The FIFA World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the final match of the 2014 tournament.
Fans of football travel from all over the world to watch the World Cup, even without tickets, many venues provide huge screens, drink and food which are attended by the thousands in the host country. Many people stay at home or visit local bars to watch their country play, no matter what time of day or night.
Here are ten fun facts about The FIFA World Cup:
1. The first ever World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay and featured 13 teams from Europe and South America.
2. The World Cup trophy is named after Brazilian football legend Jules Rimet.
3. Brazil have won a record five times, followed by Italy (four), Germany and Argentina (three each).
4. The largest World Cup attendance was for the 1954 final between West Germany and Hungary, which attracted an estimated 173,850 people.
5. In 2002, co-hosts South Korea made it all the way to the semi-finals, becoming the first Asian team to do so. They eventually lost to eventual champions Brazil 0-2. North Korea also reached the quarter-finals that year, famously beating Italy 1-0 en route before losing 5–3 to Portugal.
6. The youngest ever goalscorer is 17-year-old Norman Whiteside, who scored for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia in the 1982 tournament.
7. The oldest ever goalscorer is Roger Milla, who was 42 when he scored for Cameroon against Russia in the 1994 tournament.
8. Pedro Monzon was the first ever player to be sent off in a World Cup Final, (Italy, 1990).
9. French footballer Just Fontaine holds the record for most goals in a single World Cup tournament with thirteen goals in 1958. Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis is second on the list with eleven followed by Germany’s Gerd Muller with ten.
10. The 2022 World Cup, which will be held in Qatar, will be the first World Cup to be held in the Arab world.
