Talk:FIFA World Cup

First "international" soccer game

Currently the article notes

The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England.[7] The first international tournament for nations, the inaugural British Home Championship, took place in 1884 and included games between England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.[8]

Eh... ok. Even humo(u)ring the Brits and pretending their "constituent countries" are also "nations" for the purpose of qualifying as "international" games... Could the article further note the actual first international games? Y'know... the ones held between entirely separate fully recognized sovereign states? Was it the first game of football at the 1900 Summer Olympics (France v UK)? or was there one in the years before that? — LlywelynII 14:54, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

It was the 1902 Uruguay v Argentina football match. The 1900 Olympic football event was between clubs representing countries, like today's UEFA Champions League. Indeed, the Belgian club was first recorded as a "mixed team" due to having some Dutch and British players, but its bronze medal is now solely credited to Belgium per a 2024 ruling. Unknown Temptation (talk) 14:58, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

@Unknown Temptation: Thanks! That should be added to the article, beside the British intermural thing. — LlywelynII 07:58, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

@LlywelynII England, N Ireland, Scotland and Wales are all independent countries for football and are recognised as such by UEFA & FIFA.

That's why England and Scotland are both playing in this year's world cup . Markb (talk) 14:07, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

Like I said, even humo(u)ring that conceit and leaving that text unchanged, fine, but what was the actual first international match? — LlywelynII 07:58, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Men’s FIFA World Cup

Given the Women’s FIFA World cup is labelled as such, it should be consistent that this is labelled men’s as that is factually the information it contains, not all information about both, so the current title is incorrect. ~2026-27541-76 (talk) 20:57, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Most reliable sources just call it the FIFA World Cup, so that's why the article's called that. CheeseAndJamSamdwich (talk) 21:04, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Edit request: Move 2026 FIFA World Cup hosts from "Upcoming hosts" to "Hosts"

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Since the tournament is currently underway (or has already begun), these countries are no longer merely "upcoming hosts" and should be included in the "Hosts" column rather than the "Upcoming hosts" column in the "Summary by confederation" table.

Suggested change:

• Remove "2026, Canada, Mexico & United States" from the "Upcoming hosts" column for CONCACAF.
• Add "2026, Canada, Mexico & United States" to the "Hosts" column for CONCACAF.
• Increase the "Times hosted" value for CONCACAF from 3 to 4.

This would keep the table consistent with the treatment of previous World Cups once hosting has commenced.

Thank you. Dasaryan (talk) 01:23, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

I think you accidentally made two separate sections instead of just one with the edit request added xD I've already gone and fixed it in this diff, just something to remember lolol pattersonuwu ^njz (talk) 05:17, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

 Done - Thank you!! And welcome to Wikipedia! pattersonuwu ^njz (talk) 05:21, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

In a similar vein, I have updated the opening section where it stated "Eighteen countries have hosted the World Cup, most recently Qatar, who hosted the 2022 event" to reflect the fact that the 2026 tournament is underway. --RFBailey (talk) 13:55, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

"All World Cup-winning head coaches were natives of the country they coached to victory."

can we find a proper citation for this fascinating gem? one that's not a newspaper article hiding behind a paywall? there must be official records that could support this better than the WSJ's sports pages.

duncanrmi (talk) 02:53, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIFA_World_Cup_winning_managers

~2026-36109-28 (talk) 21:03, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

ah, that was me replying to myself

duncanrmi (talk) 21:06, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 June 2026

change ronaldo's name from christiano ronaldo to cristiano ronaldo (this mistake is in the records and statistics) Ieditwikipedda (talk) 21:06, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

 Done Wburrow (talk) 21:32, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 June 2026

Gerd Muller scored 16 goals in 24 games. His Goals per game should be 0.75, not 0.67. ~2026-35645-40 (talk) 16:41, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

 Not done. 1) That's not how numbers work, 2) the table says 14 in 13 for an average of 1.08. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 16:50, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

Suggestion for "final standings" tables

The table should be reformatted to allow sorting, adding another column for their status instead of having them in the list.

Here's an example with the 2006 FIFA World Cup final standings.

Example

R	Team	G	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts.	Status
1	Italy	E	7	5	2	0	12	2	+10	17	Champions
2	France	G	7	4	3	0	9	3	+6	15	Runners-up
3	Germany	A	7	5	1	1	14	6	+8	16	Third place
4	Portugal	D	7	4	1	2	7	5	+2	13	Fourth place
5	Brazil	F	5	4	0	1	10	2	+8	12	Eliminated in the quarter-finals
6	Argentina	C	5	3	2	0	11	3	+8	11
7	England	B	5	3	2	0	6	2	+4	11
8	Ukraine	H	5	2	1	2	5	7	−2	7
9	Spain	H	4	3	0	1	9	4	+5	9	Eliminated in the round of 16
10	Switzerland	G	4	2	2	0	4	0	+4	8
11	Netherlands	C	4	2	1	1	3	2	+1	7
12	Ecuador	A	4	2	0	2	5	4	+1	6
13	Ghana	E	4	2	0	2	4	6	−2	6
14	Sweden	B	4	1	2	1	3	4	−1	5
15	Mexico	D	4	1	1	2	5	5	0	4
16	Australia	F	4	1	1	2	5	6	−1	4
17	South Korea	G	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4	Eliminated in the group stage
18	Paraguay	B	3	1	0	2	2	2	0	3
19	Ivory Coast	C	3	1	0	2	5	6	−1	3
20	Czech Republic	E	3	1	0	2	3	4	−1	3
21	Poland	A	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3
22	Croatia	F	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2
23	Angola	D	3	0	2	1	1	2	−1	2
24	Tunisia	H	3	0	1	2	3	6	−3	1
25	Iran	D	3	0	1	2	2	6	−4	1
	United States	E	3	0	1	2	2	6	−4	1
27	Trinidad and Tobago	B	3	0	1	2	0	4	−4	1
28	Japan	F	3	0	1	2	2	7	−5	1
	Saudi Arabia	H	3	0	1	2	2	7	−5	1
30	Togo	G	3	0	0	3	1	6	−5	0
31	Costa Rica	A	3	0	0	3	3	9	−6	0
32	Serbia and Montenegro	C	3	0	0	3	2	10	−8	0

Freddy7GL (talk) 17:17, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

Should third-place match scores be retained in the Results table?

The recent removal of match scores from the Results table was justified on the grounds that detailed scores are more appropriate for the List of FIFA World Cup finals article. However, that article only covers final matches and does not include third-place play-offs. As a result, removing all scores means that there is no concise summary of third-place match results in this article. I therefore think that retaining the scores for third-place matches (or perhaps for both the final and third-place matches for consistency) could still be useful for readers. What do other editors think? Khanhtruong4728 (talk) 05:16, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

@Khanhtruong4728: Yes, we should. Achmad Rachmani (talk) 16:18, 27 June 2026 (UTC)

when FIFA was founded actually year is incorrect

May 21 1904 was when FIFA itself was founded. Could it be possible to correct that? thanks Suggesttop (talk) 20:09, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 June 2026

2. France Falconn113 (talk) 16:27, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

 Not done – It's not clear what you want changed. Please restate your request in the form "please change X to Y". Wburrow (talk) 16:45, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 June 2026

Messi has scored his 19th goal in 29 games, having a Goal Rate of 0.65517 ~2026-37097-64 (talk) 04:03, 28 June 2026 (UTC)

 Not done. It's not clear what changes you want to make. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 05:47, 28 June 2026 (UTC)

La vie de Léo boccalon

Leo ~2026-37780-25 (talk) 16:45, 1 July 2026 (UTC)

Bold wording for "2026 FIFA Men's World Cup"

@Verde Hassan et al. I put "2026 FIFA Men's World Cup" in bold because it is typical in Wikipedia articles to list alternative names in bold font. I see use of this name at several reliable sources: here and here and here, for instance — i.e., search for "Men's" on these pages. Let's restore that text, yes? Thank you —Quantling (talk | contribs) 14:12, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

Men's is not a common name. Far more common than FIFA World Cup is just World Cup (which I notice has since been removed after it). Men's being stated in the hatnote at the top suffices for here.Verde Hassan (talk) 14:35, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

I agree that is more common to not use "Men's". However, I provide three reliable sources to show, well, that there are reliable sources that do use "Men's". I know it is hard to prove a negative, but is there any supporting evidence you can provide to support that, "Men's World Cup" is not a sufficiently common name? —Quantling (talk | contribs) 14:44, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

It is not sufficiently common to appear after the main name, certainly not anywhere near more so than just World Cup, or Football World Cup (also in the hatnote). Verde Hassan (talk) 14:49, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

You have given no evidence other than your say so. Nonetheless, I agree that it is hard to prove a negative, so I sympathize with your plight. I am going to boldly make an edit as a compromise. If that's no good, we can continue the discussion here. —Quantling (talk | contribs) 16:21, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

@Champion Would you explain your edit summary "redundant hatnote for target is the same"? The target is "FIFA World Cup" and the redirects are from "Football World Cup" and "FIFA Men's World Cup". Thank you —Quantling (talk | contribs) 12:18, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

association football world cups already redirects to the same page, hence the other hatnote seemed redundant. - CHAMPION ^{(talk) (contributions) (logs)} 12:28, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

I am confused by your response. When I click on the link you provide, association football world cups, it redirects me to List of world cups § Association football (soccer). In contrast Football World Cup and FIFA Men's World Cup redirect to FIFA World Cup. How does the the redirect for association football world cups make the redirects for Football World Cup and FIFA Men's World Cup redundant. —Quantling (talk | contribs) 16:48, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

The hatnote I removed linked to List of world cups#Football - CHAMPION ^{(talk) (contributions) (logs)} 02:41, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

Other info about World Cup and it’s origins

FIFA soccer w ~2026-38067-21 (talk) 20:19, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

Most world cup appearances

Please add Mexican goalie Ochoa to now three players to have played in 6 world cups. ~2026-38360-92 (talk) 21:28, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

According to the List of players who have appeared in the most FIFA World Cups#Tournaments, Ochoa has appeared in six but only played in four so as a sort of compromise I added a note explaining this rather than adding him (because that section does indeed say "played" not "appeared"). Lowbackgroundsteel (talk) 03:47, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

Inconsistencies in "Teams reaching top four" table

I noticed that some countries in the table here are named inconsistently. "Russia" and "Serbia" incorporate the (only relevant) results of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, even though they haven't reached the top four during the time period they are named Russia and Serbia respectively. Czechoslovakia, in the same situation, is not renamed to Czech Republic or Slovakia. This is inconsistent. Germany is understandable, they have been in the top four as multiple different countries. However, Russia and Serbia should be changed to Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, or Czechoslovakia should be changed to either Czech Republic or Slovakia. The only reason I can think of for it being like this is if the football associations of Soviet Union and Yugoslavia morphed into that of Russia and Serbia, while the Czechoslovakia association was dissolved. Even then, I wonder whether this is desirable. Wikidrinker (talk) 16:27, 12 July 2026 (UTC)

The Czech Republic and Slovakia jointly requested that UEFA treat their historical results as shared. As a result, Slovakia was added to UEFA's all-time champions table, even though the Czech Republic had originally inherited Czechoslovakia's records, just as Russia inherited the Soviet Union's records and Serbia inherited those of Yugoslavia. As far as I know, FIFA still recognizes the Czech Republic as the successor to Czechoslovakia's football records. However, it is quite possible that FIFA will eventually adopt the same approach as UEFA and recognize those achievements as shared between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. SerdarBar (talk) 16:07, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

Seems to me the simplest way to do it is avoid successors if possible, and seeing as neither the Czechoslovak, Yugoslav or Soviet succesors have reached the top 4 after their dissolution there's no reason to include the successor state(s) instead of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union themselves. Put another way, "includes results representing Nation X" when Nation X is the entirety of the results seems silly. SailingHobbit (talk) 23:15, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

That's exactly why there's a footnote above the name. It's the official position of UEFA and FIFA. For some similar sports projects (such as FIBA), I was told that Wikipedia follows the official positions of the governing bodies. As far as I'm concerned, everything is fine as long as there's a logical explanation, rather than simply listing the name of a country that never actually achieved that result. SerdarBar (talk) 13:03, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

FIFA World Cup Hosts Map: Crimea shown as Russia in error

The map showing the occurrences of FIFA World Cup Hosts (FIFA World Cup#/map/0) shows Crimea included in the boundaries of Russia when that is incorrect and it is still internationally recognised as Ukraine. It is also inconsistent with another map on the page (FIFA World Cup#/media/File:FIFA World Cup best results.svg). Ismoody (talk) 05:14, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

I replaced it with the previous map, where Crimea is not labelled as part of Russia. I think the new map type may have advantages, but it will have to be corrected before it's added back. Sakkura (talk) 13:30, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

FIFA map showing Crimea as part of Russia - please check

Why is Crimea in this map shown as part of Crimea? This is wrong, as Crimea is an internationally recognized part of Ukraine. ~2026-40117-83 (talk) 05:19, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

Remove Map showing Crimea as part of Russia

Crimea is Ukrainian and not recognized as part of Russia. The map should be representative of the host country’s actual legal boundaries. ~2026-40191-87 (talk) 08:55, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

Billions

Hello! This sentence is near the end of the lead:

"The World Cup is globally regarded as the most prestigious association football competition, as well as the most widely viewed and followed sporting and cultural event in the world."

Two of the citations for that sentence have quotes. They read, in part:

"...the estimated cumulative television audience for the 2006 World Cup in Germany was 26.2 billion..."

"...In 2006, more than 30 billion viewers in 214 countries watched the World Cup..."

How can 26-30 billion viewers watch, when the planet only has 8 billion people? OrdinaryOtter (talk) 15:00, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi, its cumulative, so if the same person watches it 10 times, its counted 10 times, thanks! ItsMeGabeProductions (talk) 08:42, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 July 2026

Spain just won CrunchLabs (talk) 21:50, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

Already done Article has already been updated. Day Creature (talk) 23:20, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

French Flag

The French flag should be the same throughout. The brighter 1976 version were merely a "variant" - the darker one was always official and when this version was restored as the "primary" version in 2020, it retroactively applied to all periods. Schrodingers fish (talk) 02:40, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

@PizzaKing13: You made this change in 2022; comments? BilledMammal (talk) 02:48, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

World Cup History

Morocco lost the first 2026 quarter final to France. They are excluded from the list of teams making quarter finals or better post 1982, & 2026 is incorrectly listed as having only South American & European quarter finalists. ~2026-40815-26 (talk) 16:01, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

 Done Miria~01 (talk) 18:18, 21 July 2026 (UTC)