World Cup, formally FIFA World Cup, in football (soccer), quadrennial tournament that determines the sport’s world champion. It is likely the most popular sporting event in the world, drawing billions of television viewers every tournament.

The first competition for the cup was organized in 1930 by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and was won by Uruguay. Held every four years since that time, except during World War II, the competition consists of international sectional tournaments leading to a final elimination event made up of 32 national teams.
 

Unlike Olympic football, World Cup teams are not limited to players of a certain age or amateur status, so the competition serves more nearly as a contest between the world’s best players. Referees are selected from lists that are submitted by all the national associations.

The trophy cup awarded from 1930 to 1970 was the Jules Rimet Trophy, named for the Frenchman who proposed the tournament. This cup was permanently awarded in 1970 to then three-time winner Brazil (1958, 1962, and 1970), and a new trophy called the FIFA World Cup was put up for competition. Many other sports have organized “World Cup” competitions.

From 1930 to 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the World Cup winning team. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, but in 1946 it was renamed after the FIFA president Jules Rimet who set up the first tournament. In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the trophy permanently. However, the trophy was stolen in 1983 and has never been recovered, apparently melted down by the thieves.

After 1970, a new trophy, known as the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was designed. The experts of FIFA, coming from seven countries, evaluated the 53 presented models, finally opting for the work of the Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The new trophy is 36 cm (14.2 in) high, made of solid 18 carat (75%) gold and weighs 6.175 kg (13.6 lb). The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite while the bottom side of the trophy bears the engraved year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974. The description of the trophy by Gazzaniga was: "The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory."

This new trophy is not awarded to the winning nation permanently. World Cup winners retain the trophy only until the post-match celebration is finished. They are awarded a gold-plated replica rather than the solid gold original immediately afterwards.

Currently, all members (players, coaches, and managers) of the top three teams receive medals with an insignia of the World Cup Trophy; winners' (gold), runners-up' (silver), and third-place (bronze). In the 2002 edition, fourth-place medals were awarded to hosts South Korea. Before the 1978 tournament, medals were only awarded to the eleven players on the pitch at the end of the final and the third-place match. In November 2007, FIFA announced that all members of World Cup-winning squads between 1930 and 1974 were to be retroactively awarded winners' medals.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018,after the country was awarded the hosting rights on 2 December 2010.

This will be the first World Cup held in Europe since the 2006 tournament in Germany, the first ever to be held in Eastern Europe and the eleventh time that it was held in Europe. All the stadium venues are in European Russia, to keep travel time manageable.
 

The final tournament will involve 32 national teams, which include 31 teams determined through qualifying competitions and the automatically qualified host team. Of the 32 teams, 20 will be making back-to-back appearances following the last tournament in 2014, including defending champions Germany, while Iceland and Panama will both be making their first appearances at a FIFA World Cup. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities. The final will take place on 15 July at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

The first match of the World Cup will involve hosts Russia and kick off on Thursday, June 14, 2018 at 18:00 local time (16:00 BST). It will be against Saudi Arabia in Group A and take place at the Luzhniki Stadium, which will also be the venue for the final.

That will be the only game on the opening day, but after that there will be three or four games played per day for the duration of the group stage.

The World Cup is being hosted in Russia. The tournament will be played in 12 stadiums across 11 cities, all of which are in or just outside European Russia to reduce travel times.
 

Ten of the 12 stadiums are either brand new or have been built within the past five years. The only exceptions are the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and Central Stadium in Yekaterinburg, both of which have been renovated extensively for the tournament.

The official match ball for the 2018 World Cup is the Adidas Telstra 18. As with a lot of Adidas products this year, the Telstra 18 is a remaining of a classic design.

The original Telstar was used for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico and a slightly different Telstar design was also used in the 1974 World Cup in then-West Germany.

The groups for the World Cup finals were drawn on December 1, 2017 in Moscow, at the State Kremlin Palace inside the Moscow Kremlin.

The State Kremlin Palace was originally built on the orders of Nikita Khrushchev for Communist Party meetings, but since the fall of the Soviet Union it has become a concert hall. The Kremlin as a whole is a fortified complex that includes the residence of Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation.
 

The draw for the 2018 World Cup took place on December 1, 2017 and served up a number of very interesting encounters.
Local rivals Portugal and Spain were both selected in Group B, while familiar foes Argentina and Nigeria will face off once again at the World Cup.

As always after the World Cup draw, pundits nickname the most difficult pool as the 'group of death' with Group D the most popular choice due to its composition of four strong teams that could realistically make it through to the knockout stage.
Panama will face two of the favorites in Group G, taking on Belgium and England before facing Tunisia in their final group game.

 

Group A	Group B
Russia	Portugal
Saudi Arabia	Spain
Egypt	Morocco
Uruguay	Iran

The 2018 edition of the World Cup kicks off on June 14 as hosts Russia take on Saudi Arabia in the opening game. Each group then has six games before the top two progress to the knockout stage which begins on June 30.

The first huge game of the tournament takes place on the second day with Portugal taking on Spain in Sochi. One of the games on June 17 is a repeat of the 2017 Confederations Cup semi-final with Germany facing Mexico at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Joachim Low's side won 4-1 in that game before going on to defeat Chile in the final, and Mexico will be looking for revenge in Russia.

The last day of the group stage is June 28, with England and Belgium facing off in Kaliningrad. By that time, both teams may have qualified already, but if not, it is sure to be a mouth-watering finale to Group G.
 

Date	Fixture	Venue	Kick-off time (local)
June 14	Russia v Saudi Arabia	Moscow - Luzhniki	18:00
June 15	Egypt v Uruguay	Ekaterinburg	17:00
June 15	Portugal v Spain	Sochi	21:00
June 15	Morocco v Iran	Saint Petersburg	18:00
June 16	France v Australia	Kazan	13:00
June 16	Peru v Denmark	Saransk	19:00
June 16	Argentina v Iceland	Moscow - Spartak Stdm	16:00
June 16	Croatia v Nigeria	Kaliningrad	21:00
June 17	Brazil v Switzerland	Rostov-on-Don	21:00
June 17	Costa Rica v Serbia	Samara	16:00
June 17	Germany v Mexico	Moscow - Luzhniki	18:00
June 18	Sweden v South Korea	Nizhny Novgorod	15:00
June 18	Belgium v Panama	Sochi	18:00
June 18	Tunisia v England	Volgograd	21:00
June 19	Poland v Senegal	Moscow - Spartak Stdm	18:00
June 19	Colombia v Japan	Saransk	15:00
June 19	Russia v Egypt	Saint Petersburg	21:00
June 20	Uruguay v Saudi Arabia	Rostov-on-Don	18:00
June 20	Portugal v Morocco	Moscow - Luzhniki	15:00
June 20	Iran v Spain	Kazan	21:00
June 21	France v Peru	Ekaterinburg	20:00
June 21	Denmark v Australia	Samara	16:00
June 21	Argentina v Croatia	Nizhny Novgorod	21:00
June 22	Nigeria v Iceland	Volgograd	18:00
June 22	Brazil v Costa Rica	Saint Petersburg	15:00
June 22	Serbia v Switzerland	Kaliningrad	20:00
June 23	Germany v Sweden	Sochi	21:00
June 23	South Korea v Mexico	Rostov-on-Don	18:00
June 23	Belgium v Tunisia	Moscow - Spartak Stdm	15:00
June 24	England v Panama	Nizhny Novgorod	15:00
June 24	Poland v Colombia	Kazan	21:00
June 24	Japan v Senegal	Ekaterinburg	20:00
June 25	Uruguay v Russia	Samara	18:00
June 25	Saudi Arabia v Egypt	Volgograd	17:00
June 25	Iran v Portugal	Saransk	21:00
June 25	Spain v Morocco	Kaliningrad	20:00
June 26	Denmark v France	Moscow - Luzhniki	17:00
June 26	Australia v Peru	Sochi	17:00
June 26	Nigeria v Argentina	Saint Petersburg	21:00
June 26	Iceland v Croatia	Rostov-on-Don	21:00
June 27	Serbia v Brazil	Moscow - Spartak Stdm	21:00
June 27	Switzerland v Costa Rica	Nizhny Novgorod	21:00
June 27	South Korea v Germany	Kazan	17:00
June 27	Mexico v Sweden	Ekaterinburg	19:00
June 28	England v Belgium	Kaliningrad	20:00
June 28	Panama v Tunisia	Saransk	21:00
June 28	Japan v Poland	Volgograd	17:00
June 28	Senegal v Colombia	Samara	18:00

It is hard to look past Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi when it comes to Golden Ball favorites or the best player, with Messi having won the prize despite suffering defeat in the final with Argentina in 2014.

Thomas Muller was the runner up to Messi and could be prominent again if Germany can repeat as world champions, with Toni Kroos and Manuel Neuer also likely to be integral to Die Mannschaft's hopes.

Neymar was having a superb World Cup before he was injured in the quarter-finals in 2014, and seems to find another level when he plays for his country as the undisputed star of the team.

If Didier Deschamps can mould his hugely talented France team into a coherent unit, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba will have the chance to flourish and Sergio Ramos, you would imagine, will be central to any Spain revival.

Interestingly, though, the Golden Ball has not been won by a player from the World Cup winners since 1994, when Romario was awarded it as Brazil lifted the trophy for a fourth time. Since then, Ronaldo, Oliver Kahn, Zinedine Zidane and Messi have all been runners up at the tournament and Diego Forlan lost in the third-place play-off with Uruguay.

The 2018 World Cup might be missing some big nations, but that's what makes this tournament the best in sports. Brazil are looking to bounce back from a travesty in 2014, while Spain, Argentina and France are hoping to dethrone defending champions Germany and their typically deep squad. Can Belgium or Portugal make a splash? Do England have what it takes to challenge too? Let’s wait and see!