FIFA World Cup from different nations, each one of which represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as "The First World Cup", and featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional team. Lipton invited West Auckland, an amateur side from County Durham, to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title. In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and
China at the FIFA World Cup being purchased by citizens in order to watch their nation's first World Cup appearance. The team is colloquially referred to as "Team China" (中国队), the "National Team" (国家队) or "Guozu" (国足, lit. "national foot" also meaning national football). Eight players were fielded in all three of China's World Cup matches in 2002. China at the FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of "Fédération Internationale de Football Association" (FIFA), the