The FIFA World Cup for football is the biggest tournament you can find for this sport. Fans of the sport have to wait 4 long years before a new tournament launches! Did you know that the next one is due very soon? 

At the same time, the FIFA cup is also known for its betting potential. All of the matches bring in millions of viewers and punters.

If you’ve been looking for an entry into the mysterious world of online betting, the FIFA World Cup 2022 might be the perfect opportunity. 

However, if you truly want to succeed as a bettor, you must know the ins and outs of the sport.

At the same time, you should be updated on the major historical events for the particular tournament. 

That’s exactly why we’ve designed this page where we’ll shed light on the evolution of FIFA as well as the FIFA World cup. Let’s go. 

FIFA World Cup

FIFA stands for Federation of Association Football. This is the global governing body for soccer as a sport. It’s similar to how the ICC is in charge of managing world cricket. 

Gianni Infantino currently plays the role of the president and he’s already in his 2nd term. Since its foundation in 1904, this organization has single-handedly changed how we see football. Credit for the fact that football is the most popular sport in the world largely goes to FIFA for its consistent monitoring and updating with time. 

In 1930, FIFA wanted a top-tier tournament that goes beyond the border. The next big event in the sports world was the Olympics which was scheduled in the United States. At that time, football was not a popular sport in America. As a result, a few meetings went back and forth about the inclusion of football in the Olympics or not. 

Interestingly, the birth of the World Cup is a direct result of football being dropped from the United States’ 1932 summer Olympics. 

The FIFA president at that time was Jules Rimet. He started working on his own tournament. As Uruguay was a force to reckon with in football at that time and was up for a big celebration anyways, it was declared the host nation of the world cup. 

As Jules Rimet proposed the idea of the tournament, it was known as the Jules Rimet Trophy until 1970! But let’s not jump ahead in the timeline as we still have some interesting events in the past. 

In the very first FIFA cup, only 13 countries participated. All of them were invited by FIFA. It means there were no qualifying matches before the main event. Uruguay became the first country to ever win the football world cup by defeating Argentina men’s national team in the final match. 

Italy and France became host nations for the next 2 world cups, in 1934 and 1938 respectively. Italy secured both titles, on their home turf as well as in France. France is the first country ever to not win the FIFA World cup being the host nation. 

The 1942 FIFA World cup is when things start to get interesting. World War II was at Europe’s doors and the worldwide economic turbulence made FIFA cancel it as well as the next tournament.

Everything came back to normal in 1950 with Brazil as the host this time. The first-ever world cup to be televised was the 1954 tournament, where Switzerland was the host. Since then, the FIFA World cup has gradually become the most anticipated event among football fans.   

Expansion to 32 Teams

Since the very beginning, the number of teams has been very inconsistent. 1982 marked the very first expansion after 1934, the 2nd installment. Instead of 16, 24 teams were included in the main event. The teams were divided into 6 groups with 4 teams in each group. They had to go through the usual group stage that we know now. 

In 1998, the world cup structure went through another round of change and 32 teams were permitted to join the fleet. At this point, all major teams from across the world are participating. One of the main reasons behind the expansion of the teams was the global political situation.

At the very beginning of the tournament, the whole of Europe and South America was going into turmoil. The tension for the 2nd world war was brewing. Even the British team withdrew itself from FIFA World Cup in 1920 simply because it didn’t want to play against teams it was at war with. 

Thankfully, by the end of the 20th century, the political tension across the world died down. And that’s why more teams were included. 

Expansion to 48 Teams

The 2022 Qatar World Cup marks the last tournament in which 32 teams participate. From the 2026 FIFA World Cup onwards, 48 teams will go head-to-head! The decision came unanimously from the executive body of FIFA. And it was declared back in 2017. 

The goal behind the expansion this time is to witness globalization at its best. Many Asian and African countries don’t get to participate in the main event and the FIFA president is not okay with it. 

Previous International Competitions

As you already know, FIFA was founded in 1904 and the first World Cup took place in 1930. So, there are 26 years of gap in between. What happened at that time?

Immediately after the formation of FIFA, it went into meetings with ICO or International Olympics Committee for the 1908 Summer Olympics with help from the British Football Association. Before that, football was completely supervised by ICO for the 1900 and 1904 tournaments. 

England’s Association Football won both the 1908 and 1912 Olympics. In the meantime, FIFA tried to organize international tournaments going beyond the scope of ICO. But the initiation failed, unfortunately. 

Top Goalscorers

Football might be a team sport but it’s the players who make it more interesting. Every team has its star players who carry the reputation of the team on their backs. These players also happen to be the highest goalscorers in the event. 

Let us list the top goalscorers in the history of the FIFA Cup. Needless to say, these players also help their respective men’s national team to become the cup winners. 

• Miroslav Klose
• Ronaldo (Brazil)
• Gerd Muller
• Just Fontaine
• Pelé

FIFAWorld Cup Qatar Qualifiers

As we’re about to witness the FIFA World Cup 2022, it only makes sense to take it as an example to understand how the FIFA qualifiers work, right?

Unlike the main event, the qualifiers are broken into separate tournaments in different areas. European, South American, North American, African, Asian, and Oceanian countries play separately in their designated regions. The qualifiers follow a similar point system as well as the Group stage system as the main event. 

Group stage cup winners from all different regions come together again to face each and qualify for the final event. The qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup ran throughout 2021 and 2022. 

Other FIFA Tournaments 

While the FIFA World Cup is the most renowned football tournament out there, it’s not the only one. It has very widespread operations across many countries in the world. The leagues and championships listed below also come under FIFA’s jurisdiction. 

• FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup
• The FIFA Women’s World Cup, FIFAe Finals
• FIFA U-20 World Cup
• Olympic Football Tournaments
• FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup