins, they will not get to keep the 18-karat gold trophy for long. Like hockey’s Stanley Cup, the FIFA World Cup — which depicts two figures holding up the Earth — is not reproduced for each tournament. Instead, the previous winning team passes it to the new champs. Another similarity to the Stanley Cup: The current statue is not the original. The first FIFA trophy was stolen right out of its display case at the headquarters of the Brazilian football association in Rio de Janeiro in 1983 and has not been seen again.
The prize money for the tournament has increased massively over the years. The total prize money for the FIFA World Cup 2018 was $791 million (the winners received $35 million), which can be compared to $20 million for the FIFA World Cup in 1982.
So far, the World Cup has eluded the two most famous players on the planet: Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Lionel Messi of Argentina. Both are competing this year in their fifth World Cups, but both are also in their mid-30s, which is when most players retire. This could be their last chance to hoist soccer’s most important trophy.
Reference: Reader’s Digest Nov 2022
