The World Cup trophy, which was named after former FIFA president Jules Rimet, was stolen prior to the 1966 tournament before being found by a dog named Pickles

A World Cup qualifier between Honduras and Salvador in 1969 sparked a four-day war between the two countries. It was called 'the football war'

Ernst Jean-Joseph of Haiti created the first doping scandal in the World Cup as he was suspended in the 1974 tournament after testing positive for a banned substance

Italian keeper Dino Zoff's record of not conceding any goals in 1142 minutes was ended by a goal from Haiti's Emmanuel Sanon in the 1974 World Cup

France defender Laurent Blanc scored the first golden goal in the World Cup, striking home against Paraguay in the 133rd minute in the first knockout round of the 1998 tournament

The 1998 World Cup was the first tournament to feature 32 teams, giving African and Asian countries better chance to qualify for it

The 2002 World Cup quarter-finals featured teams from five different continents for the first time

The Holland-Portugal clash in the 2006 World Cup round of 16 broke the record for cards as Russian referee Valentin Ivanov handed the players 16 yellow cards and four reds

English referee Graham Poll mistakenly booked Croatia's Josip Simunic three times before sending him off in the 2006 World Cup

The World Cup hosts won the tournament six times out of possible 18

Romania-Peru match in the 1930 World Cup witnessed the lowest recorded attendance in the tournament's history

None of the European teams managed to win the World Cup whenever it was staged outside Europe

South Korea and Japan became the first World Cup co-hosts when they hosted the 2002 tournament

Only seven teams won the World Cup: Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina, France, England and Uruguay

The seven World Cup winners represented only two continents: Europe (nine times) and South America (nine times)

Brazil are the only team who never missed the World Cup

Uruguay took a public holiday after its team won the 1930 World Cup on home soil

None of the teams who lost their opening game managed to win the World Cup

Indonesia, under the name Dutch East Indies, became the first Asian team to compete at the World Cup after qualifying for the 1938 tournament

Peru's Mario de Las Casas became the first player to be sent off in the World Cup in a game against Romania in the 1930 tournament

Two balls were used in the 1930 World Cup final, one picked by Argentina and the other picked by Uruguay

Luis Monti was the only player to play with two teams in the World Cup - Argentina in 1930 and Italy in 1934

Austria withdrew from the 1938 World Cup due to its annexation by Germany

The Italian team received a telegram from dictator Benito Mussolini before the 1938 World Cup final that read: "win or die"

FIFA announced that, from 1950, the World Cup trophy would in the future be known as the Jules Rimet Cup

Yugoslavia started their 1950 World Cup match against Brazil with 10 players after Rajko Mitic hurt his head before the match

The Brazil-Hungary clash in the 1954 World Cup quarter final, which became known as the 'Battle of Berne', witnessed some ugly scenes that included fisticuffs and three red cards

Korean goalkeeper Hong Duk-Yung conceded 16 goals in two matches in the 1954 World Cup

Fritz and Ottmar Walter of West Germany became the first brothers in a winning World Cup side after their side won the tournament in 1954

Hungary had a run of 29 unbeaten matches before losing to Germany in the 1954 World Cup final

France's Juste Fontaine holds the record number of goals scored in one World Cup with 13 goals registered in the 1958 tournament

The four countries of the United Kingdom - England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - reached the 1958 World Cup

Argentina were pelted with rubbish on their return home after finishing bottom of their group in the 1958 World Cup

Brazil's Garrincha was sent off in the 1962 World Cup semi final against Chile but still played in the final against Czechoslovakia

Chile were hit by a massive earthquake two years before hosting the World Cup in 1962

Sixteen African nations boycotted the 1966 World Cup in protest at a ruling that required the champion team from the African zone to enter a play-off round against the winners of either the Asian or the Oceania zone

The 1966 World Cup witnessed the first mascot, which was named Willie

The 1966 World Cup opening game between England and Uruguay was delayed because several of the England players left their ID cards at the team hotel

Mexico hosted the first World Cup that was held outside South America and Europe in 1970

Substitutions were allowed for the first time in the 1970 World Cup (two per team)

The Fair Play Award was first introduced in the 1970 World Cup

England captain Bobby Moore was arrested before the 1970 World Cup before being released on the eve of the tournament

Chile's Carlos Caszely became the first player to be shown a "red card" as a sign of dismissal in a World Cup match in the 1974 tournament

Brazil's Zico headed home a corner kick in the first-round match between Brazil and Sweden in the 1978 World Cup but the referee disallowed it because he blew the final whistle while the ball was in the air

Brazil failed to reach the 1978 World Cup final despite not losing any game

Shirt swapping was prohibited at the 1986 World Cup because FIFA did not want the players to 'bare their chests' on the field

Brazil hold the record for the highest number of goals scored in the World Cup history with 173

Penalty shootout settled the World Cup final on two occasions in 1994 and 2006

Serbian Bora Milutinovic is the only person to have coached five different teams at the World Cup

Brazil's Pele and Germany's Uwe Seeler are the only players to have scored a goal in four World Cups

Cameroon's Roger Milla became the oldest player to play and score in a World Cup match when he hit the net in 6-1 defeat by Russia at the age of 42 in the 1994 tournament

Norman Whiteside became the youngest player to appear in a World Cup when he debuted for Northern Ireland aged 17 in the 1982 World Cup

Hungary's 10-1 victory over El Salvador in 1982 is the biggest one in the World Cup history

Tunisia registered the first victory for African and Arab teams in the World Cup when they beat Mexico 3-1 in the 1978 tournament

Italy keeper Dino Zoff became the oldest player to win a World Cup when he lifted the 1982 trophy at the age of 40

Three Arab teams (Morocco, Algeria and Iraq) took part in the 1986 World Cup Morocco reached the second round before losing to Germany

Bulgaria and Uruguay qualified for the second round of the 1986 World Cup as the best third-placed teams without winning a group match

Italy keeper Walter Zenga set a record in the 1990 World Cup by not conceding any goal for 517 minutes (five clean sheets)

Colombian defender Andres Escobar was shot dead by gangsters upon returning home after scoring an own goal against the United States that led to his side's exit from the 1994 World Cup

In the 1930 World Cup, Argentina and Uruguay won their semi finals against the United States and Yugoslavia respectively by the same 6-1 scoreline

Bert Patenaude of the United States became the first player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup when he netted three goals in his side's 3-0 victory over Paraguay in the 1930 tournament

Teams had to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in the 1934 tournament

Egypt became the first African team to compete at the World Cup when they reached the 1934 tournament

The 1934 World Cup was the only tournament that did not include the title holders, who were Uruguay

The 1934 quarter final between Italy and Spain was the first World Cup game to be replayed after they initially settled for a 1-1 draw

Italian forward Giuseppe Meazza rose to prominence during the tournament The San Siro Stadium, where Inter Milan and AC Milan play, was named after him

Ernst Loertscher of Switzerland became the first player to score an own goal in the World Cup, playing against West Germany in the 1938 tournament

Several teams withdrew from the 1950 World Cup, including France who objected to hosts Brazil's refusal to reschedule their two first-round matches, which were 3,000km apart

India qualified for the 1950 World Cup but eventually refused to play after FIFA banned them from playing barefoot

Germany and Japan, defeated in World War II, were barred from the 1950 World Cup

The 1950 World Cup final game between Brazil and Uruguay was played in front of an official crowd of 199,850, the largest attendance at a football match

Austria's 7-5 victory over Switzerland in 1954 set a World Cup record for the highest scoring match ever

The World Cup was internationally televised for the first time in 1958

Brazil's Pele became the youngest player to feature and score in a World Cup final when he struck twice against Sweden in 1958 when he was 17 years

The 1962 World Cup featured the introduction of the goal difference system to determine the teams who qualify for the second round

A dog invaded the pitch in England's clash against Brazil in the 1962 World Cup

The 1966 World Cup was the second one to be won by the hosts (England) after 1934 (Italy)

England's Geoff Hurst is the only player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final after hitting three goals against Germany in the 1966 final