World cup

 ( Sports Terminology ) 

A world cup is a global competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is the FIFA World Cup for association football, which dates back to 1930. Since then there have been a number of sporting events labeled "world cup", such as the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, the Rugby World Cup, Rugby League World Cup, and the Hockey World Cup.

A world cup is generally, though not always, considered the premier competition in its sport, with the victor attaining the highest honour in that sport and being able to lay claim to the title of their sport's best. However, in some sports the Olympic Games title carries at least as much prestige, while other sports such as diving and artistic gymnastics differentiate between their premier competitions, such as World Championships and Olympic Games, and their "World Cup", which is organized as a smaller scale but high-level showcase event with small elite fields.

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Differences between world cup and world championships Some sports governing bodies prefer the title "world championship" or a related term; some even organize both a world cup and a world championship with different rules. Usually, such competitions take one of two forms: a short periodic competition or a year-long series of meetings, but more frequently many sports have both a World Cup (usually consisting of multiple events in a season), and a world championship (usually a single event). Some examples are in the following table.

FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
World Archery Championships
World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
Biathlon World Championships
World Athletics Championships
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships
World Curling Championships
Cricket	Cricket World Cup, T20 World Cup	World Test Championship
UCI World Championships
FINA World Aquatics Championships
Fencing World Championships
FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships
FIL World Luge Championships
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships
World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships
World Speed Skating Championships
FIVB Volleyball World Championship

A periodic world cup or world championship usually takes the form of a knockout tournament (possibly with an initial group stage). This is held over a number of days or weeks, with the entrants eventually being whittled down to two, and the tournament culminating in a world cup final. The winner(s) take the title of World Champion(s) and hold it until the next time the event is held (usually one, two, or four years later). This format is most common in team sport. In individual sports however, holding the title can vary in terms of duration, as it is dependent on the timing of the next scheduled individual contest between the defending champion and a challenger.

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Season-long format A contrasting concept, popular in individual sports, is a year-long competition with several meetings over its course. In this format, victory at an individual meeting earns a number of points, and, usually, a number of positions below also score points inversely related to their position. Contestants accumulate a number of points over the course of the year (often "season") and their cumulative total after all meetings have been concluded determines the World Champion or, simply, World Cup winner. The winner is then considered the champion until the next World Cup.

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See also

• List of world sports championships, including those styled as "World Cups"
• World Cup (disambiguation)
• World Series (disambiguation)

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