2014 UGFA World Cup

The 2014 UGFA World Cup is the 10th UGFA World Cup, the tournament for the association football world championship, which took place at several venues across the Emperorlands.

The tournament began on June 12, 2014 and ended on July 13 when the final took place. It is the first time that the Emperorlands have hosted a major sporting competition, let alone a footballing competition. UGFA selected the nation to host the cup in 2006.

No more than 24 teams participated in the tournament. A total of 46 matches were played during the course of the tournament, beginning with the group stage, then the knockout stage, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. An UGFA record number of penguins and living species alike came from all across the Arctic to watch the matches live in stadiums around the Emperorlands. The title holders, Castilla, were eliminated at the group stage.

In the final between two former champions Alemania and Parhentina, Alemania won the title by defeating Parhentina 1–0 after extra time on July 13. The next World Cup is due to take place in 2018.

Host selection
There were many countries bidding to win the chance to host the 2014 World Cup. USA, UnitedTerra, Freezeland, Club Penguin and others competed to win the chance to host the cup. Bidding began as soon as the 2006 World Cup ended. UGFA's choice to select Emperorlands was down to its relevant geographical location and passion for football. This would automatically attract attention to the country and bring a lot of tourism and fame.

Participating teams
A total of 24 countries qualified for the 2014 UGFA World Cup group stages


 * EmperorFlag2.png Emperorlands
 * USA flag.PNG United States of Antarctica
 * UnitedTerra flag.PNG UnitedTerra
 * Flag of Castilla.png Castilla
 * Frankterre Flag.png Frankterre
 * Freezelandflag.jpg Freezeland
 * Flag of Nutzil.png Nutzil
 * FlagROSn.png Snowiny
 * Snozerland Flag 2 edited-1.png Snowzerland
 * Alemania Flag.png Alemania
 * Parhentina Flag.png Parhentina
 * Liguria Flag.png Liguria


 * Ruscoe Federation Flag.png Rusca
 * BandeiraClubPenguin.png Club Penguin
 * UK Flag 2.png Puffle'and (represented by Penguins)
 * GeekEmpireFlag.png Geek Empire
 * Bandera de Lisboagal.png Lisboagal
 * Guruguay Flag.png Guruguay
 * Flag of the Seal Islands.svg Seal Islands
 * East Pengolia image flag.png East Pengolia
 * FlagOfJapaland.png Japaland
 * Pengvaria Flag.png Batavia
 * Terra Federation flag.PNG Terra Federation
 * Bandera de Frio.png Frio

Countries that did not qualify to the group stages of the World Cup include:


 * MAI.png Margate Antarctica Islands
 * TelAhPhonFlag.png Tel Ah Phon
 * Asaina flag.png Zhou
 * Flag of Calada.png Calada
 * Finipines.png Finipines
 * SouthJoseonFlag.png South Joseon
 * Magyaria Flag.png Magyaria
 * Sleetden.png Sleetden

Countries that were ineligible to participate include:


 * Scoodlepeep Official Flag N.PNG Scoodlepeep, due to the UGFA age restrictions

Preparations & costs
Experts and organisers estimated that the total cost for World Cup preparations exceeded 10 billion Empers - the primary currency of Emperorlands. The Emperorlands government collaborated with UGFA to spread out costs. This made the 2014 UGFA World Cup the most expensive World Cup to date. UGFA managed to save costs by not building more stadiums and only slightly renovating existing ones.

Preparations began in late 2006 a few months after the 2006 World Cup final. Organisation took place during the year. In 2007, construction for new stadiums began which took 5-7 years to complete. From 2009, renovations for existing stadiums began and took 3 years to complete.

Marketing took place as soon as the 2010 World Cup finished. This included sale of tickets, sponsoring, promotional events, official anthems and songs and merchandise. Altogether, marketing costs totalled to 850 million Empers.

Official Song
To Be Added

Venues
6 venues in 6 states and major cities were selected for the tournament. These venues covered the whole of Emperorlands where three of the six venues had been newly constructed during the years that built up to the opening ceremony of the World Cup. The existing three venues were slightly renovated to accommodate larger capacities and team camps. The venue with the highest capacity is the Arena-e-Emperor, Emperor City, which held a maximum of 74,738 spectators. The second-largest venue, Ice Burrows Stadium, Ice Burrows, held 73,239. The venue with the lowest capacity is E Land Arena, E Land, holding a capacity of 41,112. This meant that tickets were especially high in demand for matches that were held at E Land Arena.

The tournament final was held at Arena-e-Emperor, Emperor City. Team camps were spread out across the country which meant that traveling would be excessive for all participating teams and their camps. As well as this, public viewings of matches were organised for footballing fans that didn't manage to get tickets to watch matches live on beaches.

Prize money

 * CPClub Penguin Coin.PNG million – To each team eliminated at the group stage (16 teams)
 * CPClub Penguin Coin.PNG million – To each team eliminated in the round of 12 (8 teams)


 * CPClub Penguin Coin.PNG million – To each team eliminated in the quarter-finals (4 teams)
 * CPClub Penguin Coin.PNG million – Fourth placed team
 * CPClub Penguin Coin.PNG million – Third placed team
 * CPClub Penguin Coin.PNG million – Runner-up
 * CPClub Penguin Coin.PNG million – Winner

Group stage

 * Group A

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 * Group B

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 * Group C

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 * Group D

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 * Group E

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 * Group F

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Round of 12
A total of 6 matches took place during the Round of 12 knockout stages. Of these 6 matches, five required 30 minutes of extra time and two were won through a penalty shoot-out. This meant that only one match was won in normal time. This was the first time penalty shoot-outs happened in more than one game in a round of 12. This was the first World Cup in which Nutzil and Club Penguin failed to make it to the quarter-finals. Snowiny reached their first ever quarter-finals in the history of their national football team. 15 goals were scored during the Round of 12, not including 15 converted penalties. The six teams to win in the Round of 12 includes four former champions (Alemania, UnitedTerra, Frankterre, Parhentina). Geek Empire have never made it to a World Cup quarter-final, unlike the other losing teams.

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Quarter-final placement
2 of the 6 losing teams of the Round of 12 are granted qualification to the quarter-finals based on their goal difference of the entire tournament (from the group stage and Round of 12 stage). If by coincidence two teams manage to have the same goal difference then their Points tally from the group stages are taken as a second deciding factor.

USA had the best goal difference of the losing six Round of 12 teams (+5). Club Penguin, Nutzil and Snowzerland all had the same goal difference (+3), but Snowzerland collected the most points (6) from the group stages, therefore they qualified to the quarter-finals as well.

Quarter-finals
With a 1–0 victory over Frankterre, Alemania set a world cup record with four consecutive semi-final appearances. Parhentina reached the final four for the first time since 1990 after their 2-1 victory over Snowiny. UnitedTerra reached the semi-finals for the third consecutive tournament. This was Snowzerland's first ever quarter-final appearance and have subsequently never reached the semi-final stages of a world cup tournament.

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Semi-finals
Alemania qualified for the final for a record time with a 7-1 win over Emperorlands - the biggest defeat in Emperorland history. A number of world cup records were achieved during the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup tournament. Parhentina reached their first final since 1990 after defeating UnitedTerra during penalties.

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Third place play-off
UnitedTerra defeated Emperorlands to secure third place, the first for UnitedTerra in their history. Emperorlands conceded the most goals ever during world cup finals and the most by a world cup hosting nation. This was the first third place play-off match for 4 world cups which was decided in extra time. It is also the first play-off match for 2 world cups where the losing team did not manage to score.

Final
The final featured Alemania against Parhentina for a record third time after 1986 and 1990.

This final was the most-watched world cup final ever, with a record 20 million television viewings. It was the second world cup final in a row where the champion was decided in extra time. Both teams named unchanged starting line-ups from their semi-finals. During the entire match, both teams had 10 shots, 7 of which Alemania shot on target and 2 of which Parhentina's were on target. Alemania had 60% of ball possession and had 5 corner kicks and 3 free kicks. Parhentina had 3 corner kicks and 2 free kicks.

Goalscorers
The single highest goalscorer of the tournament was a UnitedTerrain player, with 8 goals in total. A Parhentinian player scored 6 goals, whilst an Alemanian player scored 5 goals. 72 different players scored throughout the tournament.

Discipline

 * Total number of yellow cards: 187
 * Average yellow cards per match: 2.92
 * Total number of red cards: 10
 * Average red cards per match: 0.16
 * Most cards in one match: 1 red card, 8 yellow cards
 * Fastest yellow card from kick off: 2 minutes
 * Most yellow cards (team): 14 – Nutzil