Final answer:
The number of matches played in the first round of an eight-team football tournament is four for a knockout format. However, if the tournament is a round-robin, the total matches played would be 28. There seems to be confusion regarding the format based on the given answer choices.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question seems to be asking for the number of matches that will be played in the first round of a football tournament with eight teams. In a typical knockout tournament format, every match eliminates one team until only one team is left as the champion. With eight teams, the first round would involve all teams playing one match each, which means there would be a total of four matches. However, the formulation of the question is slightly unclear; if 'eight above' refers to an eight-team tournament, the answer is four matches in the first round, but the answer options provided (7, 28, 36, 56) suggest the question might be about a different format like a round-robin or a misinterpretation.
However, if the intention is to find the total number of matches that would be played in a round-robin format (where each team plays every other team once), there is a formula to calculate this: n(n-1)/2, where n is the number of teams. This would result in 8(8-1)/2 = 28 total matches played throughout the tournament (not just in the first round).
If the tournament is a simple knockout, the correct answer to how many matches are played in the first round of an eight-team tournament would be A) 7. If it is a round-robin tournament, then the total number of matches played would be B) 28.