World Cup
The first games appeared in Uruguay in 1930
Teams
There were a total of thirteen teams in the first World Cup. Seven teams from South America; Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Peru and Bolivia. Four teams from Europe; France, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Romania. Two teams from North America; USA and Mexico. The winner of the tournament was the home team, Uruguay who defeated Argentina 4-2 in the finals. Throughout the tournament there were 70 goals in 18 matches.
Differences Now and Then
The FIFA World Cup happens every 4 years, and the men and women are separated. FIFA stands for Federation Internationale de Football Association. The first games had a total of 13 teams, while the most recent games had 32. Also, they only played 18 games where as now, teams play 64 games. The attendance in Uruguay was 590,549 people and in Brazil last year there were 3,429,873 people.
1930 Trophy
The winner of the World Cup in the 1930 time period took this trophy home as an acknowledgement of their win.
Goal!!
Uruguay wins against the rivals, Argentina, for the first World Cup title.
2014 Trophy
Now, the trophy that the winning team takes home looks like this.
Interesting Facts
- Most teams declined the invitation to participate in the 1930 World Cup because without the invention of the airplane taking off.
- Romania, France, Belgium and the Brazilian national team all traveled together in the same ship to the games.
- USA's coach, when running on to the field to assist an injured player, knocked himself out by inhaling a toxic fume. He then had to be carried out on a stretcher.
- The final match ball was played with two separate game balls because Argentina chose the ball for the first half and Uruguay for the second.
- This was the first event to introduce the concept of the round robin play.
1994 Games in United States of America
60 years later, the World Cup is hosted in the United States for the first time. Brazil ends up beating Italy in penalty shoot out, 3-2. The World Cup has come a long way since the 1930s. By improving the stadiums and the teams with more quality players, the standards improved. The world cup has become the most watched sporting event in the world with 715.1 million for the 2010 finals.
The Start
The World Cup was founded by the president of FIFA, Jules Rimet. He was supported by his decision in creating the World Cup by the Secretary of the French Football Federation, Henry Delaunay. The decision was made final by the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam on May 28th, 1928. The next step in creating these games was to decide who would host. Uruguay volunteered to host because they would be celebrating its 100th anniversary of independence. Uruguay won by default since all the other candidates withdrew. These similar concepts to the World Cup still go on to this day.
1930
One of the game balls used in the final of the 1930 World Cup.
1930
The other game ball used in the final of the 1930 World Cup.
2014
The 2014 World Cup Final game ball.
Estadio Centenario
This stadium, known as Estadio Centenario, was built between 1929 and 1930 but wasn't completely finished until the 5th day of the tournament. The construction costed about $1,000,000. The capacity of the stadium is 65,000 people and the record attendance was 96,000 people when Uruguay played Yugoslavia.
Maracana Stadium
This was the stadium for the finals for 2014 in Brazil. The total capacity of this stadium is about 78,000 people. Ironically, the record attendance was almost 200,000 people when Brazil played Uruguay. It costed $200 million to build and was built 1948-1950 and was renovated in 2000, 2006, and 2013.