World Cup Maths Puzzles!

These short and snappy puzzles are perfect for engaging all of the World Cup lovers in your class with a wide range of maths problems! Using real-life statistics from FIFA World Cups past and present, students approach a number of varied maths topics, whilst also gaining valuable information about their favourite teams and players. I have used these resources with a number of KS2 and KS3 classes, and have found that they work great for morning mental maths challenges or lesson starters/ fillers.

Some of the maths topics covered include: statistics, percentages, charts and graphs, data handling, averages, ratios, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, estimation and problem solving, critical thinking, and fractions. Some of the specific tasks involved include: working out the goals to games ratio of some of the best strikers, finding out which teams have the best goal difference, creating data to present performance, and comparing player statistics over different tournaments.

There are 30 tasks in total, in which each the major World Cup nations are focused upon in at least one activity each. The tasks are also separated by difficulty into ‘Beginner’,‘Intermediate’, and ‘Difficult’ tasks (refer to the B, I, or D symbols in the top left of each activity).

All images within this resource are licensed for commercial use, and images are cited on the final slide.