OK, you signed up for the BISERGS, but are wondering what the World Cup is all about and how the BISERGS works. For the next couple of weeks I'll be posting some information that will get you up to speed and help you enjoy this summer's event even more.
First of all, the World Cup is huge. Four years ago, over 1 billion people watched the final match between Germany and Argentina and 3.2 billion people watched at least one match in the month long tournament. That is nearly half of our planet's population. For comparison, 111 million people watched last year's Super Bowl or about about 1/30th the viewership for what we Americans consider to be a very big deal. Even in countries that don't have a team playing, the World Cup is a huge event. In some countries, businesses and government offices virtually shut down when a big match is on and if the matches are on the other side of the globe, people stay up all night long to watch teams play in distant time zones. For football mad countries that managed to qualify for the tournament, the next month will be a huge party that will feature moments of national joy and shared disappointment.
The World Cup is a Big Deal
First of all, the World Cup is huge. Four years ago, over 1 billion people watched the final match between Germany and Argentina and 3.2 billion people watched at least one match in the month long tournament. That is nearly half of our planet's population. For comparison, 111 million people watched last year's Super Bowl or about about 1/30th the viewership for what we Americans consider to be a very big deal. Even in countries that don't have a team playing, the World Cup is a huge event. In some countries, businesses and government offices virtually shut down when a big match is on and if the matches are on the other side of the globe, people stay up all night long to watch teams play in distant time zones. For football mad countries that managed to qualify for the tournament, the next month will be a huge party that will feature moments of national joy and shared disappointment.Who is playing this year and how do the teams get chosen?
The soccer world is divided by FIFA into five geographic regions governed by 'confederations'. For the most part the geography makes sense, but Australia is considered to be part of Asia for some reason. Anyway, over the last 2 or 3 years, each confederation has held their own competitions to see which countries will represent them in the World Cup. Some confederations are historically much more successful at the World Cup, so they get more places (Europe gets 14 places), while others are pretty week and get few or even no teams (Oceania won't have a team this time, sorry New Zealand, Fiji and Taveuni fans). The host nation qualifies automatically, so Russia was the first team in. Not surprisingly, Brazil were the first team to qualify through their confederation tournament while Peru were the last team to book their place after beating New Zealand in a two leg playoff last November.
The world wide qualifying competition included 871 games featuring 2454 goals. The competitions led to some shocking absences from this years World Cup and equally surprising inclusions. In the United States, not qualifying for the first time since 1986 was a huge disappointment but can you imagine how they felt in Italy and Holland? Italy is the four time champion and has played in every World Cup since 1962 while the Dutch played in the 2010 final and finished third in the 2014 World Cup. Many experts thought this could be the year the Orange finally lift the cup, instead they will watch on TV like the rest of us. Chile is another team that was left shocked by missing a trip to Russia. All of these absences mean the door was opened for some happy surprises in smaller countries. Tiny Iceland is definitely the feel good story of World Soccer over the past two or three years, starting with their amazing performance at the Euros in France in 2016. While most national team managers make millions of dollars, the Iceland manager coaches the team as his second job. His main job is to work as a dentist. You have to watch this video to get an idea of what a big shock Iceland's success has been for even their own country. Panama also qualified for the first time ever in dramatic fashion to send the entire nation into ecstasy while simultaneously dooming the Americans to the World Cup sidelines. Click the links to get yourself ready for some high emotion in the World Cup and the BISERGS.
In the next post, I'll explain the World Cup tournament format, the groups and why that is important for the BISERGS.
Thanks, Greg, for pulling together all these interesting facts about the beautiful game! Maybe I missed it, but how many countries competed in the race to get to the World Cup? I want to compare that to how many countries compete to get to the World Series in baseball.-Carol Barrera
ReplyDeleteI just checked and the easier way to answer this question is there are currently 10 countries not in FIFA. One is Great Britain because it is made up of four countries that all have their own teams (Scotland, N. Ireland, Wales and England) and the others appear to be tiny islands scattered around the oceans of the world. Perhaps they can't find 11 players willing to compete or traveling to matches is too far and too expensive to be worth it when you don't have a strong national team.
DeleteSo would it be correct to say that the number of countries with teams that participate in the build up to the World Cup are all the countries in the world minus 6 (-10, +4)?
DeleteThose ecstatic narrators in the link are hilarious. That is why I prefer to watch matches with Spanish-speaking narrators. They are so much more expressive, altho I have also heard very emotional narrators in Arabic. Problem is I can't understand what they are saying in Arabic.- Carol Barrera
ReplyDeleteYes, I love them, too. That Iceland clip is from the goal against Austria that clinched a birth in the knockout round. Their next game was one of the best soccer matches I've ever seen when they beat England. There is a YouTube clip of the same announcer in the same completely fried voice screaming, "We are going to Paris, we are never going home, we are never going home." You should look for highlights of the England Iceland match on YouTube.
DeleteHere is the same guy three days later when Iceland beat England in the Euros two years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DReai4ORYaY
DeleteI realise that bringing on the World Series of baseball is comparing apples to oranges, because it is a club competition between clubs of the USA and Canada, not national teams. However, for popularity perspectives, 28 million watched game 7 when the Astros won last year and 40 million watched the game in which the Cubs were victorious, as compared to the 2 billion in the 2014 World Cup final and 111 million for the Super Bowl.
ReplyDelete