The FIFA World Cup Finals are coming to the USA! (and Mexico and Canada). I’m so pumped for this!!
Here are some interesting things about the World Cup that everyone should know:
1) Virtually every nation on earth participates in the World Cup qualifying. The only “automatic” bids to the finals are for the winner of the previous tournament and the hosts. This year those countries are the 2022 winner Argentina (which certainly would have qualified anyway), and the co-hosts United States, Mexico, and Canada. Every other country competes for two years within its geographical region to make it to the finals.
2) This is the 23rd World Cup Finals. Brazil is the only country to have qualified for every one of them. Astoundingly, Italy, the winner of 4 of the 23 World Cup tournaments, has not qualified for 3 straight tournaments despite consistently being one of the best national teams in the world. It’s hard to get into this tournament.
3) That said, this tournament will feature 48 teams, which is 16 more than the last finals. Inevitably many people will complain that the tournament is diluted, but every other sport has expanded their playoff formats, and this is no different. More people than ever will watch because it is the most-watched event in the world.
4) How many watch soccer? Well, the NFL Super Bowl typically gets an audience of about 220 million viewers worldwide. This past regular-season’s contest between Liverpool and Manchester City was watched by about 700 million people. The last World Cup final was watched by 1.5 BILLION people.
5) England, considered the birthplace of the sport, did not even bother to participate in the first three World Cup Finals. Uruguay, a place most people could not find on a map, won the first and fourth World Cups.
6) The World Cup trophy, originally called the Jules Rimet Trophy, has been stolen twice. One of those times, in 1966, it was recovered by a dog named Pickles.
7) The fastest World Cup goal ever scored was in 10.89 seconds by Turkey’s Hakan Sukur in 2002. It would be difficult for most people to run the 60 yards distance from the kickoff spot at midfield to the goal line in 10.89 seconds, let alone do that and score a soccer goal past 11 defenders.
8) The largest attendance for a single sporting event since 1900 was the 1950 World Cup Final played at the Maracaña stadium in Brazil. It was attended by at least 199,000 people (that’s how many they counted…it was probably more but they stopped trying to count).
9) Christian Ronaldo of Portugal is the only person to score in 5 World Cup finals and will also be participating in the 2026 Tournament. Since these are played only once every four years, that’s playing at the very pinnacle of the sport successfully for 24 years.
10) There will be at least one game that will end in a 0-0 draw. Your friend, who knows everything about sports, will then say something brilliant like “See? This is why I don’t like this sport. It’s so boring”. As if he's never seen a 10-3 NFL game or a 1-0 baseball game.
Just stare at him like a grey rock and then tell him some version of “Dude, the World Cup doesn’t care if you watch it. Everybody else will.”
Let's go, USA!