The FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champions are Spain, who won the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month; this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s).

The 19 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams. Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Italy, with four titles; West Germany, with three titles; Argentina and inaugural winners Uruguay, with two titles each; and England, France, and Spain, with one title each.

Trophy:-  From 1930 to 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the World Cup winning team. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, but in 1946 it was renamed after the FIFA president Jules Rimet who set up the first tournament. In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the trophy permanently. However, the trophy was stolen in 1983, and has never been recovered, apparently melted down by the thieves.

After 1970, a new trophy, known as the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was designed. The experts of FIFA, coming from seven different countries, evaluated the 53 presented models, finally opting for the work of the Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The new trophy is 36 cm (14.2 in) high, made of solid 18 carat (75%) gold and weighs 6.175 kg (13.6 lb). The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite while the bottom side of the trophy bears the engraved year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974.

Year	Host / Titles	Number of teams	Titles	Runners-up
1930	Uruguay	13	2 (1930, 1950)
1934	Italy	16
1938	France	15
1950	Brazil	13	5 (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)	2 (1950, 1998)
1954	Switzerland	16
1958	Sweden	16		1 (1958)
1962	Chile	16
1966	England	16	1 (1966)
1970	Mexico	16
1974	West Germany	16
1978	Argentina	16	2 (1978, 1986)	2 (1930, 1990)
1982	Spain	24	1 (2010)
1986	Mexico	24
1990	Italy	24	4 (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)	2 (1970, 1994)
1994	United States	24
1998	France	32	1 (1998)	1 (2006)
2002	South Korea &  Japan	32
2006	Germany	32	3 (1954, 1974, 1990)	4 (1966, 1982, 1986, 2002)
2010	South Africa	32
	Netherlands			3 (1974, 1978, 2010
	Czechoslovakia			2 (1934, 1962)
	Hungary			2 (1938, 1954)

The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international men's association football tournament that is scheduled to take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014. It will be the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition, the previous being in 1950. Brazil was elected unchallenged as host nation in 2007 after the international football federation, FIFA, decreed that the tournament would be staged in South America for the first time since 1978 in Argentina, and the fifth time overall.

The national teams of 31 countries advanced through qualification competitions that began in June 2011 to participate with the host nation Brazil in the final tournament. A total of 64 matches are to be played in twelve cities across Brazil in either new or redeveloped stadiums, with the tournament beginning with a group stage. For the first time at a World Cup Finals, the matches will use goal-line technology.

With the host country, all world champion teams since the first World Cup in 1930 (Uruguay, Italy, Germany, England, Argentina, France and Spain) have qualified for this competition. Spain is the defending champion, having defeated the Netherlands 1–0 in the 2010 World Cup final to win its first World title. The previous four World Cups staged in South America were all won by South American teams.

Each participating team will receive at least US$8 million. The World Champions will receive $35 million, while the losing finalists will receive $25 million. Teams that lose in the round of 16 will receive $9 million, and the quarter-finalists receive $14 million. The clubs in which the players are playing for at the time of their World Cup departure will receive $70 million as a compensation for insurance costs and expenses, which will be distributed through their national associations. Overall, FIFA will allocate $576 million, a new record, and an increase from the $420 million allocated in South Africa.

India:- India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents. But the governing body AIFF decided against going to the World Cup, being unable to understand the importance of the event at that time. Reason shown by AIFF was that there was the cost of travel, although FIFA agreed to bear a major part of the travel expenses, lack of practice time, team selection issues and valuing Olympics over FIFA World cup.

The India national football team is governed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). Since 1948, the AIFF has been affiliated with FIFA, the international governing body for football. In 1954, the AIFF became one of the founding members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). At the peak of its success during the 1950s and 1960s, the team was automatically advanced to play in the 1950 FIFA World Cup (all the other Asian teams withdrew), but they did not go to the tournament in Brazil due to the cost of travel, lack of practice time, team selection issues and valuing the Olympics over the FIFA World Cup. They won gold medals at two Asian Games and one silver at the Asian Cup.

Football was introduced to India by British soldiers in the mid-nineteenth century. It spread because of the efforts of Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhichary. In 1888 the Durand Cup was founded by then India's Foreign Secretary, Mortimer Durand at Simla, India. The Durand Cup is the third oldest football competition behind the FA Cup and the Scottish Cup. It was initiated, as a recreation for British troops stationed in India. 

The History of Indian football is a long and detailed one, as it was the national sport at one time. The impetus for this was to unify the Indian Army. There is evidence for refereed team football games being played in the Indian Army since at least 1949. India is home to some of the oldest football clubs in the world and the third world's oldest competition, the Durand Cup.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, an international association football tournament that is scheduled to take place in 2018 in Russia.

The finals tournament will involve 32 national teams, including that of the host nation, assuming the current format of the finals is maintained. This will be the first time Russia has hosted the tournament, the first World Cup to have been held in Eastern Europe, and the first to have been held on two continents.