Eli5 how does the Fifa football worldcup work? What is the system?

Question

Eli5 how does the Fifa football worldcup work? What is the system?

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Answer 1

32 teams qualify through continental competitions played in the previous years.

Then when the tournament starts they’re drawn into 8 groups of 4. The top two teams in each group qualify for the knockouts.

Then in the knockouts, it works more or less like the NBA or NFL playoffs (assuming you’re used to those systems) which is basically teams playing each other in a knockout system (losers get eliminated) up to the final.

Edit: the next world cup will work differently as it has been controversially expanded to 48 teams