Soccer tournament
Football tournaments are competitions in which more than two football teams come together in one place or in a country in order to play out a tournament winner (in a comparatively short time). They are to be distinguished from football competitions that are held locally and over a longer period of time (e.g. league rounds as part of national championships).
National, regional, continental and global tournaments can be differentiated according to the origin of the participating teams. A distinction is also possible according to whether club, national or other teams or men's or women's teams participate in a tournament. There are also special tournaments for teams whose players have not yet reached a certain age (U ... selections) and for amateur teams.
Club teams (especially from the professional sector) often use soccer tournaments as part of their preparation for a new season.
With a few exceptions, international football tournaments organized by football associations are mostly organized for national teams. An example of a global club tournament is the FIFA Club World Cup .
In the majority of cases, soccer tournaments are held repeatedly.
Formats of football tournaments
Football tournaments are conducted in formats that are common in other sports . For example, according to the knockout system , which provides for the elimination of losing teams. Or according to a league system according to which each team involved has to compete once against each other team (e.g. a group). Formats that allow two teams to play back and forth are just as uncommon in football tournaments as the so-called best-of mode, in which two teams compete against each other more than twice and the majority of the games won are decisive. A combination of a phase carried out according to the league system and a subsequent knockout phase is common, especially with larger fields of participants.
In many cases the tournament is preceded by a qualification phase in which the right to participate in the tournament is played out. According to the language used by the organizer, the terms preliminary round (qualification phase) and final round (tournament) are often used in this context.
Different tournaments at the continental level serve several purposes. For example, in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, not only is the champion of the CONCACAF zone determined, but this tournament also functions as a qualifying tournament for the Copa America .
Special features of the knockout system
In games played according to the knockout system, the losing team is eliminated from the tournament. Today it is common practice that such games, if no team is in the lead after extra time , are decided by penalty shoot-outs . Until the end of the sixties of the 20th century, however, a completely unknown measure. In this case, the teams involved were asked to go out onto the pitch a second time in order to make a decision within another 90 minutes. At the soccer World Cup in 1934 , for example , 11 Italians and 11 Spaniards were mostly so exhausted after 120 minutes under the scorching sun that a total of 12 new players had to be deployed. Even so, it was almost 50 years after this memorable event before FIFA was able to bring itself to the decision of the 1970 World Cup to leave the decision to penalties.
Major tournaments for national teams
The most famous and important soccer tournaments for national teams are:
Worldwide
- Football World Cup (since 1930)
- Confederations Cup (since 1997 or as King Fahd Cup since 1992)
- Olympic football tournament (since 1900 or 1908)
- Football Women's World Cup (since 1991)
- Women's Olympic Football Tournament (since 1996)
Europe
South America
- Copa América (since 1916); partly with participants from North / Central America and the Caribbean zone
Africa
- African Championship (since 1957)
Asia
- Asian Cup (since 1956)
North / Central America and the Caribbean
- CONCACAF Gold Cup (since 1963); partly with participants from South America
Oceania
- OFC Nations Cup (since 1973)
In addition, football tournaments are also held as part of qualification for the football World Cup. In this type of competition, for example, the first two phases of the Oceania qualification for the 2006 World Cup , which also represent phases of the OFC Nations Cup.
World Cup tournament formats
In most cases, the finals of the soccer world championships were carried out in the form of a combination of a phase based on the league system and a subsequent knockout phase.
This has been deviated from at the following World Cup tournaments, partly due to the increase in the field of participants:
- 1934 (16 participants): Exclusively games according to the knockout system - tournament begins with the round of 16
- 1938 (16 participants): Exclusively games according to the knockout system - tournament begins with the round of 16
- 1950 (15 participants): Second phase after the league system - group winner is world champion - therefore no final
- 1954 (16 participants): In the first round, 2 seeded teams against 2 unseeded teams had to compete in each group (= 2 games per team)
- 1974 and 1978 (16 participants each): Second phase according to the league system (2 groups with 4 teams each) - winners of both groups play the final, second-placed players play for third place
- 1982 (24 participants): Second phase according to the league system (4 groups with 3 teams each) - group winners are in the semi-finals
