2014 Quidditch World Cup

"​[I aim] to win the World Cup before I die."

- Viktor Krum on why he joined the Bulgarian team in 2014.

The 2014 Quidditch World Cup will be an international Quidditch sporting event occurring in 2014. It will be the 427th edition of the World Cup.

The Cup will take place in Argentina, in the remote Patagonian Desert. Opening games take place in April, 2014.

Group phase
The group phase began in 2012. Liechtenstein caused a serious upset in the qualifying stages by winning the group over China, which had been the runners-up in the previous World Cup.

The sixteen contries that qualified are as follows: Brazil, Bulgaria, Chad, Fiji, Germany, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, USA and Wales.

Nigeria and Norway entered the tournament as the two highest-ranked teams in the group phase. It is also the first year that the USA is thought to have a reasonable chance of reaching the final. Moldova, which has consistently produced excellent Quidditch teams and supporters, and the winners of the previous World Cup, failed to qualify this year due to an outbreak of dragon pox at their training camp. This left Moldovan players and supporters "heartbroken".

Much interest has been generated by the return of Seeker Viktor Krum to the Bulgarian National Quidditch team. Krum had retired following the team's narrow defeat in the final against Egypt, in the 2002 Quidditch World Cup. Krum, aged 38, is considered old for a Seeker, but his return has caused quite a buzz, and increased support from those whose own countries have not qualified.

Pre-Cup controversies
Promising to be exciting as ever, the 2014 Quidditch World Cup was not without its controversies, even before opening matches began.

There have been rumours that Haiti was using Inferi to intimidate opposing teams, which were dismissed by the ICWQC as "malicious and baseless". Accusations that Polish Seeker Bonawentura Wójcik was famous Italian Seeker Luciano Volpi Transfigured were only disproven when they attended a press conference together. A further incident occured when Brazilian manager José Barboza insulted the Welsh Chasers by calling them "talentless hags" — Welsh manager Gwenog Jones promptly threatened to "curse the face off" him, and Barboza issued a statement insisting that his original remark had been taken out of context.

Appearances

 * Pottermore