World Cup 71 was an international football tournament contested by 173 national teams.
The finals involved 32 teams, of which 30 came through a qualifying competition, while the host nations – Felix and Yttribia qualified automatically. Of the 32, 23 had also appeared in the finals of World Cup 70
64 matches were played in 23 venues across 22 cities in the host nations. Host nations Felix and Yttribia were both eliminated in the group stage. Osarius, the defending champions, once again progressed to the final, where they played Pasarga. Osarius won the match 4–3 to claim their second World Cup.
As usual, the World Cup Committee cast their votes to select the hosts of all three of the cycle'sWCC-affiliated tournaments. The bid from Felix and Yttribia won the right to host World Cup 71, beating two other joint bids from Valanora and The Sarian, and Royal Kingdom of Quebec and the Holy Republican Empire.
Of the 32 nations qualified to play at the World Cup 71 finals, 23 countries competed at the previous tournament finals.
Notable teams that failed to qualify included: Valanora, Starblaydia, Jeru FC, Sargossa, Mizuyuki, Taeshan, Bears Armed, and San José Guayabal. Additionally, HopNation, who made an unlikely run to the semi finals in World Cup 70, failed to qualify this time around.
Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the KPB Rankings at the time of the tournament.
For the draw, the teams were allocated to four pots based on the KPB Rankings at the end of qualifying. Pot one contained the hosts Felix and Yttribia alongside the six highest-ranked teams. Pot two contained the next best eight teams, and so on for pots three and four.
During qualifying, nations were not restricted in the number of players they could use. Prior to the start of the finals, however, qualifying teams had to name a squad of twenty-three &ndash with three of the squad being goalkeepers – from whom all subsequent matchday selections would be made.
Venues
Stadiums
Name
Location
Capacity
Estadio Nacional
Santa Maria, Felix
88,000
San Pozo
Napoli, Felix
86,000
Stadia Volker
Volker, Felix
90,000
Stade de Lyon
Lyon, Felix
80,000
Costinhao
Temuco, Felix
60,000
Stadio Altomare
Altomare, Felix
95,000
Port York City Stadium
Port York, Felix
70,000
Estadio Universidadio
Santander, Felix
75,000
Bjorn Andersen Memorial Stadium
Cato, Felix
81,250
Dusseldorf Stadium
Dusseldorf, Felix
85,000
Felixian Airlines Stadium
Oceania, Felix
70,000
Le Nid Violet
Fontvieille, Yttribia
81,800
Stadia Suprema
Fontvieille, Yttribia
46,726
Mosson Cliff
Gaillard, Yttribia
46,726
Die Einundsechzigste
Dahlen, Yttribia
61,000
Punktlich.cy Arena
Gorintschach, Yttribia
41,000
Villanueva Memorial
Delare Minon, Yttribia
60,000
Stadii Ximena
Telino, Yttribia
80,000
Casa Naranja
Stemanisis, Yttribia
64,236
Estadi dels Nuvols
Gremalsco, Yttribia
105,000
Rosseini Stadio
Pontidexxu, Yttribia
57,389
Calcio Centro
Serraville, Yttribia
46,200
The Crossroads
Zevella, Yttribia
64,000
Group stage
Competing countries were divided into eight groups of four teams (groups A to H). Teams in each group played one another in a round-robin, with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stage. 4 Atlantian Oceanian teams, 4 Rushmori teams, and 5 Esportivan teams progressed to the knockout stage, together with 3 from other regions.
Tiebreakers
The ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows:
Points obtained in all group matches;
Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Number of goals scored in all group matches;
Should the above not settle the tie, and the tie must be settled in order to determine advancement in the tournament, a tiebreaker match would be held at a neutral venue.
In the knockout stages, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winners.
Below is the bracket for the knockout round of the tournament, teams in bold denote match winners.