The World Cup

The World cup is one of the world's most prized sport trophies. It is only given out every four years, and to win it, a team has to have especially talented players who work well together. In 1998, France hosted the world cup competition; and were also the champions, after defeating Brazil three to nothing.

The world cup, originally called the Jules Rimet cup, was first organised by FIFA in 1930. Uruguay, as well as being the host country, were the champions. The original trophy was designed by the French artist Abel La Fleur. It depicted the goddess of victory, standing on a pedestal. In her outstretched arms she held a gold cup in the shape of an octagon.

In 1966, the cup was stolen from an exhibition in England. Even with many detectives and police searching, it took the nose of a dog to finally recover the stolen trophy from a trash pile. Four years later, FIFA retired the cup and presented it to the Brazilian team, the team which had won the most world cup championships, with a total of three, at the time. In 1983, the trophy was again stolen and was never recovered. It is suspected that it was probably melted by the thieves. A replica was then made to replace it.

The present trophy was designed by Italian artist Silvio Gazzanniga. To prevent any further thefts of the precious cup, FIFA keeps it in their possession at all times, awarding a replica to the winning team each year.

Here is a little quiz to see what you learned. (Always start with a captial, and for question number 2 write the letter only.)

1. What country was the first to win the world cup? = .........................scorer's comment--->

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2. In what year was the world cup first organised? =
(A) 1930
(B) 1937
(C) 1940
............................scorer's comment--->

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3. In what year was the Jules Rimet cup first stolen? : ........your answer is--->

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Here is a link to A Geocities soccer site
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Created and last updated April 7, 2000 by Jesse