Global InformationFIFA World Cup information
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| Organising body | FIFA |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1930 |
| Region | International |
| Number of teams | 32 (48 from 2026 onwards) |
| Related competitions | FIFA Women's World Cup FIFA U-20 World Cup FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| Current champions |  Argentina (3rd title) |
| Most successful team(s) |  Brazil (5 titles) |
| Website | Official website |
 2026 FIFA World Cup | |
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| Tournaments |
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The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to the Second World War. The reigning champions are Argentina, who won their third title at the 2022 tournament.[1]
The contest starts with the qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase. In the tournament phase, 32 teams compete for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over the course of about a month. The host nation(s) automatically qualify for the group stage of the tournament. The competition is scheduled to expand to 48 teams, starting with the 2026 tournament.
As of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 22 final tournaments have been held since the event's inception in 1930, and a total of 80 national teams have competed. The trophy has been won by eight national teams. Brazil, with five wins, are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Germany and Italy, with four titles each; Argentina, with three titles; France and inaugural winner Uruguay, each with two titles; and England and Spain, with one title each.
The World Cup is the most prestigious association football tournament in the world, as well as the most widely viewed and followed single sporting event in the world.[2][3] The viewership of the 2018 World Cup was estimated to be 3.57 billion, close to half of the global population,[4][5] while the engagement with the 2022 World Cup was estimated to be 5 billion, with about 1.5 billion people watching the final match.[6]
Seventeen countries have hosted the World Cup, most recently Qatar, who hosted the 2022 event. The 2026 tournament will be jointly hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico, which will give Mexico the distinction of being the first country to host games in three World Cups.
- ^ "Argentina Campeón Mundial: A 100 días de levantar la tercera – CONMEBOL". www.conmebol.com (in European Spanish). 28 March 2023. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
- ^ Stephen Dobson and John Goddard, The Economics of Football, page 407, quote "The World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world: the estimated cumulative television audience for the 2006 World Cup in Germany was 26.2 billion, an average of 409 million viewers per match."
- ^ Glenn M. Wong, The Comprehensive Guide to Careers in Sports, page 144, quote "The World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world. In 2006, more than 30 billion viewers in 214 countries watched the World Cup on television, and more than 3.3 million spectators attended the 64 matches of the tournament."
- ^ "2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Global broadcast and audience summary" (PDF). FIFA. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Tom Dunmore, Historical Dictionary of Soccer, page 235, quote "The World Cup is now the most-watched sporting event in the world on television, above even the Olympic Games."
- ^ "One Month On: 5 billion engaged with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022". FIFA. Archived from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2023.