IFF World Cup
From Shaawiki
| IFF World Cup | |
|---|---|
| Current season or competition: 2014 IFF World Cup Qualification |
|
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| Founded | 2010 |
| No. of teams | 96 (Qualifiers for 2010) 32 (Finals) |
| Continent | International (IFF) |
| Most recent champion(s) |
 England |
The IFF World Cup, sometimes called the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of International Football Federation. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 2010.
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month.
Contents |
Format
Qualification
Qualifying tournaments are held to thin the field for the final tournament. They are held within the five IFF continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Europe), overseen by their respective confederations. For each tournament, IFF decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams, but also subject to lobbying from the confederations.
The qualification process can start as early as almost three years before the final tournament and last over a two-year period. The formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations. Usually, one or two places are awarded to winners of intercontinental play-offs. Host nations receive an automatic berth in the finals.
Mini-Cups
In addition to the normal qualifying process every team is involved in a Mini-Cup within the geographic sphere.
Final tournament
The current finals tournament features 32 national teams competing over a month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: a group stage followed by a knockout stage.
In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Eight teams are seeded (including the hosts, with the other teams selected using a formula based on both the IFF World Rankings and performances in recent World Cups) and drawn to separate groups. The other teams are assigned to different "pots", usually based on geographical criteria, and teams in each pot are drawn at random to the eight groups.
Each group plays a round-robin tournament, guaranteeing that every team will play at least three matches. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to preserve fairness among the teams. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. If two or more teams end up with the same number of points, tiebreakers are used: first is goal difference, then total goals scored, then head-to-head results, and finally drawing of lots (i.e. determining team positions at random).
The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the "round of 16" (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final.
Results
World Cup summaries
| Year | Host Nation(s) | Final | Third Place Match | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Score | Runner-up | 3rd Place | Score | 4th Place | ||||
| 2010 Details |
 South Africa |
England |
7-0 |  France |
 Nigeria |
2-1 |  Portugal |
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| 2014 Details |
To Be Announced | ||||||||
| 2018 Details |
To Be Announced | ||||||||
- Key:
- ps — penalty shootout
- aet — extra time
Winners and finalists
| Team | Titles | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| England |
1st | France |
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* = hosts
