Football World Cup

A four-yearly football tournament between national teams. It is the most widely-viewed and followed sporting event in the world, bigger than the Olympic Games.

National teams around the world compete in regional qualification games, the 32 successful national teams proceeding to the finals, held over a three-week period in a host country.

In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled it to keep the Jules Rimet trophy. A new trophy was then designed, which has been in use ever since.

The next World Cup finals will be held in two countries, Japan and South Korea, in 2002.

Football World Cup Tournaments
Year	Location	Winner	Runner up	Comments
1930	Uruguay	Uruguay	Argentina
1934	Italy	Italy	Czechoslovakia
1938	France	Italy	Hungary
1950	Brazil	Uruguay	Brazil
1954	Switzerland	West Germany	Hungary
1958	Sweden	Brazil	Sweden
1962	Chile	Brazil	Czechoslovakia
1966	England	England	West Germany	see 1966 World Cup Final
1970	Mexico	Brazil	Italy
1974	West Germany	West Germany	Netherlands
1978	Argentina	Argentina	Netherlands
1982	Spain	Italy	West Germany
1986	Mexico	Argentina	West Germany
1990	Italy	West Germany	Argentina
1994	United States	Brazil	Italy
1998	France	France	Brazil
2002	Japan and South Korea