3rd IgorTV's World Cup

The Official Logo

The 3rd IgorTV World Cup was the third edition of IgorTV's FA international football world championship tournament. The tournament went from South Africa to be disputed at first ever time in Asia, hosted by Japan and its small islands. They were selected as hosts in 26 August 2016. A total of eleven venues located in vast amounts of cities across Japanese territory. In the final, France avoided Germany to became the first two-time world champion ever, defeating them by 1-0, in a very hard fought final.

## Host Selection

In 26 August 2016, in their headquarters in Berlin, IgorTV's FA announced Japan as a host for the tournament, after defeating South Korea and China, as part of the host-rotation policy, who's currently being studied if it's worthy or not. And also announced that a huge chance exists of the next World Cup to be hosted in Oceania, much probable, Australia.

## Participating Teams and Qualification Format

The qualification matches started in 21 September 2016, and ended in 3 June 2017, as a process which qualified 31 teams for the final group stages, as well as the hosts, already qualified, Japan.

* **UEFA/Europe -** 13 direct places, with 4 coming from the european playoffs.

All the 53 teams will be divided into nine groups with 6 groups. The winners of each group will qualify for the Japan World Cup, and the eight best runners-up will advance to the second round (play-offs).

* **CONMEBOL/South America -** 4 direct places.

A simple double round-robin with all the ten teams, the best four qualifies directly, and the fifth goes to a playoff against the OFC Winner.

* **AFC/Asia -** 4 places, including the hosts Japan.

The first round consists in the 12 most poor ranked teams will play home-and-away over two legs. The six winners will advance to the second round. The second round consists in two groups with 8 teams and three with 7 teams, the top two placed teams of each group qualifies to the third round. The third round consists in the famous AFC format, two groups with five teams, the top two qualifies directly and the third placed team of each group will battle against each other in the AFC Fourth Round to see who will play against the CONCACAF Fourth Placed Team.

* **CAF/Africa -** 5 places.

The first round consists in all the 50 teams divided into ten groups, one with six teams and the rest of the groups with five teams, the top placed team of each groups advances to the african playoffs.

* **CONCACAF/North and Central Americas and the Caribbe -** 3 places.

The first round consists in all the 39 teams divided in six groups, three with 7 teams and another three with 6 teams, the best placed team of each group advances to the final round. The Final Qualifying Round consists in one group with six teams, the best three qualifies directly to the world cup, while the fourth placed teams goes to the international playoff against the Asian Football Confederation Playoff Winner (AFC Fourth Round).

* **International Playoffs -** 2 places:
* CONCACAF 4th Placed Team vs. Asian Football Confederation Playoff Winner (AFC Fourth Round)
* CONMEBOL 5th Placed Team vs. OFC Qualifiers Winner
* **OFC/Oceania -** 0.5 places

Two groups, one with six teams and another with five, the top team of each group advances to the next round where they will battle each other to see who will face the CONMEBOL 5th Place in the international-playoffs.

## Venues and Official Ball

Six venues, new and renovated, in five cities around Argentina were selected to be part of this tournament. Two in central Buenos Aires zone, and the rest around it, specificalliy in Avallaneda, Rosario, Liniers and Córdoba, with the final being played on Estádio Monumental de Núñez.

## The Official Match Ball

The official matchball of the third edition of the World Cup, in Japan, was called Adidas Banzai, it consisted on red stylized details in form of ribbons, filled by light rays symbolizing the 'Rising Sun', one of the Japanese most famous symbols, surrouned by blue traces, one of the main Japan colours.

## The Finals Draw and Group Stage

The 32 participating teams were drawn into eight groups, and in preparation for this, the teams were organised into four pots with the seven highest-ranked teams joining host nation, Argentina. IgorTV's FA aimed to create groups which maximised geographic separation and therefore the unseeded teams were arranged into pots based on geographic considerations. The first round, or group stage, was a competition between the 32 teams divided among eight groups of four, where each group engaged in a round-robin tournament within itself. The two highest ranked teams in each group advanced to the knockout stage. Teams were awarded three points for a win and one for a draw, and when comparing teams in the case of a points draw inside a group, the first tiebraker was goal difference, which's no used in the current editions. In the knockout stage there were four rounds (round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final), with each eliminating the losers. The two semi-final losers competed in a third place play-off. For any match in the knockout stage, a draw after 90 minutes of regulation time was followed by two 15 minute periods of extra time to determine a winner. If the teams were still tied, a penalty shoot-out was held to determine a winner.

## Knockout Stage

### Round of 16

0-1 ET
1-0 ET

### Semi-Finals

1-1 ET
4-3 pen.