by Ian Farquharson

Created on: November 19, 2009   Last Updated: June 24, 2010

With the group stages of the 2010 World Cup almost complete, a number of countries have now confirmed their place in the knock out stages of the tournament. There are still a few groups to be decided although many of the previous winners of the tournament such as Argentina, Germany and England have made their way safely through to the knock out stages. In history the World Cup winners have either come from South America and Europe and looking to history may give us an idea of who will triumph in 2010.

The World cup has been in existence since 1930 and is played every 4 years. In this time a total of 18 tournaments have been played. During this time the two major football continents, South America and Europe have dominated the competition with the seven countries which have been victorious coming from these. The seven countries include Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina from South America and the European winners are England, Italy, Germany and France.

The majority of the tournaments played have also been located in South America or Europe and only on a couple of occasions, 1994 in America and 2002 in Japan & South Korea, has the tournament moved to another continent. With the 2010 finals being played on the African continent for the first time, this will be the third time the tournament has been played away from the traditional European and South American football locations.

When looking back into history at the past winners of the tournament the general rule of thumb was that if the finals were played in Europe, a European country would win with South American countries winning when the finals were played on their continent. This has held true in all World Cups bar one when Brazil bucked the trend by winning the 1958 finals which were held in Sweden, Europe.

However with the 2010 finals being played in South Africa, this trend gives no clues to the eventual winner. It therefore pays to look at the two tournaments that have been played outside Europe and South America. In 1994, Brazil won the tournament when it was held in America and they also triumphed in the 2002 finals which were held in Japan & South Korea. Maybe this provides a clue to the eventual winner.

Looking into history, although interesting, does not really provide conclusive evidence of a winner and a look at the top teams in the world may provide a better case for a winner. Brazil generally enters the World Cup finals considered the favorites and this will probably be the case in 2010. There

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