Sport in Italy Sport in Italy Sport in Italy has a long tradition. In several sports, both individual and team, Italy has good representation and many successes. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. Italy won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and is (along with Germany) currently the second most successful football team in World Cup history, after Brazil, having won four FIFA World Cup championships. Basketball, volleyball, and cycling are the next most popular/played sports, with Italy having a rich tradition in all three. Italy also has strong traditions in swimming, water polo, rugby union, tennis, athletics, fencing and Formula One.
Sport in the Cook Islands for the national side. Both players represented New Zealand internationally and played many National Rugby League games. Rugby league also receives much time on television in the Cook Islands, with four NRL games shown per week, fuelling the popularity of the sport amongst the islanders. The Cook Islands national rugby league team made their senior World Cup debut in 2000 and played in their second world cup in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup. The Cook Islands is a tier-three rugby union playing nation. They began playing international rugby union in the early 1990s, and have yet to make the