List of FIFA World Cup hosts

Nineteen countries have hosted the FIFA World Cup in the competition's twenty-three tournaments since the inaugural World Cup in 1930. FIFA at first awarded hosting to countries at meetings of its congress. The choice of location was controversial in the earliest tournaments, given the three-week boat journey between South America and Europe, the two centers of strength in football at the time. The decision to hold the first cup in Uruguay, for example, led to only four European nations competing. The next two World Cups were held in Europe. The decision to hold the second of these, the 1938 FIFA World Cup, in France was controversial, as the South American countries had been led to understand that the World Cup would alternate between the two continents. Argentina and Uruguay thus boycotted the tournament. The first tournament following World War II, held in Brazil in 1950, had three teams withdraw because of financial problems or disagreements with the organisation.