World Cup 83

World Cup 83 was an international football tournament held in Equestria and Banija. Equestria emerged as champions, winning the final at their home stadium, the Royal Equestria. Their victory thwarted Starblaydia's bid for a record sixth World Cup title.

The lowest-ranked finals qualifier Reçuçen delivered a surprise by beating Qusmo and holding the 4th-ranked Holy Empire to a draw to qualify for the second round, at which point their run was ended by Cassadaigua. Taeshan's Miles Snavely retired at the end of the World Cup. His last kick of the ball as a player scored his team's only goal of the competition and gave them a 1-0 win over Qasden.

Host selection
The first proposed bid for the 83rd World Cup was unveiled by Drawkland. Nicknamed "The Incredible Evil", the bid made a number of innovative proposals that were, remarkably, well within the rules. These included the following:
 * The first nation to respond to the bid would be the co-host (this ended up being Saltstead);
 * Qualification through six round-robin groups, one triple-elimination bracket group, with the rest of the entrants playing a Casaran system. Of the round-robin groups, each would have assigned to them one of the following rule variations:
 * Beach soccer;
 * No draws, with all matches going to extra time and penalties if necessary;
 * All players to wear gridiron football equipment;
 * Standings decided by reversed tiebreaker criteria - away goals scored, head-to-head goal difference, goals scored, goal difference, points;
 * All matches to be held during rain;
 * One team randomly assigned to have its top scorer play for another random team in the group;
 * During the finals, the third-place playoff was to be held according to sevenball rules.

The second bid, nicknamed "Reconciliation", was unveiled by Equestria and Banija nine days later, which proposed a traditional round-robin qualifying format, albeit with fewer matchdays and more rest days than previous World Cup qualifying tournaments.

While the bid was not withdrawn and Drawkland stated their full intention to carry out the bid as described in the unlikely event that it won, the Incredible Evil bidders both endorsed the Reconciliation bid. The World Cup Committee (minus the bidding nations, who where ineligible to vote) voted decisively to back the Reconciliation bid 25-4, with one abstention and three votes to re-open bids.

Teams
Thirty teams qualified for the World Cup from the 168 teams entering the qualifying phase. The two co-hosts qualified automatically. KPB ranks at the beginning of the qualification round are shown in brackets.

Qualification
Group winners qualified for the World Cup. Second-place teams advanced into a playoff round with six groups of four teams. Participants in Cup of Harmony 75 are highlighted in magenta.

Playoff stage
Each playoff group was hosted in one country, with each team playing one match against others in its group. Group winners qualified for the World Cup.

Knockout rounds

 * Due to differences in national calendars, all dates are OOC unless otherwise noted.