World Cup

     The World Cup, “World Cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities usually international teams or individuals representing their countries compete for the title of world champion.” (Mayorquin). One of the longest back-to-back matches of a sport ever. It is back-to-back competitive matches of soccer or in some states known as football. Countries such as France, Brazil, Costa Rica, Serbia, Japan, Denmark, and many more go head to head, or more like toe to toe, in unlimited games of soccer. Whichever team wins the round will advance to compete against another country. This back-to-back shuffle will go on until one team prevails and wins the World Cup. This year’s World Cup started November 20th and will go on until December 18th.  Starting back in 1930 in Uruguay, twenty-one World Cups have been played every four years only skipping tournaments slated for 1942 and 1946 because of World War II (Mayorquin). The games last  29 days in all. So how does the most watched sporting event in the world work? The tournament is made up of teams that qualify from each of FIFA’s six regional soccer confederations plus the host nation. In the lead-up to the World Cup, each confederation holds “World Cup Qualifier” matches. UEFA (Europe): 13 teams qualified.CONMEBOL (South America): 5 teams. CONCACAF (North, Central America, and the Caribbean): 4 teams. AFC (Asia plus Australia): 5 teams. CAF (Africa): 5 teams.OFC (Oceania): 0 teams. Its teams play against each other for points, a win equals three points, a draw equals 1 point and a loss equals no points. The teams with the most points at the end of the qualifying period advance to the World Cup tournament where they represent their confederation. The number of teams each confederation sends varies, as do the particulars of the qualifying process. (Mayorquin). Now, all  3.5 billion watchers, sit by their tv and watch as their favorite team represents their nation and wait to see the winner.