World Cup

Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast will represent Africa at the World Cup in Brazil next year.

Al Jazeera

Yup. These are the exact same teams that represented Africa in 2010. Go Ghana!

The article in Al Jazeera didn't say how teams are chosen, but it implied that the world is divided into geographic reagons, and each region sends five teams to the finals. Is that how it works?

They have to play matches to qualify. If they win the qualifying matches they advance until they get to the world cup.
The players play for the country of their nationality. There can be some exceptions, I think.

If you are really interested I suggest you go to https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.html and read up about it.

Okay, if I get it right, thirty-two teams have qualified to compete in Brazil. To get to Brazil, they must compete in their region. The regions must be Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South AMerica, and the Pacific Ocean.

About a third of the teams come from Europe. I had thought that futbol is a Latin American thing.

Futbol is a world wide thing...It's the biggest sport in the world!

Well, it seems to be most popular in Europe, based on the number of teams in the competition; but I can see people play it around the world.

Biggest, by what measure?

It's the most watched and most played sport world wide.

Latin America has 9 countries that qualified. Europe has 12. However, there are 50 countries in Europe and only half as many countries in Latin America.

Next important date to remember is Dec. 6, as that is when FIFA groups the 32 teams that qualified into groups of 4, and, hence, determines who plays each other for the first portion of the World Cup.

Right now, the 32 teams are divided into 4 pots for the draw, where one team selected from each pot will make up a World Cup group.

Here are the pots.



As you can see, the best case scenario for anybody would be to be grouped with Switzerland or Belgium from the first group, and the worst case would be to be grouped in a "group of death" with host Brazil, France, and Italy.

Crane Collapses at World Cup

A a crane collapsed, killing two building workers at the São Paulo stadium that is due to host the opening match.

The 70,000-seat Itaquerão stadium – also known as the Arena Corinthians – will stage six World Cup matches, including the host nation's opening fixture on 12 June 2014, against opponents to be determined at next month's draw, as well as a semi-final. Under a Fifa deadline it should be completed by the end of next month.

Fifa has given the tournament organisers until 31 December to have all 12 stadiums ready.

Guardian

The England Supporters' Band have vowed to play on in Brazil next summer despite the insistence of World Cup organisers that musical instruments will be banned from stadiums for the duration of the tournament.

Guardian

Republic of Ireland will not be attending. The World Cup has missed out!! We have the best supporters in the world. I hope Uruguay win it now for the masterclass that is Luis Suarez.

I reckon Spain, Germany or Brazil to win it.

As much as I don't like Brazil winning all the time, It would be pretty f***ing sweet if they won this one. I would love to see Spain & Brazil in the finals!

I would LOVE to see me sitting in the stands for at least one of the matches!

I wouldn't say Brazil win all the time, not recently anyways, they haven't won the world cup since 2002.

They haven't been ranked No1 in the world rankings since 2006 and June 2013 they were at their all time lowest ranking of 22nd, although that could be from a lack of competitive matches played, they're currently climbing and are at No 10.

I'll agree with you though, I think a Spain v Brazil final is what most people want to see.