FIFA has organized 20 World Cups. Eight different teams have won this title. Among them Brazil has won five times, Germany and Italy 4 times, Argentina and Uruguay two times winners. England, France and Spain are one time winners of the FIFA World Cup. In early days only 24 teams were the participants. By the time football become a popular game. Now 32 teams from all over the World have been selected for the final rounds.
Round of 16:
The knock out stages starts from this round.In the groups there are 32 teams. All teams play matches with each team and from each group 2 teams are selected. From these 32 teams which consist of groups are further shortened to 16 teams. This round of sixteen is very tough. The winning teams of each group will play matches with the winning teams of other group. For the decision making of draw match, tie breaks are used.
Quarter-finals:
Round of sixteen results shortened the number of teams who participated in the World Cup. Only 8 teams left for the quarter-finals.Total four quarter-finals are held to take top teams.
Semi-finals:
In this stage the teams selected form the Quarter-finals will play each other Semi-finals. From 8 teams only 4 left. Two Semi-finals will be arranged to get 2 teams for the final match. This is the last round before final.
Final:
This is the grand final which will decided the fate of the winning team. The team would be the World Champion and winner of all stages of this tournament.For the draw match extra 30 minutes are given to score decisive goal. If this extra time ends on tie,penalty kicks are used. These are called penalty shoot-out. The team who do more goals on shoot-out would win the match. The team who loses the match is called Runners-up.