FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup is a global association football (soccer) tournament held every four years since 1930 (except during the Second World War). Its scale as a global sporting event is challenged only by the Olympics.

In the current form, the final tournament is contested by 32 nations who, with the exception of the host nation, are required to qualify by beating others from their region in a preliminary tournament. The current holders of the World Cup are Spain, who beat the Netherlands in the 2010 final in South Africa. Brazil currently holds the record for most wins, with 5. The United States has never won the competition but reached third place in the first edition. The United States also reached the Round of 16 in the most recent iteration of the tournament.

Tournament Winners

Year	Location	Winner
1930	Uruguay	Uruguay
1934	Italy	Italy
1938	France	Italy
1942	(No tournament)	(No tournament)
1946	(No tournament)	(No tournament)
1950	Brazil	Uruguay
1954	Swizerland	West Germany
1958	Sweden	Brazil
1962	Chile	Brazil
1966	England	England
1970	Mexico	Brazil
1974	West Germany	West Germany
1978	Argentina	Argentina
1982	Spain	Italy
1986	Mexico	Argentina
1990	Italy	Germany
1994	United States	Brazil
1998	France	France
2002	Japan and South Korea	Brazil
2006	Germany	Italy
2010	South Africa	Spain
2014	Brazil

5	Brazil	1958,1962,1970,1994,2002
4	Italy	1934,1938,1982,2006
3	Germany	1954,1974,1990
2	Argentina	1978,1986
2	Uruguay	1930,1950
1	England	1966
1	France	1998
1	Spain	2010

Gay Marriage and the World Cup

Likely for reasons pointed out by Ann Coulter in a column criticizing how un-American soccer is, the World Cup seems to contradict the well-established theory that countries which legalize gay marriage thereafter witness deterioration in national athletic ability. For instance, Spain legalized gay marriage in 2005, and within three years was rated the #1 team by FIFA, which they have held ever since, winning the World Cup in 2010. The runner-up that year, the Netherlands, had previously legalized gay marriage in 2001. So far, in the 2014 World Cup, of the 16 remaining teams, 6 have legalized gay marriage (Brazil, Netherlands, Uruguay, France, Argentina, and Belgium) as well as the USA, which has seen federal recognition, and legalization for nearly half the population. A further five have some recognition and/or civil unions.The two nations which were the first in the world to legalize the practice, Netherlands in 2001 and Belgium in 2003, are so far undefeated in the 2014 tournament. This does lead one to question the morality of soccer as a sport, when compared to the more competitive, American sports such as football and baseball.