Finally, the much anticipated world event have finally come to pass and that’s the 2018 World Cup being hosted by Russsia.
As expected, expectations are high with regards to which team finally leads the greatest sport of all time till the next event in 2022. In the spirit of the moment, 9jaHyper compile a list of 20 obvious things you may not know about the World Cup.
Enjoy…
1. This is the 21st World Cup.
2. 3.2 billion people were estimated to have watched the last World Cup in 2014 and that is obviously half of the number of the people on the planet… Football is something else.
3. Every World Cup have always been won by a team that is led by a coach, who is also the national of that team’s country… I hope this is not a bad omen for the super Eagles.
4. Russia have never won the World Cup neither have they ever made it out of the group stage.
5. Super Eagles first qualification for the World Cup was in 1994.
6. Going by the dates, the quarter finals shall be on July 6 while the semi-finals holds on July 10… I hope by then Nigerians would have know their fate after all the hype.
7. Inasmuch as Russia won Saudi Arabia 5 – 0, The Saudis still ranks above Russsia in FIFA ranking i.e Russsia is at spot 65 while Saudi Arabia is at spot 63.
8. In order to meet up with FIFA 35000 seats capacity, the Ekatering Burg’s stadium (2018 World Cup Stadium) have seats outside it, that’s to say that some people will pay tickets just to watch Televisions there.
9. Referees now have rights to stop and abandon a game if racist and discriminatory incidents occur.
10. Egypt legendary goalkeeper who is aged 45 is the oldest player in this current tournament.
12. This may be the last time you will see some of your favorite players like Luis Suarez (31) and Andreas Iniesta (33).
13. A total of 64 matches will be played in just under a month. Bet9ja don set for Nigerians o.
14. Amazing, Nigeria team have already won a trophy – “The most fashionable team Russsia2018”.
15. The highest score in the qualifiers this year is Qatar 15 – 0 against Bhutan but this is far below Australia 31 – 0 against America Samoa in 2001.
16. The most exciting group is group D comprising of Nigeria, Argentina, Iceland and Croatia. Nigeria sabi slay anywhere sha.
17. India is the only country that qualified without playing a single game. Is this some sort of compensation?
18. Anyways the reason for the above is because in 1950, India withdrew from the World Cup after qualifying because FIFA refused their team playing bare-footed. Let us see them play bare-footed against the likes of Messi and Ronaldo now.
19. According to Google statistics, people are interested in Kim Kardashian just the way people are now interested in the World Cup.
20. Zimbabwe was supposed to qualify from Africa for the World Cup but was expelled after refusing to pay their coach a certain amount of debt. Funny right.
BONUS :
The World Cup trophy is so valuable that only winners and heads of states and governments are allowed to touch it and also, after winning the trophy, FIFA will collect the original and give a fake replica of it to the winners months later.
Drop Your Thoughts Below…