FIFA

The FIFA World Cup 2014

The FIFA World Cup 2014

       The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champions were Spain, who won the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

                                               

       The 2014 FIFA World Cup is the 20th FIFA World Cup, a tournament for the men's football world championship, which is currently taking place in Brazil.
       It began on 12 June, with a group stage, and is scheduled to conclude on 13 July with the final. It is the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition, the first being in 1950. Brazil was elected unchallenged as host nation in 2007 after the international football federation, FIFA, decreed that the tournament would be staged in South America for the first time since 1978 in Argentina, and the fifth time overall.

Fuleco

       Fuleco the Armadillo is the official mascot of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Representing a Brazilian three-banded armadillo, a species of armadillo which is native to Brazil and categorized as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List, Fuleco was officially launched as part of Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo's weekly Fantástico entertainment show on 25 November 2012. His name is a portmanteau of the words Futebol ("football") and Ecologia ("Ecology"). The mascot, with his message of environmental concerns, ecology and sport, turned out to be very popular with football teams around the world