The world cup of soccer

This year in Russia, over the span of one month, the best national soccer team will once again be decided at the 21st FIFA World Cup.

CONSIDERED the most widely played game in the world with almost every country having a national team, soccer, also known as football, is a team sport played by two opposing teams of 11 players.

The sport can be traced back almost 3000 and has been played in various forms throughout history. However, the first set of comprehensive rules for the game wasn’t drawn up until 1863.

The date July 13, 1930, marks the beginning of a great sporting event– the FIFA World Cup – when the first ball was kicked off in Uruguay, after the Federation of International Football Association decided to

organise a world championship.

Except for the years 1942 and 1946, the FIFA World Cup has been contested every four years.

At this year’s FIFA World Cup event, 32 countries are vying for football glory.

As the host nation, Russia automatically qualified for the tournament.

The remaining 31 places are filled by teams who played off in the qualifying phase held in the years leading up to the tournament.

Countries from five of FIFA’s six continental zones, Africa, Asia, Europe, North/ Central America/ Caribbean, Oceania and South America, are contesting the cup.,

The final countdown

The culmination of the qualification process was the final draw to determine the groups the 32 teams play in during the ‘round-robin’ phase of the competition.

There are eight groups (A-H) consisting of four teams.

The World Cup is played in two stages – the group stage followed by the knockout stage.

A total of 64 matches are being played with the tournament, beginning with a group stage in which each team plays three matches facing the other teams in their group. Three points are given for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss.

The two teams with the most points at the end of the group stage advance to the knockout stage.

The knockout stage starts with the round of 16, which sees the remaining teams play in eight matches, with the winner progressing the the next round and the loser eliminated.

This is when the action really starts to get tense as there are no more second chances.

The winners of these games move onto the quarter-finals, then the semi-finals in order to try to make the World Cup Final played on July 16.

A play-off to decide third place is also played.