2014 Pyramid Competition - 8th/9th Grade text "FIFA World Cup"

FIFA World Cup

Football, often called “the beautiful game,” is the world’s most popular sport.  The peak of this global game occurs every four years and is called the World Cup.  Organized by FIFA, the sports event has an eighty-four year history with hundreds of countries competing for a chance to participate.  The modern World Cup has changed from the first Cup held in Uruguay in 1934, but the objectives are still the same.  It requires cooperation and friendliness between countries and facilitates cultural exchange among hundreds of millions of football fans. 

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is the organization that is responsible for organizing all of the world’s football tournaments.  Established in 1904, FIFA manages 209 countries’ football affairs from their headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.  FIFA’s most important role is organizing the World Cup, which is the world’s largest sports competition and occurs every four years.  This year, the prestigious event will be held in Brazil.

            The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in July 1930.  Thirteen men’s national football teams from Europe, North America, and South America participated in the event.  500,000 people watched the thirteen football matches in the month of June, but hundreds of thousands more listened to the games on the radio and on television in their homes.  Every match was held in Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital city, unlike modern World Cups which requires many cities for the dozens of matches.  Uruguay’s Men’s National Football Team won the 1930 World Cup, which was held in their home country.  Only four other teams have won while their countries hosted the competition (England 1966, Germany 1974, Argentina 1978, and France 1998).  From the first World Cup in 1930, the competition has occurred every four years except in 1942 and 1946 because of World War II.

            Today, the Cup consists of thirty-two teams, but before the global event begins all countries can compete for a spot for the month long competition.  For the 2010 World Cup, 204 countries fought for the thirty-two places that played in South Africa.  The football games played prior to the World Cup is called the “preliminary competition.” These ‘qualifying’ matches begin two years before the main event, however all thirty-two teams have been selected for this year’s competition.  The teams competing consist of four countries from North America, six from South America, thirteen from Europe, five from Africa, and four from Asia.  

Beginning in June of this year, the World Cup will be hosted in Brazil.  The center of the event will be held in the country’s second largest city, Rio de Janeiro.  Other matches will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city as well as Brasilia, Brazil’s capital city, and nine other cities throughout the South American country.  Although millions of people will visit the country for the sporting event, many believe that due to Brazil’s poor infrastructure and high crime rates, this year’s World Cup may be a catastrophe.  With that said, this bad news has not stopped the excitement of the world’s most important sports competition.