Football World Cup History, Part 1

Football - World Cup History The Football World Cup has its roots in the Olympic football tournament contested in the early 1900s. During a period when the relatively new sport of association football was steadily growing in popularity, the sport was added to the Summer Olympics schedule as a demonstration sport.

By 1908 football had proved to be such a popular addition to the event that it was given official Olympic status, and teams of amateurs from various nations played for Olympic medals for the first time that year. However, the tournament fell short of football’s governing body, FIFA’s, desire to see professional national teams contest an international competition.

[[Football World Cup]]

The First Football World Cup

In the 1920s a number of visionary French football administrators, led by Jules Rimet, proposed an international football tournament for the best professional players from each football-playing nation. It took Rimet’s plans almost a decade to come to fruition, before the first Football World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930.

The inaugural Football World Cup was a modest affair, with only 13 teams making the long journey to Uruguay. Latin American teams dominated the championship, with Argentina facing Uruguay in the final, in front of over 90,000 fans in Montevideo.

A Time of Change

The Football World Cup was held twice more in the 1930s, once in Italy and once in France. 16 teams participated in each of these events, with Italy lifting the World Cup on both occasions. The 1938 World Cup would prove to be the last for more than a decade as Europe was plunged into war soon after the event.

It took two years for the Football World Cup to be resurrected at the end of World War Two. The first post-war tournament was held in Brazil in 1950, and was won by Uruguay. Four years later the Football World Cup was back in Europe, where Germany claimed the first of their three World Cup titles.

The Brazil Legend Begins

The Football World Cup stayed in Europe in 1958, with Sweden hosting the event. By this time the tournament had already established itself as one of the most popular sporting events in the world, and a rapidly advancing media machine broadcast grainy live images of Brazil winning its first Football World Cup title.

Learn more about the Modern History of the Football World Cup.