Geographical Association

These materials originally appeared as a 'Theme' in the Resources area

Charles Rawding, Rosie Griffin and Lucy Williams provide a range of information and resources for potential use in the classroom this summer when a significant number of pupils will be closely following the FIFA World Cup^TM. This theme follows on from earlier articles in Teaching Geography and on this website (Rawding 1999, 2002, 2004) which looked at previous FIFA World Cups^TM and Euro 2004 suggesting possible activities that could be undertaken in the classroom.

Download these articles free of charge:

The activities that have been suggested all use the FIFA World Cup^TM as a context for developing geographical knowledge and skills, but at the same time are not exclusively for the fan of football. In every class, there are bound to be a number of pupils for whom the FIFA World Cup^TM will not be a significant event. Where there is resistance from those pupils who do not like football, part of the tourist leaflet, for instance, could be re-focused to target the long-suffering family of a football fan who are obliged to travel to the venues in Germany!

© Ann Chapman

A map of the venues in Germany can be downloaded here. A world map might be provided for pupils to enable them to label the countries that have qualified. Other atlas work might include completion of a table such as the one here. Alternatively, smaller groups might work on the continental geographies of the qualifying groups or the geographies of the group phases of the finals - a useful way of providing more information about countries, particularly in Africa, that are not normally covered in the geography curriculum.

England are playing in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne:

A useful exercise might be to ask pupils to choose one of these cities and produce a leaflet designed to help an English tourist make the most of their stay. This might include information about the attractions of the city for the visitors with recommendations about the types of things that should be visited. Such an activity could be carried out using ICT, perhaps using desktop publishing programmes or alternatively using PowerPoint presentations to feed back to the whole class.

Possible websites for research:

Wikipedia
Frankfurt.de
Hamburg.de
About.com – Cologne

Opportunities also exist here to encourage pupils to investigate a range of resources, particularly the internet. This worksheet is designed to enable pupils to carry out internet research (answers have been included where appropriate).

There are 12 venues spread across Germany. Weblinks have been provided for additional information about these locations in the table below. Please note: using Google to translate a few of these sites from the German can result in some curious English!

Download this brief analysis of the squads for the competing countries and this breakdown of which countries players from each team play their league football. The increasingly cosmopolitan nature of world football, or to be more accurate, the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of the richest leagues in Western Europe, can be readily identified. An analysis of the countries of origin of players with the leading English clubs is an aspect of the game which might appeal to fans of particular teams. Full details of the squads can be found at FIFA.com.

First added to the GA website in June 2006, updated 27.06.08


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