The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition established in 1930. It is contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has taken place every four years, except in 1942 and 1946, when the competition was cancelled due to World War II. The most recent World Cup, hosted by Brazil in 2014, was won by Germany, who beat Argentina 1–0 after extra time.

The World Cup final match is the last of the competition, and the result determines which country is declared world champions. If after 90 minutes of regular play the score is a draw, an additional 30-minute period of play, called extra time, is added. If such a game is still tied after extra time it is decided by kicks from the penalty shoot-out. The team winning the penalty shoot-out are then declared champions. The tournament has been decided by a one-off match on every occasion except 1950, when the tournament winner was decided by a final round-robin group contested by four teams (Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden, and Spain). Uruguay's 2–1 victory over Brazil was the decisive match (and one of the last two matches of the tournament) which put them ahead on points and ensured that they finished top of the group as world champions. Therefore, this match is regarded by FIFA as the de facto final of the 1950 World Cup.

In the 20 tournaments held, 77 nations have appeared at least once. Of these, 12 have made it to the final match, and eight have won. With five titles, Brazil is the most successful World Cup team and also the only nation to have participated in every World Cup finals tournament. Italy and Germany have four titles. The other former champions are Uruguay and Argentina with two titles each, and England, France, and Spain with one each. The current champions, Germany, took their fourth title in 2014, and it is the first title for the reunified German team. The 2014 German team also became the first European team to win in South America. The team that wins the finals receive the FIFA World Cup Trophy, and their name is engraved in the bottom side of the trophy.

The 1970 and 1994 along with the 1986, 1990 and 2014 games are to date the only matches competed by the same teams (Brazil–Italy and Argentina–Germany respectively). As of 2014, the 1934 final remains the latest final to have been between two teams playing their first final. The final match of the upcoming 2018 World Cup in Russia is scheduled to take place at the country's biggest sports complex, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

The 1930 and the 1966 games are the only ones that did not take place on Sunday. The former did on a Wednesday and the latter on a Saturday.

As of 2014, only nations from Europe and South America have competed in a World Cup Final.

List of finals

1930

1978

1950, 2014

1962

1966

1938, 1998 

2006

1934, 1990

2002

1970, 1986

2010

1982

1958

1954     

1994

1974

2018

2022

 

Key to the list of finals

	Match was won during extra time
	Match was won on a penalty shoot-out

• The "Year" column refers to the year the World Cup was held, and wikilinks to the article about that tournament. The wikilinks in the "Final score" column point to the article about that tournament's final game. Links in the "Winners" and "Runners-up" columns point to the articles for the national football teams of the countries, not the articles for the countries.