The World Cup is more than likely the world’s most watched sporting events – with people travelling across the world to catch the best matches and even more people glued to their TV screens around the world. Taking place every four years The World Cup determines the world’s best football teams.
But how much do you know about the world cup? Today we are here to provide interesting world cup facts to get people in the soccer spirit.
World Cup Facts
- This world cup (The World Cup 2018) is the first time that Russia has been selected to host this prestigious event.
- This is the 11th time that Russia has competed in The World Cup, with their most successful participation seeing them finish 4th place in 1966.
- Almost half of the world’s population, 3.2 billion people to be exact, tuned in to watch the last world cup hosted by Brazil (The World Cup 2014).
- The World Cup has taken place 20 times, and the team with the most titles to date is Brazil who hold 5 titles. Closely behind Brazil are Italy and Germany who have both won the world cup on 4 occasions.
- The first world cup to be hosted over two different countries took place in 2002 with South Korea and Japan co-hosting the event.
- In 1994, Roger Milla of Cameroon became the oldest person to ever score a goal in a world cup in their game against Russia.
- India withdrew their team from The World Cup in 1950 due to not being allowed to play barefoot. (We suspect this one could be a rumour though).
- The first ever World Cup took place all the way back in 1930. Uruguay hosted this world cup, and won it!
- In 1966 The World Cup trophy went missing for an entire week prior to the tournament starting.
- The average amount of people attending each game during the 2014 World Cup was 53,000 people.
- The highest scoring game inWorld Cup history was in 1954 when Russia beat Switzerland with a 7-5 result. That’s a whopping 12 goals!
- The country with the most draws in World Cup history is currently Italy with 21.
- Out of all of the countries that have ever played in the World Cup, Indonesia has played the least games, only ever playing one game back in 1938.
- While only 32 teams have qualified for the world cup this year, it is anticipated that this number will jump all the way up to 48 in 2026.
Football tours 2018
If you would like to experience playing football all across the world but your footballskills are not quite World Cup standard do not worry. Luckily for all, Burleigh Travel offer a vast range of football tours with options suitable for all ages and abilities. Football tours provide people with the opportunity to play football abroad with their team and allow the opportunity to experience how football differs from county to country and have an experience of a lifetime with their teammates.