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Successful national teams

In all, 207 teams have competed to qualify to the World Cup, but only eleven have made it to the final match, and of those eleven, only seven teams have actually won. As a consequence of this exclusiveness, the World Cup inspires a great deal of enthusiasm and national pride amongst the tournament's fans.

Brazil, by a clear margin, is the most successful World Cup team overall, having won the tournament five times in total, as well as having finished as runners-up twice. Brazil is also the only nation to have participated in every World Cup so far.

South America holds the most titles at nine, followed by Europe at eight. The two countries with the most appearances in the World Cup final match are Germany and Brazil, each with 7 appearances in the final match (Brazil won 5 while Germany won 3).

A total of 78 national teams have qualified for the final tournament at least once. The top 10 national teams in terms of the number of appearances are (includes appearances in the upcoming 2006 Football World Cup):

Six of the seven teams have won a world championship while playing in their own homeland at least once: therefore, nations actively lobby to be selected as World Cup hosts. The only previous winner not to have won on home ground is the otherwise extremely successful Brazil, who famously lost the deciding match when they hosted the 1950 tournament. Even traditionally "weaker" nations have been successful during their spell as hosts, most recently South Korea, who made it to the semifinals while hosting the 2002 World Cup. Both England (1966 World Cup) and France (1998 World Cup) won their only World Cups while playing as host nations.

Best continental zone appearances

To date, the final of the World Cup has only been contested by European and/or South American teams. The greatest success of a North American team was reaching the semi-finals, achieved by the USA at the 1930 World Cup. The first Asian team to make it to the semi-finals was South Korea at the 2002 World Cup (Turkey also made it to the semi-finals at the same tournament, but since they are a member of UEFA, they are considered a European team). Two African teams have reached the quarter-finals: Cameroon at the 1990 World Cup and Senegal in 2002.

The only visits of teams from Oceania in the tournament ended in the first round: Australia at the 1974 World Cup and New Zealand in the 1982 World Cup. Australia has now qualified for the 2006 Cup after winning through a play-off with Uruguay.

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