IN REMEMBRANCE OF ENGLISH FOOTBALL

Twenty years after the first staging of the World Cup (1930), Brazil hosted the 1950 World Cup, with Europer still "rocking" from the Second World War. 

FIFA clearly had some work to do and after last minute complications, FIFA was practically begging nations to bring their teams to fill the last three places. British teams had not joined in the fun previously, with the home countries' regarding this global phenomenon as not for them. Snobbism? However, FIFA offered places to the winners and runners up of our own Home Championship, which were England and Scotland. The Scots did not want to accept this because they had not won the Home Championship! The England captain, Billy Wright, an international who eventually won 105 caps, along with the Scottish captain, George Young, tried hard to persuade the Scottish FA to accept the invitation. The Scots did not "play ball" and stayed at home. So England went on their own, representing "GB". The first World Cup match post World War 2, was played on June 24th at the Maracana, a match won by Brazil 4 v Mexico 0. The referee was George Reader, an Englishman.

The first English group match was held on June 25th and the English had a comfortable win over Chile 2-0, despite playing at altitude in the Maracana. Chile by the way had George Robledo in their team, their only full professional, who played for Newcastle Utd.

The next tie, June 29th, didn't go well for the English, who lost 0-1 to the USA, (yes, it was the North Americans). You might look this up and see what the press said! 

On July 2nd, England's final match was crucial and guess what, England lost to Spain 0-1, in the Maracana again! Altitude to blame rather than attitude? This was shared with 74,462. Having gone 1-0 up in the 49th minute, the Spaniards closed the shutters, blocked off their half of the pitch for the rest of the match and were booed off at the end of the game. Billy Wright's team hung their heads.

This elimination was the first time that the English realised that they were not as good as they thought they were! The Daily Herald printed a mock obituary reading "In affectionate remembrance of English football, which died in Rio on July 2nd 1950". 

England came runners up in their group, with only 2 points, equal to Chile (goal difference F5 A6) and the US (goal difference F4 A8), but a 2-2 goal difference gave England the advantage. Spain won 3 matches out of 3, with a goal tally of 6 for and 1 against. Only one team went forward to the next round, England went home in disappointment.

Argentina did not join the World Cup due to differences with neighbours Brazil, who apparently had been "rough" in matches between the two countries, played in the 1940s...no change there then? The Czechs declined, the French stayed at home having seen their proposed qualifying matches staged 2,000 miles apart and the Brazilians refused to change the venues. Germany was banned following the war. 13 teams competed, not an easy number to deal with. 

The qualifying competition involved two Pools of four (Brazil, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Mexico) and (Spain, England, Chile and the US), a Pool of three (Sweden, Italy Paraguay) and one Pool of two, Uruguay v Bolivia played in the Mineiro Stadium, Belo Horizonte on July 2nd! 

Uruguay, seem to have the advantage in "qualifying" having won the first World Cup in 1930 on their home soil and had not played since. They beat Bolivia in ONE match 8-0. 

(A serious note is that Alfred Bickel and Erik Nilsson of Sweden both played in the final stages of the World Cup before and after the Second World War; the only men to do this!)

The Final Pool included Uruguay 5 pts, eventual winners, Brazil 4 pts, Sweden 2pts, and Spain 1 pt.

In those days, 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw.