Every fouryears, in a different country around the world, there is a big sportcompetition. It is like the Olympics but only for one sport—the most popular sport in theworld! What do you know about the history of the World Cup?

    The firstWorld Cup was in 1930, in Uruguay (乌拉圭). In the final game Uruguay beat Argentina and became the firstWorld Cup winner. 13 countries played in the first World Cup. Now there are 32countries in the competition.

    The firsttime people saw the World Cup on TV was in 1954 when Switzerland held thecompetition. Now about 3 billion people in countries all over the world watchthe World Cup on TV.

    Until 2002the World Cup was always in a European or an American country. South Korea andJapan held the first Asian World Cup. The first African World Cup was in 2010in South Africa.

    The 2018World Cup was the 21st one. It took place in Russia from 14 June to15 July2018, after the country had been awarded (授予) the hosting rights in December 2010.

    It was thefirst World Cup held in Europe since the 2006 tournament (比赛) in German, and the first everto be held in Eastern Europe. All the places for this big game are in EuropeanRussia.