FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the sport's global governing body. The tournament has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The reigning champions are France, who won their second title at the 2018 tournament in Russia. The format involves a qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase. In the tournament phase, 32 teams compete for the title at venues within the host nation over about a month. The host nation automatically qualify. As of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, 21 final tournaments have been held and a total of 79 national teams have competed. The trophy has been won by eight national teams.

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