The world cup

One of the first things that people studying English learns that the game they call Football is called Soccer in North America. Soccer has been popular for more than a hundred years and today it is probably the most popular sport in the world. Every four years, teams from all over the world compete in the Famous World up!. "he up is a series of games in which teams from many countries play to see which is the best. #y one estimate, almost one million people watched the $%&' championship game on television. (eople in Asia had to get up in the middle of the night to see )taly beat West *ermany on "+ in a game played in Spain. "he world up! began in ,ontevideo, -ruguay in $%./. At the time, it did not seem li0e a true world competition since only thirteen teams decided to play, and eight of them were from South America. "he team from -ruguay won. )n $%.1 and $%.&, cup was held in Europe. ,ore than thirty teams played in each of these competitions, and )taly won both of them. "he larger number of teams meant that some rules had to be changed. "here were too many teams playing, so they had to have elimination matches first. Some of the games were played in countries other than the host countries. "his system is still used today, and only si2teen teams left after elimination actually compete for the cup. "here were no World cup! championships in $%1' and $%13 because of World War )). "he cup is about ten inches high and has the shape of Ni0e, the *ree0 *oddess of +ictory, on it. )t is named for a person who helped organi4e the World up!, 5ules 6imet. When the up play started again in $%7/, there was little enthusiasm. )t was li0e $%'& all over again8 9nly thirteen teams competed, the games were in #ra4il and -ruguay won. #ut the world wide interest in soccer came bac0 during the ne2t four years. #y the time West *ermany won in Swit4erland in $%71, millions of people wanted to go to the matches. )n $%7&, when the games were held in Sweden, interest was once again very high. Fifty: three teams wanted to compete. ,any elimination matches were held in different parts of the world to get the number of teams down and only the last si2teen teams went to Sweden. "his was the first time that the world saw (ele. ;is team, from, #ra4il won the up for the first time that year and (ele became the greatest soccer player of all time. )n the past thirty years, soccer has become the sport of the world. Each World up is more successful than the last. Since $%33, probably one:<uarter of the world has listened to or watched the championship game.