World Cup 71

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.

Host selection
As usual, the World Cup Committee cast their votes to select the hosts of all three of the cycle's WCC-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.

The voting results were:

Qualification
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.

Atlantian Oceania (10)
 * (1)
 * (4)
 * (7)
 * (9)
 * 🇰🇷 south korea (11)
 * 🇹🇷 turkey (15)
 * (16)
 * (19)
 * (20)
 * (24)

Rushmore (5)
 * (2)
 * (5)
 * (15)
 * (23)
 * (39)

Esportiva (11)
 * (host)
 * (host)
 * (10)
 * (12)
 * (17)
 * (27)
 * (28)
 * (35)
 * (38)
 * (45)
 * (46)

Other regions (6)
 * (3)
 * (22)
 * (25)
 * (26)
 * (33)
 * (41)

Draw
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.

Squads
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.

Stadiums

 * Felix
 * Estadio Nacional | 88,000) [Santa Maria]
 * San Pozo | 86,000) [Napoli]
 * Stadia Volker | 90,000) [Volker]
 * Stade de Lyon |80,000) [Lyon]
 * Costinhao | 60,000) [Temuco]
 * Stadio Altomare | 95,000) [Altomare]
 * Port York City Stadium | 70,000) [Port York]
 * Estadio Universidadio | 75,000) [Santander]
 * Bjorn Andersen Memorial Stadium| 81,250) [Cato]
 * Dusseldorf Stadium | 85,000) [Dusseldorf]
 * Felixian Airlines Stadium | 70,000) [Oceania]
 * Yttribia
 * Le Nid Violet, Fontvieille
 * Stadia Suprema, Fontvieille
 * Mosson Cliff, Gaillard
 * Die Einundsechzigste, Dahlen
 * Punklich.cy Arena, Gorintschach
 * Villanueva Memorial, Delare Minon
 * Stadii Ximena, Telino
 * Casa Naranja, Stemanisis
 * Estadi dels Nuvols, Gremalsco
 * Rosseini Stadio, Pontidexxu
 * Calcio Centro, Serraville
 * The Crossroads, Zevella

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:


 * 1) Points obtained in all group matches;
 * 2) Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
 * 3) Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
 * 4) Goal difference in all group matches;
 * 5) 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.

Knockout stage
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.