Wednesday 16 November 2016

          How do the qualifications to the World Cup work in
 each continent?


          The World Cup qualifiers is the process realized before each World Cup to choose the teams that are going to make part of the tournament.
It's been organized by FIFA  since 1930  and the qualification system has changed through the time because of the increase of the teams that have joined FIFA during the years.
At the moment 209 teams are trying to qualify for the 2018 Russia World Cup, while in the first World Cup (1930 in Uruguay) only 13 teams participated because they were the only members of FIFA. 

  • Qualification system of UEFA (Europe):
           The qualification system of the UEFA is divided in two rounds.
In the first round the teams are divided randomly in 9 different groups of 6 teams. Each team has to play two matches against each team of their group, one at home and the other one away.

Points system:
  • UEFA Confederación.svg
  • If a team wins a match it wins 3 points
  • If it draws it wins 1 point
  • If the team loses it gets no points
After playing all the matches, the team with most points is directly qualified for the World Cup, while the eight 2nd best teams of each group have to play a second round.
The 8 teams are divided in 4 elimination group's in which they have to play a away and a home game. the winners of each group get's qualified. 



  • Qualification system of CONCACAF (North & Central America and Caribbean)
           The CONCACAF qualification system has three different rounds。

The first round is a small tournament of three rounds have teams play home-and-away over two legs. A first preliminary round involved the 14 lowest ranked teams and the seven winners advanced to the second round. The 13 higher ranked sides received byes in the second round and were joined by the seven first round winners; the ten winners advanced to the third round. Two higher ranked teams received byes in the third round and were joined by ten second round winners; the six winners advanced to the preliminary group stage.
Resultado de imagen de CONCACAF pictures
The remaining 12 teams play in 3 semifinal groups of 4 teams with the top two in each group advancing to a final six-team group.

The final round – often referred to as the "hexagonal" because there are six teams involved – will see the top three teams advance to the World Cup finals, while the fourth placed side will enter an inter-confederation play-off for a final World Cup spot.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          b

    Resultado de imagen de CONmebol pictures
  • Qualification system of CONMEBOL (South America):
           The CONMEBOL qualification system is the simplest of all. It only consist of a single group in which all the teams of the confederation are part of .
All the teams have to play a home and a away game against all the other participants. The points system is the same that is used by UEFA. 
The four best teams are directly qualified, while the fifth placed team will enter an inter-confederation play-off for a World Cup spot.
Resultado de imagen de CAF pictures

  • Qualification system of CAF (Africa):
           The CAF qualification system starts with two preliminary rounds (to narrow the distance of 53 teams to 20)
After the preliminary rounds are finished the teams are divided in 5 different groups of 4,and only the  group winners are qualified。 
                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Resultado de imagen de AFC pictures
  • Qualification system of AFC
           The qualification system of the AFC have to do 4 different rounds: 
            

  • First round: A total of 12 teams (teams ranked 35–46) will play home-and-away over two legs The six winners will advance to the second round。
  • Second round: A total of 40 teams (teams ranked 1–34 and six first round winners) will be divided into eight groups of five teams to play home-and-away matches. The eight group winners and the four best group runners-up will advance to the third round.
  • Third round: The 12 teams which advance from the second round will be divided into two groups of six teams to play home-and-away matches. The top two teams of each group will qualify, and the two third-placed teams will advance to the fourth round.
  • Fourth round: The two third-placed teams of each group from the third round will play home-and-away over two legs. The winner will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Resultado de imagen de OFC pictures
  • Qualification system of OFC(Oceania)
            The qualification system of OFC has 4 rounds:
  • First round: the four lowest countries in the FIFA ranking will play a tournament at a single country. The winner will advance to the second round.
  • Second round (OFC Nations Cup): A total of eight teams, and the first round winner) will play the tournament at a single country. For the group stage, they will be divided into two groups of four teams. The top three teams of each group will advance to the third round of World Cup qualifying. The top two teams of each group will also advance to the knockout stage (semi-finals and final) to decide the OFC winner。
  • Third round: The six teams which advance from the second round will be divided into two groups of three teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The two group winners will meet in a two-legged match with the winner advancing to the inter-confederation play-offs。

Monday 14 November 2016


Why is football also called the beautiful game?

          
The exact origins of the term are disputed. The origin has been attributed to Brazilian footballer Waldyr  Pereira (Didi), and the presenter Stuart Hall claimed to have originated it in 1958.
But the really famous player Pelé is attributed to associate it to football by using it as the title of his autobiography.

  • The beautiful game is the nickname that Pegave to football in his autobiography "My Life and the Beautiful Game." in Portuguese it's sais 'Jogo bonito' and it's the original way of saying it.
  • Jogo bonito has been used as the moto of the 2014 Brazil World Cup. That is the reason that why most of the people recognize football as the beautiful game and the most popular sport in the world.
Resultado de imagen de pele and the beautiful game
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZUh2Cn6aL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Monday 24 October 2016

The Origins of Football and codes.





  •               Football started as different codes around the world but specially in the Britanic Islands. Some examples of this codes were the carnival football, but it was baned because of it's violence. Another version of the carnival footall was the "calico florentino" from Florence wich rules are the closest one to the modern day football with a more violent twist in term of rules and the environment caused by the  spectators. 
Representation of thr Florentine footall
. (image taken from Wikipedia)
              
               But codes weren't only found in Europe but in China with a game called "cuju". Acordimg to FIFA cuju is the oldest form of football ( 3rd-2nd century). It's been proven by scientific resech that the participants could use any part of their body apart from their handas and had to score through a open space of a net ( wich in modern football it would be the goal).


  •        That's enough talk about old versions of football, let's talk about how did the modern day football started.
                  The fist attempt to create football as we know it now was the introduction of the "Cambridge rules" in 1856. The rules were simple:
  1.    The players couldn't touch the football with their hand.
  2.    To score point's the ball had to pas through a goal made of 2 posts and below a string.
  3.    Even the rule of the "off side" was created.
  4.    The team to score more goals would win.
                   But it didn't take long until new rules were added, in fact just the year after the                 " Cambridge rules" were introduced the "Sheffield code" made their appearance, adding rules that are still used in the modern day football such as:
  1. Free kicks were introduced after fouls.
  2. Corners kicks were given to the attacking team, if the defender was the last player to touch the ball if it went over the line at the side of the goal.
  3. Throw-ins were given to the  opposite team of the last player to touch the ball before it went over the side line.
  4. The crossbar was changed from a string to a metal bar like the other two posts.




This rules that were created between 1856 and the 1870's have been the origin of the football that we all now, even if football has improved with technology during the last years, football would of never be the same with out the Cambridge and the Sheffield codes. 





                 

Thursday 6 October 2016

Hola , my name is Pablo Gulmanelli, and this is my first ever blog which I'm creating for my environmental studies class in my TY year in Ireland.
I'm going to write about football facts. ; )