About the Touch World Cup

The first Touch World Cup took place in 1988 with 13 teams competing across four categories. Since then the tournament has gone from strength-to-strength with more countries bringing their best players every four years.

The Touch World Cup has visited a diverse range of locations, including the Gold Coast (1988), Sydney (1999) and Coffs Harbour (2015) in Australia, Auckland in New Zealand (1991), Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, USA (1995), Kumagaya in Japan (2003), Stellenbosch in South Africa (2007) and Edinburgh (2011).

As may be expected from the country which invented the sport, Australia has been the dominant force in international Touch, but in more recent editions New Zealand have been taking home category titles and other teams such as the Cook Islands, Italy, South Africa, Samoa and England have been reaching finals, too.

Over the last two editions the Touch World Cup has been going from strength-to-strength.

In 2019 116 teams headed to Putrajaya, Malaysia, and that number is increasing by some 60 percent for Nottingham 2024. Both tournaments also reflect firsts for the Federation of International Touch, with first Malaysia and then England hosting the sport's international showcase for the first time.