the FIFA World Cup is hands down the greatest sporting event in the world throughout its history 79 Nations have taken part and in the last World Cup alone over 5 billion people tuned in to watch it which is over 60% of the entire planet but the story of the World Cup is even crazier than you could imagine it's one full of controversy politics passion and love for the beautiful game so this is the entire history of the World Cup Alor Pereira hit by hamz oh what a go surely now surely now Spain have won the
World Cup this Story begins almost a 100 years ago before the World Cup was even an idea because in 1914 FIFA decided to recognize the Olympics as the football World Championship meaning the country that won the Olympic football tournament would be crowned as the world champions and it stayed this way for over 20 years until the 28th of May 1928 when FIFA president je REM had a golden idea that would shape the future of football forever after seeing the global rise in popularity for the sport and the major success of the Olympic football tournaments he
wanted FIFA to Stage its own International Tournament outside of the Olympics which is how the idea of the World Cup was born and within just 2 years this idea was turned into reality as the first ever World Cup was hosted in 1930 This World Cup would take place in Uruguay as they were the current world champions having won the previous Olympic tournament now the location of this tournament proved to be problematic for the European countries as there was a long journey by ship and Europe was going through a financial crisis at the time so most
Nations couldn't afford the trip over this first edition was attended by a total of 13 countries two from North America four from Europe and seven from South America Egypt were set to be the only African team taking part but due to bad weather their ship had to be delayed and they missed the tournament Japan and Thailand were the two Asian countries invited but both withdrew leading up to the tournament so on the 13th of July 1930 the first ever World Cup kicked off as 13 countries battled to be Crown the champions of the world the
format was similar to what we see today with four groups and the winners of each group making their way to the semi-finals for a knockout match the finals saw the host Uruguay face off against Argentina and Uruguay defeated them four goals to two with 93,000 Spectators in the stadium to be crowned the first ever World Cup champions and they were handed the original trophy which was different from what we see today now moving on to 4 years later the next World Cup was set to take place in Italy making it fair for the European an
with the idea that the competition would alternate between Europe and South America this time round there was interest from enough countries to host a qualification stage which saw 16 Nations qualify for the finals and this would be the same format used until the expansion in 1982 Uruguay who were the title holders were still upset at the lack of attendance from European countries so they boycotted the tournament meaning there was sure to be a new Champion Egypt became the first African team to take part but were knocked out by Hungary in the first round the final
this year saw Italy face off against Czechoslovakia where the game was decided in extra time as Italy won the game 2 to one making them Europe's first ever Champions now roll on four more years in France host the 1938 World Cup which was controversial as it went against the agreement to alternate between South America and Europe meaning both Argentina and Uruguay boycotted the competition this time round this tournament only saw 15 Nations competing as in the buildup to it Austria was absorbed by Germany in the early stages of the war Italy yet again made it
to the final and this time comfortably beat Hungary four goals to two to make it their second World Cup in a row now after three successful World Cups in a row the world was well and truly hooked and were excited for the next tournament to come but unfortunately it's a bit difficult to host a World Cup when there's a World War going so fans and players would have to wait 12 years for the great tournament to return but believe me it was going to return in style come 1950 and the World Cup would return to
South America as Brazil hosted at this time round and the world was about to witness the biggest and best tournament yet India refused to play in this Edition after they were told they couldn't play barefoot yes really Italy who were the current world champions were a shock entry because 2 years prior the Torino air disaster caused the death of a number of national team players this year was also the first time that British Nations joined the party as they had refused to join FIFA prior to this for political reasons the final saw Uruguay defeat the
host Brazil to win their second and final World Cup in a packed out Maracana with 173,000 Spectators which to this day is still the most viewed World Cup final ever this tournament saw the Brazilian Legend Leonidas take home the Golden Boot as he finished as the tournament's top scorer but now moving on to 1954 This World Cup was hosted in Switzerland and was the highest scoring tournament ever this was also the first tournament to be properly televised meaning the World Cup finally became a global phenomenon as fans could finally watch from all over the planet
in the quarterfinals Austria knocked out the host Switzerland in a thriller of a match finishing 75 which to this day Remains the highest scoring World Cup match ever Hungary finished the tournament as the highest scoring Nation with a total of 27 goals thanks to icons like Barett pkos and Sando kosich and it looked like they were going to win the whole tournament especially after going two goals up in 10 minutes in the final but West Germany had different plans for this game they clawed back from a 2-n deficit to Triumph against the hungarians finishing the
game with three goals to two with helmet Ron scoring the winner in probably the most iconic game in German football history the Germans remember this day as the miracle of burn and this final really was great but it wasn't the greatest final ever because we still need to get to that and not only because we still have 18 World Cups to talk about and we're going to discuss the cheating scandal that saw Argentina lift the World Cup the football player who was killed for scoring an own goal and we're even going to talk about the
future of the World Cup because from 2026 the tournament is going to change forever but before we get to all that all I ask is that you subscribe to the channel it would really mean the world to me if you would join the top bins family but anyway now it's time to talk about the first sighning of the World Cup's greatest ever player P 1958 saw Sweden host the World Cup which meant that that yet again it was held in Europe twice in a row and the rest of the world were not happy so Thea
decided that this would be the last time this would ever happen and from the next tournament they made the rotation between continents in official rule we also saw a certain 17-year-old Brazilian by the name of Pelle make his mark on world football by lighting up the tournament he scored in all of Brazil's knockout games including a brace in the final as Brazil beat SW in five goals to two in a comfortable Victory meaning P claimed the first of three World Cup trophies alongside P was Brazilian teammate zagalo who would go on to make history by
becoming the first person to win the World Cup as a player and then 12 years later as the coach of Brazil as much as P stole the headlines there was a French Striker who made history this tournament by the name of juice fontain as he scored 13 goals in a single tournament which meant he averaged more than two goals a game which is a record that is still yet to be broken but anyway on to 1962 hosted in Chile Where Brazil went backto back to win their second World Cup trophy beating Czechoslovakia in the final
the fact that this world cup even took place was a shock because just two years before there were major earthquakes in Chile meaning the entire infrastructure for this tournament had to be rebuilt but somehow they managed just in the nick of time now although Brazil won the tournament their star man Pelle underperformed due to injuries but luckily they had other stars like vava and Gara who were able to lead them to Glory but P wasn't the only underperforming star because the Soviet Union goalkeeper Lev Yashin who was one of the best players in the world
at the time also came under a lot of scrutiny for poor performances this world cup as a whole was often scrutinized for defensive and even violent tactics at times which probably raged its peak in a first round game that is now remembered as the Battle of Santiago in the buildup to this game the Italian press wrote very unflattering articles about Chile who were hosting the World Cup which led to an angry team on the pitch and that could be seen with the amount of deliberate tackles and genuine attempts to hurt each other during the game
Chile won the game 2-n but Italy had two red cards and had to be escorted off the pitch by police just to keep safe now now moving on to 1966 football came home for the first time as England lifted the trophy in a thriller of a final England beat out West Germany 4-2 by scoring two goals in extra time thanks to a final hat-trick from Jeff Hurst and Stellar performances from players like Bobby Charlton and Gordon Banks but the best player of the tournament wasn't even in the final because that was probably the Portuguese icon
ubio who finished as the tournament's top scorer This World Cup was also hosted in England and was the first time the tournament made use of an official logo in Mascot North Korea became the first Asian team to reach the quarterfinals as they beat out Italy in the process and South Africa was banned from the World Cup for the next 26 years for breaching anti-discrimination policies but now we're moving into 1970 hosted in Mexico making this the first North American tournament Brazil won their Third World Cup in four tournaments making this pelle's third Trophy this was
also under the management of zagalo who won it as a player 16 years before making him the first man to achieve that feat the finals on Brazil Breeze passed Italy winning the game four goals to one and this tournament is also remembered for the semi-final match between West Germany and Italy which saw five goals scored an extra time and had France Beck and Bower play the match with a broken arm because Germany ran out of substitutes but unfortunately his efforts were in vain as Germany got knocked out even despite having the top scor of the
tournament on their side Garett Mueller but Germany wasn't worried because four years later they were hosting the World Cup and they were back with a vengeance as they beat out the Netherlands 2 to1 to lift the World Cup trophy this Dutch site revolutionized World football with their Total Football philosophy with their main man Johan C at the center of it all but they just didn't have enough in them to beat out this iconic German side with gar mu and France beckan Bower four years better than the previous final defeat this was also the hardest world
cup to actually qualify for especially for the European teams because England and Italy were placed in the same qualifying group meaning only one of the two previous world champions were going to make the tournament and despite winning five out of six of their qualifying games England just missed out on it but somehow qualifying actually got even harder the next time around because there were a record 95 teams trying to qualify for 14 available spots since the previous winners in the host automatically qualified and this tournament was hosted in Argentina where yet again the hosts lifted
the trophy as they beat the Dutch in the final 3-1 with two extra time goals making this the Netherlands second final defeat in a row and making Total Football feel like a total failure Mario Kus was the star man for Argentina picking up the gold de boot with a total of six goals throughout the tournament this addition also saw two firsttime participants in Iran and Tunisia and tunisia's win against Mexico made them the first African team to ever win a World Cup match but this would be the last World Cup where so few teams would
qualify because in 1982 the tournament was expanded to 24 teams meaning more countries would be allowed the chance to fight for international glory and this tournament was hosted in Spain but the expansion caused for a slight format change the 24 qualified teams were split into six groups of four where the top two teams of each group would be placed in the second round they would then play in another group stage where they were split into four groups of three the winners of these four groups would be placed in the semi-finals and then it would be
a two rounded knockout with the semifinals and the final a bit confusing but I hope it made sense but anyway with the eight extra we saw five new firsttime participants in Cameroon Algeria Honduras New Zealand and Kuwait and we also saw a record match in the group stage as Hungary beat El Salvador 10 to1 which to this day is still the biggest winning margin in World Cup history the great Pao rosi was the star man of this tournament as he scored a hattrick against Brazil to help guide Italy to the final against West Germany which
Italy managed to win 3-1 now after one addition with that format they scrapped it for the 1986 World Cup hosted in Mexico they decided to replace the second group stage with an extra knockout round meaning it was now the initial group stage then a 16 Team Knockout till the final Jose Batista broke records in this tournament by becoming the fastest player to get a red card in history by getting sent off after just 56 seconds for Uruguay against Scotland this year Argentina won the tournament thanks to both the Brilliance and the cheating of Diego m
Ron as they beat West Germany 32 in the final but the real controversy came in the quarterfinal match between England and Argentina where two of the most iconic goals in World Cup history were scored by meridana the first was a clear hand ball goal which the referee just didn't see and the second was what is described as the goal of the century as he dribbled past five English players from half pitch before putting the ball in the net despite being so Ro F knocked out in the quarterfinals Gary liner still took home the Golden Boot
with six goals for the tournament but surely that wouldn't have been enough for him to forget that controversial hand of God but in 1990 the major controversy actually happened in the qualifying stage of the World Cup because the Chilean goalkeeper Roberto roas got banned for life and got Chile banned from the World Cup Chile faed Brazil in a crucial qualifying match when Roa saw a flare rown on to the pitch he took this as an opportunity to fall to the ground and cut himself with a blade that he hid in his gloves to make it
look like the flare hit him if the flare actually did hit him and was thrown by the Brazilian fans Brazil would have been disqualified but unfortunately for roas one photographer was able to pick this all up on camera meaning he got caught and was banned for life from the World Cup and Chile were banned from this tournament but now let's get to what actually happened in this tournament hosted by Italy well yet again we saw West Germany face off against Argentina in the final but this time West Germany did enough to seal the victory winning
1 n this was the lowest scoring tournament ever but two players did steal the hearts of world football being Italy Salvador gilach who won the Golden Boot and England's Paul gascoin who played with magic in his feet Cameroon were also the first African nation to reach the quarterfinals as African football continued to rise in strength but still couldn't match the Europeans or the South Americans now moving on to 1994 this was hosted in the United States and became the most viewed World Cup in history with a total attendance of 3.6 million Spectators live in the
stadiums and quite a lot happened this year after the group stage Diego meridana tested positive for drug usage and was banned mid tournament which left a gaping hole in the Argentina team and they got knocked out in the first game without him the Russian player o seleno became the first player to score five goals in a World Cup match against Cameroon and in that same game Roger Miller scored cameroon's only goal making him the oldest goal scorer in World Cup history at 42 years old the final this year's on Brazil PS off against Italy after
90 minutes the score was nil nil then after another 30 minutes the score remained the same this was the only final to ever finish goess and the first final to be decided with a penalty shootout which Brazil won 3 to2 raria was awarded the Golden Ball for being the best player at the tournament but the Golden Boot was shared between stov and seleno with six goals each but the real controversy and heartbreak of this tournament happened with the Colombia national team because Andre's Escobar was killed for his performances the Colombian team was seen to be
their golden generation and the entire country was expecting strong performances at this time Colombia was not in a good place as the country was controlled by gangs and the cartel So This World Cup was a shining light for the nation Colombia got knocked out in the group stages and the critical moment was an own goal by the captain Andre Escobar against USA upon his return home to Colombia he went to a bar and as he left the bar he was shot and killed for his own goal working A Dark Day in the history of the
World Cup it was alleged that this was an organized hit by the cartels who were angry at the captain as they had placed big bats on the Colombian team and were angry at him for their loss but that hasn't been confirmed but despite such a tragedy football lives on and Colombia did actually qualify for the next World Cup in 1998 hosted in France but yet again got knocked out in the group stage thankfully this time round there were no tragedies as associated with the early exit but this world cup did also see a shift in
the format once again because we finally got the expansion to 32 teams which is the format we know today and for the last time in 2022 this expansion also now allowed for two countries from the same continent to be placed in the same group together this tournament saw lar Mateo's play which was a record-breaking moment as he became the player with the most World Cup appearances in history with 25 across five separate tournaments this year's finals saw Brazil faceof against France with each team having arguably one of the two best players in the world at
the time being zidan for France and Ronaldo Nazario for Brazil a couple hours before the final Ronaldo nario suffered seizures which should have ruled him out of the game but he controversially was placed in the starting 11 his performance was a shadow of the player we saw throughout the entire tournament and on the other hand zidon showed up scoring two goals in the final to win France their first ever World Cup this French team also had dudo desant playing who would go on to become the second person to win as a player and then as
a manager 20 years on from this tournament but anyway despite this loss to France Brazil would be back and back stronger because they didn't come to take part they came to take over this was the first World Cup hosted in Asia and was split between South Korea and Japan Brazil were even better than than they were last time with a front three known as the three Rs for Ronaldo Ronaldinho and Rivaldo this front three helped Brazil storm the tournament as they beat Germany 2-n in the final Ronaldo Nazario picked up the Golden Boot but the
Golden Ball Award for best player was handed to the German goalkeeper Oliver Khan South Korea became the best performing Asian nation in history as they reached the semifinals which was a great achievement for a smaller football in nation but now roll the clock to 2006 and Germany were hosting this tournament Ronaldo Nazario became the greatest goal scorer in the history of the competition by scoring his 15th World Cup goal breaking the record for the most goals in history this year was a brutal one with the most yellow cards ever in a tournament with a total
of 345 cards and the brutality this year was epitomized in a match between Portugal and Netherlands which is now known as the Battle of nurburg as there were a total of four red cards making that the most cards ever in a single match this was also the first of five World Cups that both Messi and Ronaldo would take part in but neither really tore it up this year's drama all came in the final matchup between Italy and France where Zinedine zidan was truly on smoke he scored a panenka penalty off the crossbar to show he
had nerves of Steel and then with 10 10 minutes to go in extra time with the score tied at one he headbutted Maru materazzi for insulting his sister which caused him to get sent off the game went to penalties and thanks to the heroics of Gian Luigi Buffon Italy managed to lift their fourth world cup trophy whilst zidon walked away with a silver medal a red card the player of the tournament award and probably a bruised head now from one dramatic final to another 2010 saw Spain in the peak of their Golden Era as they
live did the trophy with a 116th minute winner for Andre Iniesta to allow Spain to lift their first and only ever World Cup they defeated the Netherlands in the final which made this their third final defeat without a victory they're like an international Tottenham hot spur bottling it every time this tournament was hosted in South Africa making it the first one in the continent and North Korea also made history by conceding 16 goals in three games being the most of country has ever conceded in the competition but if there's one thing that stands out from
this tournament it's not the players or the coaches but it's the football the jabulani was the football created for this tournament and was considered as the ball from hell it was unpredictable and erratic for players and they hated it but this just added more drama and excitement and from a viewer's point of view it was beautiful to watch making it the most iconic football ever but now we're off to Brazil for the 2014 World cup where history repeated itself in the final nil nil for 90 minutes and then with a couple minutes to spare Mario
Goods crops up and scores the winner to sink Argentina and stop Messi from winning the World Cup Messi still walked away with the golden ball for being the best player in the tournament Neuer was the star man for Germany walking away with the Golden Glove and hamus Rodriguez was the new kid on the Block picking up the Golden Boot as he did wonders for Colombia Miroslav Clos it overtook Ronaldo nario as the World Cup's leading goal scorer by scoring his 16th goal in the tournament goal line technology was introduced which would finally erase that margin
of error from linesmen and referees but probably the most memorable moment of this tournament was the semi-final between Germany and Brazil Brazil were the host and were one of the favorites to go all the way and win the competition especially with Neymar on their side when it came to the semi-final Neymar picked up an injury and had to miss the game but even without their best player nobody expected the game to turn out how it did because Germany put seven goals past Brazil in one of the most embarrassing defeats in Brazilian football history but now
we're getting closer and closer to the present day and talking about the future of the competition but first we're talking about the 2018 World Cup hosted in Russia England had a great run this time round making their way to the semifinals and they thought it was finally coming home again it did not in fact come home as Croatia knocked them out to make the final as real underdogs Harry Kane still did pick up the Golden Boot award but that wasn't the prize he was after video assistant referee debuted in this tournament which resulted in a
record number of penalties being given as football leans more and more into new technology for Better or For Worse and the Egyptian goalkeeper Asam elh hadari became the oldest football player to take part in a world cup at 45 years old but now let's talk about the final France were the clear favorites coming up against The Underdogs Croatia who had an inspiring run to the final thanks in particular to the Brilliance of their little magician LCA Modric France won the game 42 to lift their second World Cup 20 years on from their first and managed
by Didier Des who played in the first World Cup victory after this tournament the name on everyone's lips was the young kid who tore it up named Killian mbappe who would do the same thing in Qatar 4 years later 2022 became the first World Cup hosted in a Middle Eastern country and was hosted in December in order to compensate for the extreme temperatures since Kar didn't have the stadium set up from before they practically built every Stadium from scratch and despite some serious controversy in the ethics of these stadiums I have to admit they look
beautiful this tournament saw both Messing and Ronaldo make history but in very different ways Cristiano Ronaldo became the most substituted player in the history of the World Cup having now been subbed off a total of 11 times across his five World Cup campaigns and then as I'm sure you know lonol Messi finally lifted the World Cup trophy in what was the greatest final football has ever seen a 33 Thriller between France and Argentina that took the game all the way to penalties Killian and Pap scored a final hattrick finishing is the tournament's top score but
this still wasn't enough heroics for Martinez throughout the game and then during the penalty shootout Arwood spurred Argentina on to lift the most recent edition of the World Cup now once next for the World Cup the 2026 tournament will be hosted in North America and shared between Mexico Canada and the United States this world cup will see an expansion from 32 teams to 48 teams who will be placed into 12 groups of four where two teams will qualify from each group to form a knockout stage and then the eight so-called best performers who finish third
in the groups will also join this 32 Team Knockout stage meeting more games and more drama for fans who do I think will win it if Harry Kane has managed to get all the Spurs out of him by then I'd say England but over a decade at Spurs is hard to shake so I'd go with Brazil in that case with the likes of andri Vinnie Jr and Rodrigo all young and fired up now after 22 World Cups Brazil Remains the only nation to play in every single World Cup closes sits on the top of the
all-time score chart but kilan impp is only four goals away from that so it's likely he's going to overtake it and there's just a chance that Ronaldo stays playing long enough to make his sixth World Cup and have one last go at completing football but anyway if you enjoyed this video then I can guarantee you'll enjoy the one on screen now you should really click on it trust me