General Knowledge Articles

FIFA World Cup

July 27 , 2018 2122 days 6169 0

An international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body.
The World Cup is the most widely viewed and followed the sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games.
Brazil has won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament.
The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan, was the first one held in Asia, and the first tournament with multiple hosts.

South Africa became the first African nation to host the World Cup in 2010.
Qatar will be the first Middle Eastern country to host the tournament in 2022.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup was chosen to be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, marking the first time a World Cup has been shared by three host nations.

FIFA 2018

The 2018 FIFA World Cup is the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament.
This will be the 21st World Cup since the tournament started in Uruguay in 1930.
Russia was awarded the hosting.
This is the first World Cup to be held in Eastern Europe and the eleventh time that it has been held in Europe.
The tournament takes place on two continents – Europe and Asia for the first time.

This is the most expensive World Cup ever.
This is also the first World Cup where Video Assistant Referees (VARs) have been utilized.
The World Cup Russia 2018 brand identity and logo were unveiled on October 28, 2014, in space by Cosmonauts at the International Space Station which was projected onto the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

The theme of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 is a Dream and Cosmic Outer Space Exploration.

Logo

The logo has been designed to look like the World Cup football trophy and is embedded with folk motives like matryoshkas and Firebirds.
A public vote was used to select from three finalists—a cat, a tiger, and a wolf.
The winner was Zabivaka—an anthropomorphic wolf dressed in the colors of the Russian national team.

His official backstory states that he is an aspiring football player who is "charming, confident and social".
He is a wolf with the name Wolf Zabivaka™ and was designed by a student called Ekaterina Bocharova.
For the very first time since 1958, Italy will not be part of the FIFA World Cup.
This World Cup will see the debuts of two new teams: Iceland and Panama.

Match Ball

The Telstar 18 football that will be kicked around in the FIFA World Cup Russia comes from Pakistan and is thermo bonded (made by attaching the panels of the football through heat).

The official match ball of the 2018 World Cup is called "Telstar 18" and is based on the name and design of the first Adidas World Cup ball from 1970. It was introduced on 9 November 2017.
After the group stage, "Telstar Mechta" will be used for the knockout stage. The word Mechta means dream or ambition.

The difference between Telstar 18 and Mechta are the red details on the design.

VARs

After the International Football Association Board's decision to incorporate video assistant referees (VARs) into the Laws of the Game, on 16 March 2018, the FIFA Council took the much-anticipated step of approving the use of VAR for the first time in a FIFA World Cup tournament.

The single headquarters for VAR operations for all games -Moscow, Russia.

This H.Q. receives live video of the games and are in radio contact with the on-field referees.
FIFA declared the implementation of VAR a success after the first week of competition.

Official song

The official song (2018) of the tournament is "Live It Up"(Nicky Jam).

2022 FIFA World Cup

The 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup.
It is scheduled to take place in Qatar in 2022.
This will be the first World Cup ever to be held in the Arab world and the first in a Muslim-majority country.
It is to be played in a reduced timeframe of around 28 days, with the final being held on 18 December 2022, which is also Qatar National Day.
Qatar is the smallest nation by area ever to have been awarded a FIFA World Cup – the next smallest by area is Switzerland.

FIFA Trivia

FIFA started in 1930
Uruguay won the World Cup in 1930
Silvio Gazzaniga designed the World Cup
Brazil won FIFA cup 5 times

USA hosted FIFA cup in 1994
Germany has been in Final 8 times out of which 4 times it won and 4 times lost final match.

FIFA World Cup Final 2018

General

The World Cup is the 18-carat gold, 14-inch, 11 lb trophy.
It was the 21st final of the FIFA World Cup.

The final match of FIFA World Cup held at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, on 15 July 2018.
There was a penalty awarded to France by the video assistant referee in the system's first use at a World Cup final.
It was the first time that an own goal had been scored (by Mario Mandžukić of Croatia) in a World Cup final and the 12th of the tournament, the most of any World Cup.
The first half's three goals were the most of any World Cup final since 1974.
It was the highest-scoring final since England beat West Germany 4-2 in 1966.
The match was also the ninth all-European World Cup final, which most recently occurred in 2006 and 2010.
An audience of 78,011 spectators at the Luzhniki Stadium watched the match.
It includes ten heads of state.
The prominent among them are Russian president Vladimir Putin, French president Emmanuel Macron, and Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

France

France beat Croatia 4-2 in the Final match.
This was the second title World Cup won by France, with the previous one coming 20 years ago in 1998.
The match was the third World Cup final for France, first appearing in 1998 final as hosts, winning 3–0 against reigning champions Brazil.
France also contested 2006 final, where they lost to Italy in a penalty shoot-out following a 1–1 draw.
Only Germany (eight) and Italy (six) have reached more finals among European nations.
France also became the second team in the 32-team World Cup after Brazil in 2002 to win all their knockout matches without any extra time or the penalty shoot-out.
As winners, France earned the right to compete for the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup.
France became the sixth country to win the World Cup more than once after Brazil (5), Germany/West Germany and Italy (4), Uruguay and Argentina (2).

Mbappe of France became the first teenage after Pele (Brazil) in 1958 to score in World Cup final.
Didier Deschamps of France became the third person to have won the World Cup as both a player and manager, after Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) and Mário Zagallo (Brazil).
The average age of the French side was 25 years and 10 months.
Only Brazil in 1970 (25 years and 9 months) won the World Cup with a younger squad.
France became the first team to score four goals in a World Cup final since Brazil beat Italy 4-1 in 1970.

Croatia

Croatia was playing in their very first World Cup final in their fifth World Cup appearance.
Croatia is the first team to lose in their first ever appearance in a World Cup final since the Netherlands in 1974 (1-2 vs West Germany).
They are the 10th European country and 13th overall to reach a World Cup final, and the first new finalist since Spain in 2010.
With a population of 4.17 million, Croatia is the second smallest country to play in a World Cup final, behind Uruguay (victors in 1930 and 1950).
Croatia became the third Eastern European nation to reach the World Cup final, and the first since Czechoslovakia lost the final in 1962 to Brazil.

Croatia's best showing before this year was when they reached the Semi-Finals in 1998 against France in which they lost against the host France.
Mandzukic of Croatia is the second player in World Cup history to score a goal and an own goal in a single game after Ernie Brandts for the Netherlands against Italy in 1978.

FIFA 2018 Achievements

Both Iceland and Panama qualified for the first time, with the former becoming the smallest country in terms of population to reach the World Cup.
The Golden Ball award is presented to the best player at each FIFA World Cup.
Those who finish as runners-up in the vote receive the Silver Ball and Bronze Ball awards as the second and third most outstanding players in the tournament respectively.
The Golden Boot or Golden Shoe Award goes to the top goalscorer of the FIFA World Cup
The Best Young Player award was awarded for the first time at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and given to Germany's Lukas Podolski.
The FIFA Fair Play Trophy is given to the team with the best record of fair play during the World Cup final tournament since 1970.