FIFA, formed in May 1904, had 41 national members by 1930, a number that had grown having seen the success of soccer in the recent Olympic movement, which was open only to amateurs of course.
June is one of those months when there is (well at least once in four years!!) quite a lot of chat about the World Cup, since this is the time of the year for THE global tournament. The World Cup was first held in July 1930 in Uruguay, played for by 13 nations (only) and won by the hosts. Countries choosing to join in were: Group 1: France, Mexico, Argentina, Chile. Group 2: Yugoslavia, Brazil, Bolivia. Group 3: Romania, Peru, Uruguay. Group 4: USA, Belgium, Paraguay. Uruguay won the final in Montevideo 4-2 beating Argentina. Those in bold not Latin American!
The Czech side had 11 players from only TWO clubs...Sparta and Slavia! A record.
In 1934, the honour of being the first European country to host the World Cup Finals, fell to Italy (left), and guess what? on June 10th, Italy won the trophy, beating Czechoslovakia 2-1 in Rome. Mussolini's Fascists were in charge of the country; a great propaganda "platform" for the Italians.
Sixteen nations took part in this finals – including hosts Italy plus Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Note, no South Americans.
None of the British countries were there – they weren’t members of FIFA and so not eligible to enter the World Cup. The reigning champions Uruguay didn’t take part either-to far to travel?
As you know, Uruguay hosted – and won – the first World Cup in 1930 and weren’t too chuffed that only 4 European nations bothered to travel to Uruguay for the finals and so by not attending the 1934 finals, was Uruguay’s form of protest!! Mind you, do you know how long it took, at that tme, to get from Europe to Uruguay?? (or vice versa??)
In 1934, here were no group matches just a straight knock-out competition, which saw the 4 non-European nations (US (lost to Italy 7-1), Brazil (lost to Spain 3-1), Argentina (Lostj to Sweden 3-2), Egypt (lost to Hungary 4-2)) all eliminated after their first match. All that way for one game.
The Europeans went on to Round Two (Q-Finals) and in the Semis were Italy beating Austria 1-0 and The Czechs beating Germany 3-1.
Then in the final, in front of around 55,000 at the Stadio Nazionale PNF in Rome, on 10th June 1934, hosts Italy became world champions with their 2-1 victory after extra time, over Czechoslovakia. 55,000 saw the game.
Below, the picture is the Italian form of football-calcio, not present in this tournament!
Italy had three Argentinians in their squad, allowed because they played in the Italian League.
The Czech side had 11 players from only TWO clubs...Sparta and Slavia! A record.
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