FIFA World Cup
international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams
The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition among the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 during and shortly after World War II. The reigning champion is Spain, who won their second title at the 23rd edition of the competition, the 2026 World Cup, by defeating the holders, Argentina.
The World Cup is globally regarded as the most prestigious association football competition, as well as the most widely viewed and followed sporting and cultural event in the world. The viewership of the 2018 World Cup was estimated to be 3.57 billion, close to half of the global population, while the engagement with the 2022 World Cup was estimated to be 5 billion, with about 1.5 billion people watching the final match.
The contest starts with the qualification phase organized by the respective regional confederations, which takes place over the preceding three years to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase. In the tournament phase, 48 teams (as of the 2026 World Cup) compete for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over the course of about a month, initially in groups and then in a series of knockout rounds that culminate in the final to determine the overall winner. The host nation(s) automatically qualify for the group stage of the tournament. Nineteen countries have hosted the event, sometimes co-hosting with other nations.
As of the 2026 World Cup, 23 tournaments have been held since the event's inception in 1930, and a total of 84 national teams have competed. The trophy has been won by eight national teams.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “FIFA World Cup” as international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19317. VIAF identifies the subject as 133874960. The Library of Congress control number is n98090291. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 1942, 1946 and 2026.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “FIFA World Cup”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow FIFA World Cup primary sources, FIFA World Cup archive and FIFA research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “FIFA World Cup” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.