2018 World Cup

Have you completed your sticker book? Have you picked you sweepstake team? Have you printed off your wall chart? No? Why….?

The 2018 World Cup is only 1 week away!

This year, the World Cup is being held in Russia for the first time in the competitions history. Though, it wasn’t greeted with the enthusiasm that would normally be associated with holding the prestigious tournament. There have been and still are controversial issues surrounding the tournament being held in Russia from allegations of corruption in the bidding process, high levels of racism and discrimination against LGBT people, hooliganism which has had heavy media coverage and sporting sanctions for drug use in sport. It wasn’t everyone first choice to hold the competition.

Even with all the negativity there is still the huge anticipation that surrounds the World Cup and the 1 question that has been asked over 1 million times; “who’d you think is going to win”?

HISTORY

For those who have never watched the World Cup before, or this is your first time watching here is a (very) brief history of the competition.

Founded in 1930, the competition was created after the success of the Olympic football tournament. It was held in Uruguay as they were the two time world champions at the time, and it was Uruguay who also lifted the Jules Rimet trophy. The trophy changed in 1970 from the Jules Rimet to the more recent recognisable design after Brazil had won the competition 3 times, allowing them the keep the trophy.

The competition grew in popularity, the number of participating countries increased to the total number of teams to 24 in 1982 and then to 32 in 1998. There is even talk to increase the number of teams again to 48 by 2026.

This year’s World Cup will have some very noticeable absentees with four time winners Italy failing to qualify for the first time since 1958, Holland since 2002, USA since 1986, two-time Copa America winners Chile amongst other regular World Cup regulars. However, with these absent countries there is a bittersweet feel with Iceland and Panama qualifying for the very first time.

COUNTRIES

Here are the countries by group participating in this year’s World Cup

GROUP A

GROUP B

GROUP C

GROUP D

GROUP E

GROUP F

GROUP G

GROUP H

The top 2 in each group will progress to the knockout stages to head to the final.

From a personal point of view, I am backing England all the way, I have too. I know realistically that it is going to be very difficult for the 3 Lions to win – I mean with the likes of Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, Germany who are all playing very well currently, but this is a 1 off. Portugal proved that by winning the Euro 2016 by not winning a game within 90 minutes. It just needs that 1 moment to win the game against the odds (Iceland vs England springs to mind) so anything is possible.

One thing is for sure though is that I am excited for the World Cup to start. I have been looking at all the games and when they kick off, what channel they are on and if I am in work! I have made predictions to scores, entered sweepstakes (Egypt and Panama) and any competition that is free to enter. World Cup fever has hit!!

Hope you all enjoy this year’s World Cup and that there are moments to cherish for your country.

PREDICTIONS

Here are my predictions for this year’s competition.

Winners - Brazil

Top Scorer – Messi (6)

Top Assist - Neymar