National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup a group stage, with the final 16 progressing to knockout stages to decide the winner. As of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, 79 national teams have competed at the final tournaments. Brazil are the only team to have appeared in all 21 tournaments to date, with Germany having participated in 19, Italy in 18, Argentina in 17 and Mexico in 16. To date, eight nations have won the tournament. The inaugural winners in 1930 were Uruguay; the current champions are France. The most successful nation in the competition are currently Brazil, who have won the cup on five occasions. Five
2006 FIFA World Cup sponsorship 2006 FIFA World Cup sponsorship Corporate sponsorship during the 2006 World Cup has been a major source of revenue for FIFA, but it has also led to criticism for overly commercializing the event and allocating too many game tickets to sponsors, as well as for prohibitive actions against non-sponsor advertising around the stadiums. FIFA has defended its policies by pointing out that all of its profits from the World Cup are invested back into worldwide football. As sporting events have become increasingly commercialized, a wide variety of sponsorship opportunities have emerged - or been created - and the 2006 FIFA