The FIFA World Cup Quiz — 10 Free Questions

Question 1

Which Argentine captain, at the 1986 tournament in Mexico, scored both the most notorious and the most admired goals in World Cup history within four minutes of each other, punching one in past the England goalkeeper and then dribbling past half the team for the other?

Question 2

What name was given to a bad-tempered 2006 last-16 tie between Portugal and the Netherlands, in which the Russian referee Valentin Ivanov showed a record 16 yellow cards and four reds, leaving both teams with nine men?

Question 3

In which match did the hosts win their first World Cup, beating Brazil 3-0, amid lasting mystery over the Brazilian forward Ronaldo, who suffered some kind of fit hours before kick-off, was left off the team sheet, then reinstated and played through the game in a daze?

Question 4

Which edition will be the first with 48 teams and the first hosted by three countries, the United States, Canada and Mexico, spreading 104 matches across 16 cities and finishing with the final in New Jersey?

Question 5

Which tournament was first held in China in 1991, has been won four times by the United States, more than any other nation, and drew record crowds when Australia and New Zealand co-hosted it in 2023, with Spain winning?

Question 6

Which country has won the men's World Cup a record five times, in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002, and is the only nation to have played in every edition of the tournament?

Question 7

Which Brazilian winger, whose legs were bent and of different lengths from a childhood illness, was an unstoppable dribbler who, with Pele injured, effectively won the 1962 tournament by himself, scoring twice in both the quarter-final and the semi-final?

Question 8

What was the name of the much-criticised match ball of the 2010 tournament, which goalkeepers said moved unpredictably in the air and strikers said was hard to strike cleanly, its maker later admitting the flight was affected by its very smooth eight-panel surface?

Question 9

What was the name of the original World Cup trophy, a small gold statuette of a winged victory figure holding an octagonal cup, awarded from 1930 until 1970 and named after the FIFA president who created the tournament?

Question 10

What describes the six nations that have lifted the World Cup on their own soil: Uruguay in 1930, Italy in 1934, England in 1966, West Germany in 1974, Argentina in 1978 and France in 1998?

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About The FIFA World Cup

The World Cup is the most watched sporting event on Earth, a month-long tournament held every four years since 1930, with a break only for the Second World War. This quiz covers the men's competition in eighty questions. Each describes a player, a winning team, a host, a final, a trophy, a rule, a moment or an administrator, and asks you to name it from four choices, then explains what happened, the records and the argument that usually goes with it. Every answer is a single name chosen from four, so nothing turns on remembering exact scores or dates, and the questions are written to be followed whether or not you saw the match.

The first pack is the essentials: the first tournament in Uruguay; the two trophies, the stolen Jules Rimet cup and the current one; FIFA itself; the giants Pele, Maradona and Messi; the most successful nations, Brazil and Germany; the 1950 Maracana defeat; Zidane's two finals; Geoff Hurst's hat-trick; the Golden Boot and Just Fontaine's untouchable 13; England 1966; Miroslav Klose's scoring record; the vuvuzela; the penalty shootout; Kylian Mbappe; and how the format has grown.

The second pack widens out. The other winners, Italy, Argentina, France and Spain. The great finals and matches: the Miracle of Bern, the 1970 and 1974 finals, the shootouts of 1994 and 2006, the Ronaldo redemption of 2002, and Germany's 7-1 demolition of Brazil in 2014. The players: Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Bobby Moore, Puskas, Garrincha, Rossi, Ronaldo, Cafu, Kahn, Lineker, Neymar. The hosts and their stories, from Qatar 2022 back to USA 1994. And the furniture of the modern game: the golden goal, video review, the Adidas ball, the Maracana, the Group of Death, the confederations, the mascot, and the two most cynical matches ever played, the Battle of Santiago and the Disgrace of Gijon.

The third pack is the records and the governance: Jules Rimet and the Hand of God; the FIFA corruption case and the presidents Blatter and Infantino; Lev Yashin and the goalkeeping award; the biggest win, the fastest goal, the oldest player; the women's World Cup; goal-line technology and the vanishing spray; the six hosts who won at home; the 1966 ghost goal; the third-place play-off and the qualifying tournament; the 48-team 2026 edition; and Zaire's chastening debut. Because a photograph of a player, a team or a host stadium almost always gives the answer away, images are used only where a neutral building or object does not, and every figure has been checked. A few common misconceptions get straightened out along the way: that there was no single final match in 1950, only a decisive last group game; that the original trophy was won outright by Brazil and later stolen for good; that only European and South American teams have ever lifted the cup; and that England's disputed 1966 goal has never actually been settled.