Five-time World Cup winner Brazil is the only team to have played in every edition of the tournament. Germany, a four-time winner, has participated 18 times and two-time winner Argentina 16 times. Iceland and Panama make their debut this year.
Tournaments past and present
During the group stage of the tournament, teams will live and train in base camps and travel to the host city of their respective matches. Thirteen of the 32 teams will play matches in the same city as their base camp, five of those matches will take place outside of the Moscow region.
Twenty of the 32 teams competing in the 2018 World Cup also competed at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Cup-holder Germany and runner-up Argentina are among this year’s top-ranked teams.
A look at official match balls since the 1970 World Cup
Russia will host the 2018 World Cup tournament in 12 venues spread across 11 cities.