3. INTERNATIONAL LEVEL STRUCTURE
The international explanation is far easier to describe due to the concise nature of the competition. Everything is rooted in the FIFA World Cup. Every effort, tournament, game, or decision comes down to that one championship. While there are international tournaments like the Confederations Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup, these competitions are inconsequential to the real prize of the World Cup.
Qualifying for the World Cup takes place in the four years that are put between each World Cup. Each region receives its own amount of bids and the teams in each region (CONCACAF for North and Central America, UEFA for Europe, COMMEBOL for South America, CAF for Africa, AFC for Asia, and OFC for Pacific islands and Australia) play in qualifying rounds to see who will receive the bids except for OFC.
The structure of the FIFA World Cup is pretty straight forward. There is a total of eight groups of four teams that play in the Group Stage. There is a round robin-style game structure for all four teams; the teams with the most points advance to the Round of 16. From the Round of 16 on, the games turn to single game elimination; going from Round of 16 to the Quarterfinals to the Semifinals to the World Cup Final. Teams that get to the final four are guaranteed two games; the two losers of the semifinal games play in a third-place game.
