FIFA
World Cup Soccer
Interesting Factoids
- Every
FIFA world cup since 1970 had a name for its ball. This year the
ball’s name is “Jabulani”. Jabulani means “To
Celebrate”. (A replica ball costs $25)
- The
first world cup was held in Uruguay in 1930. The number of spectators
was 300. The last world cup was held in Germany. The number of spectators
who watched the 2006 final in Germany was 715.1 million!
- Out
of 18 world cup championships Europe and South America have each
won 9. The remaining continents such as North America, Asia, Africa
or Australia have never won a world cup so far. Hope the trend breaks
this year!
- This
is the first time in 80 years a world cup championship is hosted
in an African continent.
- On
a 202 FIFA/Coco-Cola ranking scale, USA is placed at 14th rank while
India is placed at 133rd rank. Of
course, Brazil is #1.
- Chile
was banned from World cup qualifier in 1994 because a Chile goal
keeper (Roberto Rojas) fell with a head injury during a World cup
qualifier game in 1990 and the match had to be abandoned. It was
a game with Brazil and the team was trailing by 1-0. A defeat in
that game would have eliminated Chile from participating in the
1994 world cup. At around 67th minute Roberto fell on to ground
when a firework thrown by a Brazilian fan was smoldering near him.
Everyone thought the firework hurt Roberto, however, later analysis
of the video footage showed that the firework never struck him and
he was faking an injury.
- India
pulled away from the 1950 World Cup because the players were not
allowed to play without shoes.
- Soccer
is the national game for countries like Russia, Brazil and France.
- 200
teams participate to qualify for the 31 World Cup spots. A host
team is automatically qualified to participate. Lucky South Africa,
which is ranked 83 on the list but has an opporunity to participates
in this edition of the World cup matches.
- The
name of the South African team is ‘Bafana Bafana’. In
isiZulu, it means ‘the boys, the boys’.
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