Up for the Cup!

It's time for the biggest big games of them all, in the great global feast of fine football that comes around just once every four years.

And, as it all happens in Japan and South Korea, here's a space on h2g2 where you can discuss the drama, and a collection of handy links to sites that should tell you all you need to know about the background to the Cup!

The official version

Coming to you straight from the world football governing body, packed with facts and statistics: here's the superb Official FIFA World Cup Site.

News of the World Cup

Here are three of the best World Cup news sites:

For up-to-the-minute news of all the latest developments in the Cup: The BBC World Cup pages.

A haven of intelligent reporting amid all the inevitable tabloid hysteria and xenophobia:The Guardian World Cup site.

A great all-round World Cup site, with excellent information on the histories of the competing teams: ESPNsoccernet.

Team talk

Here's where you can find websites and web pages dedicated to teams competing in the Cup.

Official team sites

Here are all the official team sites I could find that have English-language pages. If you know of any more, please let me know!

Direct from The Football Association, here's the official word on England.

Here are the Official England Supporters' Club pages.

The Football Association of Ireland's site for news of the Republic of Ireland team.

The United States Soccer Federation's World Cup pages, bringing news of the United States of America team.

The official Bundesliga site, with news of Germany.

Here's the site for another of the European challengers: Belgium.

Here's the homepage of one of the home teams: Japan.

And the hopes of the other hosts are chronicled here: South Korea.

The official website for the 'Super Eagles' of Nigeria.

Straight from the SAFA, the official word on the 'Bafana Bafana': South Africa.

News of the guys in the classy checked shirts: Croatia.

Here's the site for one of the surprise successes in recent international football: Slovenia.

Straight from South America: the official word on Paraguay.

Unofficial but authoritative

Here are some team sites and web pages that don't come from national football associations, but which certainly seem to be on the ball:

Here's the BBC's news site for the 1998 world champions: France.

And the BBC site for those perennial masters of football: Brazil.

Here's a site dealing with football in the country whose team stormed through the qualifying tournament like no-one else: Argentina.

A nation with some of the best club sides in the world, but a national team that has often underachieved. Can things change for Spain?

A country that's actually shaped like a boot - so is it any wonder that it's long been one of the leading forces in world football? Here's the BBC site for Italy.

Outsiders for the 2002 World Cup - but then, they were outsiders for the 1992 European Championships, and they won that. Here's the BBC site for Denmark.

A country with a fine football tradition, fancied by many pundits to do well this time: Portugal.

They've been England's World Cup nemesis in the past, and they've usually been among Europe's strongest football nations: Poland.

They're another nation with a proud World Cup tradition, and they've already scored one superb goal in the 2002 tournament. Here's the BBC page for Uruguay.

Here's the BBC page for the team responsible for the sensational start to the tournament: Senegal.

The way things were

To hell with false modesty! For a detailed account of the history of the World Cup, look no further than this h2g2 University of Life World Cup Project, lovingly compiled by myself, Mickey Thomas' Right Foot and Bright Blue Shorts.

Settle those arguments about results, team line-ups etc. in past World Cups with World Cup Archive.

Want to see how things were at the very first World Cup of all? Then take a look at The 1930 World Cup Museum.

Fields of dreams

The Grand Master has constructed a great World Cup 2002 page featuring full details of all the grounds being used in the World Cup, together with the BBC links for all the teams taking part in the Cup. He also bravely promises to try to answer any questions you may have about the Cup!

The doctor is in

Here on h2g2, we have a doctor with a rather unusual specialism. Dr. Broelan specialises in coming up with reasons for Researchers not to go to work.

Why I thought of this in connection with the World Cup, I simply can't imagine. But if you feel that you might be going down with a nasty case of quarter-final queasiness or semi-final stomach ache, perhaps you should consult the good at her Doctor's Office.

When it's all too much

Over the ? Or as a parrot? Need to chill out, calm down and get your breath back?

Then why not visit Abi's It's Only A Game! room? Drinks are available, whether you need them to celebrate or to drown your sorrows. There can be no better place to go for a cooling glass of perspective and soda - and let's face it, most of us will probably need one at some point soon...