Every four years, in a different country around the world, there is a big sport competition. It is like the Olympics but only for one sport—the most popular sport in the world! What do you know about the history of the World Cup?
The first World Cup was in 1930, in Uruguay (乌拉圭). In the final game Uruguay beat Argentina and became the first World Cup winner. 13 countries played in the first World Cup. Now there are 32 countries in the competition.
The first time people saw the World Cup on TV was in 1954 when Switzerland held the competition. Now about 3 billion people in countries all over the world watch the World Cup on TV.
Until 2002 the World Cup was always in a European or an American country. South Korea and Japan held the first Asian World Cup. The first African World Cup was in 2010 in South Africa.
The 2018 World Cup was the 21st one. It took place in Russia from 14 June to15 July 2018, after the country had been awarded (授予) the hosting rights in December 2010.
It was the first World Cup held in Europe since the 2006 tournament (比赛) in German, and the first ever to be held in Eastern Europe. All the places for this big game are in European Russia.
