Football on the Highest Level

Football or soccer is a team sport played between two teams with the primary objective to get the ball behind the net of the opposition's goal. It is a widely known, loved and appreciated sport. It is the sport with the most spectators in the world with about 3.5 billion fans worldwide. 

Football is played on different levels in leagues and tournaments either with national teams or clubs in different countries whether male or female. The highest governing body of the game is the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). There are different leagues involving clubs from the same country like the EPL, La Liga and Bundesliga. There is also a tournament of Champions involving the highest ranked teams for the year in each country's league example the UEFA Champions League for clubs from European countries and AFCON for clubs from African countries. These leagues are very keenly contested and offer both entertainment and value to the players, coaches, spectators and indeed all football fans.

The highest level of competitive football however is arguably the FIFA World Cup. The tournament holds every four years since its inauguration in 1930. It has been cancelled only twice in 1942 and 1946 due to World War II. Only 8 countries have ever won the World Cup including Brazil, Italy, and Germany,  Argentina, France, Uruguay, England and Spain. It is indeed a prestigious tournament as only very few players - even the greats get the honor of lifting its trophy during their careers. The competition has seen and has birthed the rise of many footballing greats including Pele, Diego Maradonna, Franz Beckenbauer, Romario, Ronaldo de Lima, Zinedine Zidane, and more recently Wesley Sneijder, Miroslav Klose, Michael Owen, Antoine Griezmann, Thomas Muller and Kylian Mbappé.

This year is another World Cup year and it is set to hold in Qatar. The world is already in a buzz about the iconic event. Fans from all over the world have already booked flights to Qatar to go see and cheer their nations on. There's already a lot of excitement in the atmosphere and a huge sense of expectations as the start of the tournament in Qatar is already looming. However, it is a sad story for some big footballing nations as they have failed to qualify for this year's edition.  Notable absentees include Italy, 4 time Champions and current European Champions, Sweden, Nigeria and Egypt, birthplace of Liverpool star, Mohammed Salah.