Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel (After the game is before the game)
Despite having 211 national associations in the Fifa, the map reveals the domination of Europe and South America in the tournament (in participation, as well as in the world cup winners), those regions with football being among the most popular sports. This inequality in the football worldcup can be explained by having a look at how the qualification process is organised: “For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the confederations’ teams” (see here). The football may be of global significance, but it is far from being a global game. The world map of football looks different than the map of the world.
Brazil has participated in all 20 tournaments, Germany in 18 (in 1934 and 1938 it was Nazi Germany participating), same like Italy, which missed their qualification in the 2018 World Cup. Iceland will participate in 2018 for the first time in a World Cup.
With 224 Germany scored the most goals of the 2374 total goals scored during the World Cup tournaments, followed by Brazil with 221 and Argentina with 138. Five teams didn’t score any goal during all World Cups. Brazil has the best goal balance (+119), followed by Germany (+103). The worst goal balance has South Korea (-36), Mexico (-35) and Bulgaria (-31).
