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World Cup Format

Qualification 

Qualifying tournaments are held to reduce the field for the final tournament (except in 1930, when teams were invited to take part). These tournaments are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe), and are organized by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of spots awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams (and, some may argue, political considerations). The hosts of the World Cup receive an automatic berth in the finals. Until 2002, the defending champions also received an automatic berth, but starting from the 2006 World Cup they will need to enter the qualifying tournament.

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 spots are awarded to winners of the Intercontinental Play-offs. For example, the winner of the Oceania zone and the fifth-placed team from the South American zone entered a play-off to decide which team would qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

Final tournament 

The final tournament involves 32 national teams (increased in 1998 from the previous 24) competing over a 4-week period in a previously nominated host nation. In 2002, World Cup was for the first time held in two countries, South Korea and Japan. However, FIFA stated that in future final tournaments will be hosted by a single nation. In the past, the host country and current world champions automatically qualified for the next World Cup, but from 2006 on only the hosts will get an automatic berth.

The final tournament lasts about a month, and is divided into two stages, a group stage and a knockout stage.

For the first round, teams are drawn into eight groups of four. During the draw, eight teams are seeded, with one being drawn into each group, while the other teams are allocated into pots based on geographical considerations, then drawn into each group. The basic constraint is that no group contains more than two European teams or more than one team from any other confederation. In each group, a round-robin tournament is played, with each team playing three matches. The last round of matches of each group are held at the same time to ensure fairness. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage.

In the knockout stage, teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner, if necessary. In the Round of 16, the winner of each group plays against the runner-up from another group. This is followed by the quarterfinals, the semi-finals and the final. The losing semi-finalists also contest a third place match.

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