Interesting facts about the World Cup
This summer sees the 20th World Cup take place for the second time in the spiritual home of football, Brazil. 32 teams from around the globe will battle it out in an attempt to win the coveted FIFA World Cup trophy. We’ve compiled some interesting facets of information that some football fans may not be aware of and lots of vital facts (and surprises!) in this article.
Social Media
The emergence of the importance of social media has not gone unnoticed since the previous world cup. Outspoken players, managers, fans and board members have been venting frustrations and opinions across the globe. Some interesting facts about social media during this world cup:-
- The 2010 World Cup final represented the largest period of sustained activity for an event in Twitter’s history
- Throughout the final match in 2010, tweets-per-second (TPS) were much higher than average; during the game’s final 15 minutes, this jumped to more than 2,000 TPS. (Spain’s winning goal in the final scored a 3,051 TPS.)
- During the final, people from 172 countries tweeted in 27 different languages.
- At the moment of the winning goal, people from 81 countries tweeted in 23 different languages.
- Before this year’s competition has begun, it already had more social mentions than any Super Bowl or Olympic Games.
- Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the footballer who has the most followers on social media with 76.4m on Facebook and 25.1m on Twitter. Neymer is currently in second place with Wayne Rooney in third.
- Currently 1 out of every 10 Brazilians Tweet.
Put simply, the world’s biggest social media event is coming to the one of the world’s most social media-mad countries. Little wonder that the 2014 World Cup is predicted to break records on social media.
The Stadiums
No World Cup would be complete without the large and impressive stadiums that host each match, and Brazil 2014 is no different.
- Brazil currently has 12 stadiums constructed for this year’s tournament with each stadium having undergone major reconstruction or a complete rebuilding process.
- The average capacity for all 12 stadiums is 49,896 seats.
- Maracana Stadium is the largest with 71,159 seats and the Arena de Baixada is the smallest with 37,634 seats.
- 5.33 is the average number of matches per stadium.
- The back of the East stand in the Arena de Sao Paolo is a system of blinds with 3,100sq metres of LED screen integrated into it so spectators outside the ground can watch the match.
General Facts
- This is the first World Cup to use Goal-Line Technology.
- This is the first World cup where “water breaks” will be used during the match due to the high temperatures.
- For the first time at a World Cup, referees will use a spray on the grass to show exactly where they wish the wall to remain during a free kick.
- The World Cup has been held every four years since 1930 with the exception of 1942 and 1946, when it was cancelled because of World War II
- To date, only South American teams have won World Cups held in South America.
- The total number of goals has decreased progressively at each World Cup since the 1998 tournament in France – Are defenders getting better?
World Cup | Total No. of Goals | |
South Africa 2010 | 145 | |
Germany 2006 | 147 | |
Japan/ South Korea 2002 | 161 | |
France 1998 | 171 |
- Unlike the dreaded “vuvuzela” used at the 2010 World Cup, the official noisemaker in Brazil, known as the “Caxirola” is actually banned from inside all 12 stadiums in Brazil.
So we at Metrifit hope this list of interesting facts will come in handy at any pub quizzes you may partake in during this summer’s World Cup! It promises to be a fantastic tournament under the sun in Brazil, we can’t wait.
About Metrifit
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Emma Hawke, PhD Exercise Physiology
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