The FIFA World Cup is a worldwide football competition that holds a tournament nearly every four years to determine the world champion. The tournament has two parts, with a qualification phase determining the contestants, and a final phase where the qualifying teams compete to be named world champion. The final stage, called the World Cup Finals, is played by the 32 qualifying teams. The World Cup is generally the most viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament. http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/marketing/factsfigures/tvdata.html

The next competition will be held in South Africa in 2010. Matches between the eight groups (A through H), begin on June 11. The final game for the championship will be held on July 11. A pdf document that has the schedule for the matches can be obtained using this page link.

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The first World Cup, organized by FIFA, was played in 1930, where it was won by Uruguay. Only seven nations have won the World Cup, with Brazil having won the most. Other winners include Uruguay, Argentina, Italy, England, France and Germany. West Germany was the first European team to win the World Cup. http://ezinearticles.com/?Fun-Facts-About-Soccer&id=645999 The current World Cup trophy was designed in 1970, was the work of Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. <ref>http://ezinearticles.com/?Fun-Facts-About-Soccer&id=645999The trophy is not awarded permanently and is returned to FIFA every four years before the next World Cup, and has the winning team's name engraved on the bottom of the trophy.