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65 unusual facts about FIFA World Cup


1929–30 in Belgian football

The Belgium national football team were one of the 4 European nations to enter the first FIFA World Cup, organized in Uruguay.

A.D. Belén

1996 (2 June): Under head coach Alexander Guimaraes, former player in the FIFA World Cup A.D. Belén wins the last game of the Torneo de Copa en Costa Rica, beating Club Sport Cartaginés, 1-0.

Abel Lafleur

Abel Lafleur (1875 – 1953) was a French sculptor who designed and made the FIFA World Cup trophy, first simply called 'Coupe du Monde', later renamed the Jules Rimet Trophy.

ActionAid Australia

ActionAid Australia was a founding member of the Australian arm of 1GOAL – the official campaign for the FIFA World Cup.

Alan Shacklock

In 1994 Shacklock also composed the original score for the FIFA World Cup.

American Securities

NEP Broadcasting - Mobile television producer for the Olympics, Academy Awards, and World Cup as well as New York City's largest production facility owner

Astor Piazzolla International Airport

The existing terminal building was constructed in 1978 for the FIFA World Cup.

Bermuda Hogges

The initial first team squad included a number of full Bermudian international players, notably Stephen Astwood, Damico Coddington, Darius Cox, Devaun DeGraff, Timothy Figureido, Damon Ming, John Barry Nusum, Michael Parsons, Jelani Scott and Kwame Steede, all of whom had represented their country in various World Cup and CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifying games.

C.D. Suchitepéquez

The team was managed by the Uruguayan Julio César Cortés, a former Uruguayan international who played in three World Cups.

Chacabuco, Buenos Aires

Probably the most famous resident of Chacabuco was Daniel Passarella who featured in both of Argentina's FIFA World Cup wins in 1978 and 1986 and went on to manage the national team as well as Uruguay and River Plate.

CMLL Universal Championship

The Universal Championship is not defended throughout the year like a traditional tournament, but is a title akin to the FIFA World Cup that is held until the next tournament.

Colourbox

In 1986, the band issued two completely different singles simultaneously on the same day: one was an instrumental initially intended as a FIFAWorld Cup anthem of that year ("The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme"); the other, a cover of Jacob Miller's "Baby I Love You So," featured third member Lorita Grahame on vocals.

Cup

In the case of the FIFA World Cup or the Sprint Cup Series, the competition itself may grow to take on the name of the trophy that is awarded to the winner.

Daniel L. Doctoroff

In 1994, after attending a World Cup soccer match between Italy and Bulgaria, Doctoroff was inspired to bring such competition to New York City as host of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Dōtonbori

The sign has been altered on several occasions to celebrate events such as the World Cup and to show support for the Osaka baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers.

Football in Argentina

The Argentine national team is one of the eight to have won the football World Cup, having done so in 1978 and 1986, and also being runner-up in 1930 and 1990.

Copa Suecia Only played in 1958, which was held when the league was interrupted by the 1958 World Cup and was won by Atlanta.

The 1934 FIFA World Cup Italian national team championship side featured Oriundo in the squad composed of Argentine born players such as Raimundo Orsi, Enrique Guaita, and Luis Monti who also played for Argentina in the 1930 FIFA World Cup.

After the victories in 1978 FIFA World Cup and 1986 FIFA World Cup, streets were flooded with people celebrating the championship, making it impossible not to become part of the celebration.

Football in Hungary

Hungary were regular features at major tournaments, such as the first Olympic Football Tournament (Stockholm 1912) and many FIFA World Cup.

G.D. Interclube

Two players from Inter represented the Angola national team in its first FIFA World Cup tournament, in 2006 in Germany: Miloy and Mário.

Gerardo Liceaga Arteaga

Since 1985 until 2009 he was reporter and anchor of Televisa Deportes covering events as the FIFA World Cup.

Grandview–Woodland

Known locally as "The Drive", visitors find everything from trendy coffee shops to hangouts for many ethnicities (celebrations during the FIFA World Cup can bring out soccer fans of many nationalities, for example) to sex toys to hemp shops.

Helicopter banner

Helicopter banners have been seen at many large sporting events including the FIFA World Cup in Germany, Tour de France and the London Marathon.

Human rights in Qatar

The construction boom in advance of Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup has reportedly led to an increase in human rights abuses.

Icelanders

Iceland's national football team has yet to participate in the FIFA World Cup.

India at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics

Athletics Federation of India had sent a team of six athletes for the competition, which is ranked only next to the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup in terms of popularity as a major global sporting event.

Islamic Saudi Academy

Ayman Shawky, a former footballer and a participant in the 1990 World Cup representing Egypt, is now a teacher in the physical education department and is also the coach of the varsity soccer team.

KWKW

In 2010, KWKW interrupted its normal Spanish-language feed to carry most of ESPN Radio's English-language coverage.

(Some weekend games and the final will be carried on KSPN, while a daily recap show airs on KLAA.) The 2006 coverage was in Spanish.

Lane Pryce

He wasn't particularly keen on football, though he successfully used an outing to the pub for the 1966 World Cup Final to set up a potential SCDP account with Jaguar.

Manchukuo national football team

Due to the Non-Recognition Policy of the United States and other countries towards Manchukuo, the team was not permitted to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) or FIFA, and was therefore not eligible to enter either the World Cup or AFC Asian Cup.

Methodist Central Hall Westminster

The Football World Cup trophy was on display at Central Hall in early 1966 in preparation for the tournament being held in England that summer.

Mike Penner

Initially reporting on high school sports, Penner went on to cover a variety of national and international sporting events including the Olympics, Major League Baseball, tennis, and World Cup soccer.

Modern Korean festivals

Region / Traffic : At Worldcup Park which is in Mapo District Worldcup Park was maed in 2002 while Korea ready for 2002 FIFA World Cup.

In 2002, this festival was designated as a formal festival for Worldcup.

Moritz Eggert

Moritz Eggert created the opening ceremony for the 2006 FIFA World Cup (together with director Christian Stueckl and stage designer Marlene Pohley) and is currently working on a new opera for the Beethovenfest and the Bonn opera house (“Freax”, together with librettist Hannah Duebgen, premiere September 2007, director: Christoph Schlingensief).

His large “soccer oratorio” for the Ruhrtriennale 2005 and the Soccer World Championship in Germany 2006 experienced widespread media coverage in German as well as foreign media.

Nederland 1

2 Special, extra long broadcasts are made during important events such as the FIFA World Cup, the Tour de France or the Olympic Games.

Old Golimar

football is so popular that crime levels dip significantly during the FIFA World Cup season.

PFC Akademik Sofia

In this period two players from Akademik have played for the Bulgarian national squad during at FIFA World Cup: Ivan Dimitrov in 1970 and Mladen Vasilev in 1974.

PlayGroundOnline

In the year 2010, PlayGroundOnline launched FIFA world cup soccer merchandise offering products such as T-shirts, books, Videos and Other memorabilia of soccer teams.

Polish minority in the Czech Republic

Tadeusz Kraus, best Polish footballer from Zaolzie, has twice played in the FIFA World Cup

Popular Science Predictions Exchange

Will a team of androids beat the human World Cup champions at a game of soccer by December 31, 2050?

Prince Charles Cinema

Previous messages have cheered on England in the World Cup, proclaimed the cinema to be the ninth wonder of the world, after King Kong, and even joked about other cinemas in the area.

Purani Basti, Raipur

The term hand of God was given to Diego Maradona's goal after he visited Purani basti immediately after the FIFA World Cup victory of Argentina in 1986 to free himself from the guilt.

Ravi Deepres

His first solo exhibition, Patriots, shown at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, in 2003, explored aspects of patriotic and national identity around the football World Cup and European Championships.

Robo-Hunter

Robo-Hunter became a semi-regular feature in the comic for the next two years, during which the now Brit Cit located Sam investigated, among other cases, a plot to sabotage the robotic England football team's World Cup campaign.

Rodolfo Escalera

Escalera also created a collectible plate for the 1986 World cup hosted in Mexico.

Saaremaa official football team

They are not eligible to enter either the World Cup or European Championship.

Saitama Rapid Railway Line

The Saitama Rapid Railway line (including Urawa Misono Station) was built in time for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which held several matches at the Saitama Stadium.

Sara Lumholdt

She also booked a couple of gigs in local sports club, Ballbreaker, singing the Swedish national anthem for the World Cup Championship in 2006.

Sönke Wortmann

During the Confederations Cup 2005 and the Football World Cup 2006 he joined the German football team on their trip.

Stein-Wingert

As of 2007, the festival is to be held in odd-numbered years, as it did not take place in 2006 owing to the Football World Cup.

Sticker album

Sticker album themes can be based around sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup or TV shows like Doctor Who.

StudioEIS

Bronze soccer player to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the World Cup

Sunil Gulati

In February 2009, Gulati announced that the USSF will bid for the right to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

SV Röchling Völklingen

This affected a number of German clubs and resulted in Saarland being represented by separate teams in the Olympics and the 1954 World Cup.

Sylvestre Ossiala

On the same occasion, he donated generators, televisions, and freezers to some constituents, while also promising to set up two giant television screens so his constituents could watch the June 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Tameside General Hospital

Two World Cup-winning footballers were born in the hospital: Geoff Hurst, to whom there is a plaque within the maternity unit, and Simone Perrotta.

Thomas Cup

The Thomas Cup competition was the idea of Sir George Alan Thomas, a highly successful English badminton player of the early 1900s, who was inspired by tennis's Davis Cup, and football's (soccer's) World Cup first held in 1930.

Tyskarna från Lund

In 2002 and again in 2006, their mock football-themed singles, "Global Fussball OK!" and "Global Fussball 06!" were released around the opening of the World Cup.

U. Sharaf Ali

In 1994, Sharaf played for the Indian national side against Beirut in the FIFA World Cup qualifying rounds held at Korea and Hong Kong.

Vla

It comes in several flavours, such as chocolate, caramel, vanilla, banana, etc. and some are limited editions like orange (with an artificial orange flavour) sold only at the time of national events in the Netherlands like "koningsdag" or the world and European championships (as long as the Netherlands is still in the competition).

World Cup Germany

Germany has hosted the FIFA World Cup twice.


Alastair King

In addition to his concert works, King has composed music for various films, including Shrek, Chicken Run, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and television programmes, including the FIFA World Cup 2002, The Last Detective, Second Nature and William and Mary.

Alberto Suppici

At the inaugural FIFA World Cup in his home nation of Uruguay in 1930, Suppici dropped goalkeeper Andrés Mazali, who had won a gold medal in the 1928 Olympic final, from the national team after he was caught breaking curfew and failing to arrive at the team hotel in time in Montevideo prior to the tournament.

Aleksandar Tirnanić

Later he has been beaten by Manuel Rosas in 1930, Pelé in 1958, Michael Owen in 1998, Dmitri Sychev in 2002 and latest Lionel Messi in 2006, which makes him the sixth youngest goalscorer in the FIFA World Cup.

Bédarieux

Vincent Candela (born 24 October 1973), French footballer who played for many years in Italy, 40 appearances for his national team, including the World Cup in 1998.

Bogdan Dotchev

He is known for having refereed two matches in the FIFA World Cup, one in 1982 and one in 1986.

Exhaustive ballot

It is also used to elect the various party nominees for President of the United States, the host city of the Olympic Games and the host of the FIFA World Cup.

Gianluca Nani

During this time he was credited with developing talents such as World Cup winners Andrea Pirlo and Luca Toni.

Juan Gutiérrez Moreno

With the Spanish national team, Juanito appeared in one World Cup and two European Championships, contributing to the conquest of Euro 2008.

Katy Hill

Her assignments included living in Mongolia with a family for a week, training with the England football squad for a World Cup special, joining the Cirque du Soleil and, of course, making things from yoghurt pots and sticky-backed plastic.

Lei Clijsters

Clijsters played in 40 international matches for the Belgian national team, participating at UEFA Euro 1984 and the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups.

Luis Pedro Cavanda

Cavanda earned plaudits with an impressive display against former FIFA World Player of the Year and World Cup winner Ronaldinho.

Luisão

A Brazilian international on 43 occasions, Luisão appeared for the country in two World Cups and three Copa América tournaments.

Marius Trésor

For the French national team, Trésor played in the World Cup in 1978 and 1982.

Mauro Galvão

After being an unused squad member at that year's FIFA World Cup, he was a starter under Sebastião Lazaroni in the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, partnering Ricardo Gomes, Carlos Mozer and Ricardo Rocha – all four stoppers saw time during the tournament, Galvão played all four games, three complete – in a 5–3–2 formation, in an eventual round-of-16 exit.

Mick Leech

His international debut came on 4 May 1969 in a 2–1 defeat to Czechoslovakia in a World Cup qualifier in Dalymount Park.

Microsoft International Soccer 2000

Friendly games are non-competitive, leagues provide round-robin and knockout events, while the competitions category contains a variety of competitions such as the FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Football Championship.

Mieke Buchan

Along with anchoring Toyota World Sport, her work at SBS included daily updates for their FIFA World Cup coverage, and hosting breaking international soccer news and results on the The World Game.

Miguel Ángel González

He also earned 18 caps for the Spanish national team, and was in the squad for the 1978 and 1982 FIFA World Cups.

Multiball system

The system is currently used for UEFA European club tournaments, international competitions and the FIFA World Cup.

New Zealand national football team all-time record

The stats are composed of FIFA World Cup, FIFA Confederations Cup and, OFC Nations Cup, as well as numerous international friendly tournaments and matches.

Ofcom Code on Sports and Other Listed and Designated Events

In July 2000, a British-based broadcaster, TV Danmark, challenged the ITC's decision to deny it the rights to five Danish World Cup qualifiers.

Olaf Thon

Subsequently, he was selected for the squads at three FIFA World Cups, helping the nation win the tournament in the 1990 edition in Italy: after only six minutes against Colombia in the group stage (1–1), he played the entire semifinal against England, also scoring in his penalty shootout attempt (1–1 after 120 minutes).

Project 2010

Project 2010 was a blueprint U.S. Soccer executives created in 1998 to ensure that the United States men's national team could become a legitimate threat to win the FIFA World Cup by the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Shimon Stein

In 2006 Stein called on the German government to stop Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from visiting the FIFA World Cup.

Simon Brotherton

In 1990 Brotherton joined the BBC network, where, as well as commentating on the Premier League, he has commentated on a variety of football tournaments including the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 1996, UEFA Euro 2000, UEFA Euro 2004, the African Cup of Nations, the UEFA Champions League Final and the UEFA Cup Final.

Stadio Renato Dall'Ara

The stadium was also witness to the World Cup competition's quickest goal ever scored, by Davide Gualtieri of San Marino, taking 8.3 seconds to put his team ahead against England.

Tsubasa Oozora

A prodigious football player, Tsubasa dreams of one day winning the FIFA World Cup for Japan.