32 teams have qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the hosting nation, Qatar is fully prepared for this most popular soccer event on the planet. Like every time, too many old records will be broken and new records will be set. And there will be some such exciting events that the world will never forget.
So let’s know some unknown facts related to the FIFA world cup, after knowing these shocking facts, your love for this game will increase even more.
We will start this post with facts related to the history of FIFA, then move on to the 2022 World Cup facts.
Facts about FIFA world cup
In 1930, Uruguay hosted the first football World Cup. Uruguay won the final match of this inaugural World Cup as they defeated Argentina 4-2 in the final.
Only thirteen countries attended this inaugural World Cup in 1930. A growing economic crisis in Europe led to only four European countries participating in this first World Cup. (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, France, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, United States, Uruguay and Yugoslavia)
In the first match of the 1930 FIFA World Cup, France defeated Mexico 4–1 and the United States defeated Belgium 3–0 on 13 July 1930.
The first goal of the World Cup was scored by French player Lucien Laurent.
The first penalty shootout goal of the Word Cup was scored by Mexican player Manuel Rosas.
In the 1974 World Cup, Chile’s Carlos Caszely became the first player to be dismissed with a red card.
The first live telecast of any FIFA World Cup match was in the 1954 World Cup hosted by Switzerland. This live telecast helped a lot in making this game more popular.
The World Cup has been organized every fourth year since 1930, unfortunately, due to the Second World War, the World Cup could not be organized in 1942 and 1946.
Brazil is the only country to have qualified for every World Cup since 1930.
Since the FIFA World Cup was started by Jules Rimet, the World Cup Trophy was known as the Jules Rimet Trophy from 1930 to 1950. It was designed by Abel Lafleur of France in 1930.
18 countries have hosted the World Cup so far, including Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, and Mexico twice and Uruguay, Switzerland, Sweden, Chile, England, Argentina, Spain, United States, Japan and South Korea (jointly), South Africa and Russia have hosted this popular event once.
The first time any middle eastern country is going to host this carnival of football. Qatar has been awarded the right to host the 2022 World Cup.
Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934), England (1966), West Germany (1974), Argentina (1978) and France (1998) are the countries that have hosted the World Cup as well as won that World Cup.
The 2002 World Cup was the first World Cup organized in the Asian continent and hosted by two countries. (Japan and South Korea)
For the first time in 2010, the World Cup was played on African soil. But South Africa could not go beyond their group stage and had to bid goodbye to the World Cup from round 16 with one win, one loss and one draw.
Mexico hosted the World Cup twice, in 1970 and 1986, but did not win the World Cup even once, despite having qualified for the World Cup 16 times, the most for any country.
1976 (West Germany) and 2006 were the two times when Germany hosted the World Cup. After Brazil, Germany is among the most successful teams at the FIFA World Cup. It has played the most World Cup matches (109) (jointly with Brazil ) including 8 finals, 13 semi-finals and 16 quarter-finals.
Iceland qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 2018 and also holds the record for qualifying in the World Cup with the lowest population (366,000).
Uruguay won 1950 final without playing a final match. FIFA organized the World Cup for the first time after World War 2. For this particular event, FIFA made some changes to its rules. After the group stage, there was no knockout stage. After the group stage, Uruguay defeated Brazil 2–1 in the final match of the four team group to top the group and win the World Cup.
In the 2010 World Cup, New Zealand was the only team to finish the tournament without losing a single match. New Zealand finished all three of their group stage matches in a draw.
Germany’s Miroslav Klose, Germany (2002–2014) holds the legendary record for the most goals (16) in the Football World Cup. He did this feat in his four World Cups appearances.
Just Fontaine of France holds the record for most goals scored in any single World Cup. He achieved this feat by scoring 13 goals in the 1958 World Cup. No one has been able to break this record till date.
Hungary holds the record for the highest goal margin in any World Cup match. This feat was achieved by Hungary in a 10–1 victory against EL Salvador in the 1982 FIFA World Cup. In the same match, Hungarian substitute player Laszlo kiss also hit a hat-trick.
In the 1958 FIFA World Cup, Austria defeated Switzerland 7–5. A total of 12 goals were scored in this match. Which is the highest scoring World Cup match till date. This match is also known as the Heat Battle of Lausanne.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, one of the greatest football players in the world is known as Pele. Pele holds the record for the most number of World Cup wins. Pele was a member of the Brazil team that won the 1958, 1962 and 1970 World Cups.
The record for the fastest goal in a FIFA World Cup match is held by Turkish player Hakan Sukur. He scored a goal in the eleventh second of the match while playing against South Korea in 2002.
The Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, became the stadium with the most attendance in the world cup match In 1950, the World Cup final played between Brazil and Uruguay was seen on the field by the official 199,854 people. Which is a world record.
No player has won the Golden Boot title twice in 21 editions of the FIFA World Cup.
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