The First World Cup

On July 13, 1930, France defeats Mexico with a 4-1 score and the United States defeats Belgium with a 3-0 score in the first-ever World Cup football matches, played simultaneously in host city Montevideo, Uruguay. The World Cup has since become the world’s most watched sporting event.

After football was dropped from the program for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, FIFA President Jules Rimet helped to organize an international tournament in 1930. Much to the dismay of European footballers, Uruguay, winner of back-to-back gold medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics and 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, was chosen to host the inaugural World Cup. While there was depression in Europe, many players were afraid their day jobs would be lost by the time they got back. They were either unable or unwilling to attend the tournament. As a result, some of the most accomplished European teams, including three-time Olympic gold medalist England and football enthusiasts Italy, Spain, Germany and Holland did not make an appearance at the first World Cup. However, when Uruguay agreed to help pay traveling expenses, Rimet was able to convince Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In Romania, King Carol selected the team members himself, and gave them a three month vacation from their jobs and guaranteed the players would be employed when they returned. Going into the tournament Uruguay and Argentina were the favorites, while France and the United States also two competitive team in the tournament.

n the first round, France’s Lucien Laurent scored the first-ever World Cup goal. In its second game, France lost to Argentina 1-0 amid controversy over the referees ending the game six minutes early. Once the problem was discovered, the referees had to bring the Argentine players back onto the field to play the final minutes. After beating Belgium, the United States beat Paraguay to set up a semi-final match with Argentina, which they lost 6-1. Still, the semi-final placement was the best U.S. World Cup finish to date. In the first World Cup final, held on July 30, 1930, 93,000 spectators looked on as Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in a rematch of the 1928 Olympic gold medal game. Uruguay went on to win its second World Cup in 1950 with a 2-1 win over Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.

The success of the Olympic Football Tournament intensified FlFa’s wish for its own world championship. Questionnaires were sent to the affiliated associations, asking whether they agreed to the organisation of a tournament and under what conditions. A special committee examined the question, with President Jules Rimet the driving force. He was aided by the untiring Secretary of the French Football Federation, Henri Delaunay. Following a remarkable proposal by the Executive Committee, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam on 28 May 1928 decided to stage a world championship organised by FIFA. Now, the organising country had to be chosen. Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden submitted their candidatures. Right from the start, Uruguay was the favourite and not simply for its Olympic gold medal wins in 1924 and 1928 - the country was celebrating its 100th anniversary of independence in 1930 at great expense. Moreover, its national association was willing to cover all the costs, including the travel and accommodation of the participating teams. Any possible profit would be shared, while Uruguay would take on the deficit. These arguments were decisive.

The FIFA Congress in Barcelona in 1929 assigned Uruguay as first host country of the FIFA World Cup. The other candidates had withdrawn. The FIFA World Cup should have taken place for the fourth time in 1942 but the outbreak of World War Two meant otherwise. Although FIFA maintained its Zurich offices throughout the conflict, it was not until 1 July 1946 in Luxembourg that the Congress met again. Thirty-four associations were represented and they gave Rimet a special Jubilee gift. From now on, the FIFA World Cup trophy would be called the Jules Rimet Cup.

The Romanians boarded the SS Conte Verde at Genoa, the French were picked up at Villefranche sur Meron on June 21, 1930 and the Belgians embarked at Barcelona. The Conte Verde carried Rimet, the trophy and the three designated European referees the Belgians Jean Langenus and Henri Christophe, along with Thomas Balway, a Parisian who may have been English. The Brazilian team was picked up when the boat docked in Rio de Janeiro on 29 June before arriving in Uruguay on July 4. Yugoslavia travelled on the mail steamship to Florida from Marseille.

The World Cup evolved from around only thirteen teams competing to around thirty two teams competing for the World Cup today. It also made many players from around the world get known better in other countries. It takes players from leagues in their country and puts all of them on one big team to compete against the other countries. Many turned away from other sports to look at this new sport being competed by countries to see who’s the best. There were about 500,000 fans that attended the first World Cup, and it has evolved into around 3.4 million people attending world cup matches around the world today. Also the World Cup is played four years, when it’s played many come to attend.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup in history. It is scheduled to take place in Russia, after the country was awarded the hosting rights on 2 December in 2010. The tournament will start on June fourteenth and the final match will be played on July fifteenth to decide the World Cup winner of 2018. After all we can say that the FIFA World Cup has evolved from something small to one of the most popular sports in the world 3.43 million people watching around 64 games to see who will take home the Cup.