1950 WORLD CUP FINAL IN BRAZIL, REFFED BY GEORGE READER

The 1950 World Cup did not have a planned Final match. The outcome was to be decided by a Final Pool of four teams. Results between the hosts, Brazil and Uruguay, Sweden and Spain meant that the final match of the tournament featured the two South American teams-Brazil and Uruquay with Brazil only needing to avoid defeat at the Maracana, to become Champions.

The final match, on July 16th, attracted a World record crowd of 210,000, most of whom expected Brazil to win. On July 3rd, they had beaten Sweden 7-1 (reffed by Arthur Ellis of England who later became a referee in BBC's televsion game show, "It's a knockout"!!). Brazil then beat Spain 6-1 on July 13th: reffed by Reg Leafe of England, while Uruquay could only draw 2-2 with Spain on July 9th (reffed by Englishman, George Reader) and scraped a win over Sweden 3-2, reffed by Italian, Giovanni Galeati, on July 13th!

The Rio de Janeiro, Mayor, spoke to the team and crowd before the match saying; "You, who in less than a few hours, will be hailed as Champions by millions of compatriots! I already salute you as victors!" A fateful speech before what would go down in history as "The Fateful Final".

The sale of oranges and soft drinks had been banned as, according to Reuters, they were "handy weapons for anyone who disagrees with the referee!" Brazil went one up after 46 minutes through Friaca and 20 minutes later, Uruguay winger Alcide Ghiggia skipped past Brazilian left back, Bigode and crossed  for Schiaffino to equalise. With 11 minutes to go, Uruguay's Ghiggia Bigode again and shot past keeper Moacyr Barbosa. After the final whistle there was a silence from the crowd and the atmosphere was "morbid, sometimes too difficult to bear". The British United Press reported that "women were prostrate with grief, the announcer thunderstruck".

A heavy load was borne by Barbosa, who was blamed for the loss....."The maximum punishment in Brazil is 30 years imprisonment", he said just before his death in 2000, "but I have been paying for something I am not even responsible for, 50 years."

The Brazilians, as 1/10 favourites, had been promised bonuses of the equivalent of £10,000. They scored 22 goals in the final ties. Bolivia scored ZERO!

In the tournament there were NO sendings off and no OWN GOALS. Goals per game averaged 4.00. Bolivia qualified through to the final stages and scored NO GOALS. England (Played 3 Won 1) did not qualify from their pool, coming second to Spain (Played 3 won 3). England had lost to the USA!! 1-0 and Spain 1-0. But they had opened their account against Chile winning 2-0!!!