World Cup History

Football is recognised as the greatest sport in the world and the pinnacle of the sport has been the World Cup Finals since 1930. Born of an idea from a group of French football administrators, led by Jules Rimet, the finals bring together the best national teams in the world every four years to compete for the ultimate prize, to be crowned the best in the world.

The original trophy for the tournament was named after Jules Rimet and was contested for during the 1930s until the Second World War took over everyones lives and the competition was put on hold for 12 years. From 1958 when the World Cup was able to resume it has developed to become one the most important sporting events ever seen.

There have been 16 finals so far and because of the dominance of some national teams the trophy has been lifted by only 7 different winners. Most notable of these teams is Brazil whose ability to produce world class players and world class squads has led them to 5 trophies, and they permanently hold the Jules Rimet cup following their third win in Mexico 1970. The finals have also given the people around the world the chance to see some of the legends of football in action - Pele, Eusebio, Bobby Moore, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Maradona, and more.

The World Cup sets the scene for some of the most thrilling games, amazing football skills and spectacular goals, and is relished by a worldwide audience numbering in the billions. 2006 in Germany could be one of the best World Cup finals yet with the top nations coming to the finals with highly competitive squads, and the previously disregarded nations ready to prove that world football has advanced so that all can challenge with the best.

World Cup: The Complete History | £12.90
Buy World Cup: The Complete History
Four years ago, the first edition of Aurum's World cup history was a commercial success: the first book into the market, to give a truly encyclopaedic guide to the premier football tournament. Now it is republished in a fully updated edition in good time for the finals of 2006. The book is notable for its remarkable comprehensiveness. It features: a separate chapter for every competition; every single result of every match; every single player in every team; and a detailed round-up of the entire progress of each tournament. For this new edition there is a completely new chapter on the 2002 competition, and also a further section detailing all the results in the qualifying phase for the 2006 tournament.

Football In Sun And Shadow | £6.39
Buy Football In Sun And Shadow
To the pure football fan even winning and losing is of secondary importance to those moments when a glimpse is afforded of footballing perfection, made more perfect still by the long and unpredictable hours spent waiting for it, and often the parade of tragicomic errors that has preceeded it. Such instances, of exultation and despair, are recounted in this book, a parade of all shades of international football. Beckenbaur, Yashin and Zico are here with their balletic dazzle. Here too are the tragic Escobar, guilty of an own goal for Colombia and gunned down in the streets of Medellin as a consequence; and the Dynamo Kiev team who, although warned not to win a game against the Nazis could not resist the temptation on the football pitch to overrun their oppressors: all eleven were shot in their Kiev shirts after the "game".