ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the FIFA World Cup as well as the FIFA Women's World Cup competitions are structured and organised, along with how they have changed over the years. It provides an overview on competition format and seeding systems for the World Cup Final competition, as well as an emphasis on the Qualifying tournaments for each of the six FIFA confederations. In Africa, both the number of participating nations in the Qualifiers and the number of representatives for the Finals have increased considerably during recent years. Like in Africa, the number of participating nations from Asia in the Qualifiers and the representatives in the Finals have increased considerably during recent years. The FIFA World Cup tournament began in 1930 and the format and scheduling of the Finals have changed many times throughout the history of the mega-event. It examines the historical evolution of the structure, organisation, and format of the Men's and Women's FIFA World Cup Finals and Qualifiers.
