<P> The England national football team has competed at the FIFA World Cup since 1950 . The FIFA World Cup is the premier competitive international football tournament, first played in 1930, whose finals stage has been held every four years since, except 1942 and 1946, due to the Second World War . </P> <P> The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the finals . The current format of the finals involves thirty - two teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month . The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 Final . </P>

When did england start playing in the world cup