[c
They've done it! Canada is going to the World Cup.
[Abigail] With Canada playing in their first World Cup
match in 36 years, it's the perfect time for...
KN explains the FIFA World Cup.
Let's start with the basics.
Bring in the chalkboard.
The FIFA World Cup is the biggest soccer
tournament in the world.
FIFA is the organization that oversees most
of international soccer and puts on the tournament.
Teams from nations from around the globe come
together to compete for this gold trophy.
FIFA currently recognizes 211 national
teams and qualifications
for the cup starts up to three years in advance.
There are six regions that all compete
to qualify called continental zones.
Each zone is given a certain number of spots
in the tournament called berths.
These guarantee that teams from all over the world
will be able to compete.
The host automatically gets a spot in the tournament.
For this year's tournament in Qatar,
32 teams are competing and for the first time
since 1986, Canada is one of them.
5 billion people are expected to tune in.
So, yeah, it's a big deal.
The first World Cup was in 1930 in Uruguay.
13 teams competed.
It took a break for World War II,
but it's gone on every four years since 1950.
The tournament was created to spread
the sport of soccer around the world.
Today, soccer, which is known as
football outside of North America,
is one of the most popular sports in the world.
There's no continent, I think, in which the World Cup
in particular isn't watched.
♪ This time for Africa ♪
I think FIFA's ideal view of itself is that soccer,
the world game, stands above politics.
The World Cup has huge political importance,
I would say.
Sport is often used by countries as a very important
means of soft power, basically as a way to make
the country look better on the world stage.
Picture this.
In 1954, the World Cup final was
West Germany versus Hungary.
Hungary was favoured to win, but West Germany won.
[cheers]
That was a big deal for a country that
was still recovering from losing World War II.
The players went home as national heroes,
and it created a new sense of pride for their nation.
Fast forward to 2005, when Ivory Coast beat Sudan
to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
The win, and a speech made by star
player Didier Drogba, is credited to helping bring
an end to Civil War in their country.
And those are just two of many examples.
1954 was the first time the tournament was
on television, and it reached new heights in the 1970s
with the introduction of colour TV.
[commentator] They score!
It means the World Cup can be watched anywhere
and any time as well.
That can mean watching from home,
in pubs, or at big public viewings.
The World Cup is a community event
with victory celebrations flooding into the streets.
[chants, cheering]
The World Cup's global popularity
also comes with a lot of criticism.
For one, FIFA as an organization
has a long history of corruption.
And certain decisions have been questioned,
like holding this year's tournament in Qatar.
It's not the first time the event has been
held in a country that's known for brutal
human rights violations.
It was a really rather violent political regime in charge
of Argentina at the time, and questions were asked then.
You know, shouldn't FIFA and other
organizations take note of what is happening here?
And that's just scratching the surface
of FIFA World Cup-related controversy.
Like in 2015, when there was a big corruption scandal.
It centred around bribery and fraud.
Most of FIFA's leadership was removed from office.
Some of them were sent to prison,
and most of them were barred for life from
having any office in soccer again.
Despite all its problems, which are not small,
the World Cup is only set to grow in size and influence.
So what's next?
In 2026, the men's tournament is heading to North America.
For the first time, three countries will co-host the cup
and Canada is one of them along with the US and Mexico.
Well, that's it for KN explains.
I'm Abigail Dove, and I'll see you later.