The 1930 World Cup: Birth of a Global Tradition

[00:00:00] On July 30, 1930, in Montevito, Uruguay in front of 68,000 fans. The very first Fever World Cup was held featuring Uruguay in Argentina, where Uruguay was able to defeat Argentina for to too To take the very first Fever World Champion, but it was a long road to get to this point.

[00:00:25] And here's a story behind the very first Fever World Cup. Today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive in the sports history every day.

[00:00:44] And today's trivia question to listen out for is, why was there only 13 teams to compete in the very first World Cup? When they were supposed to be 14.

[00:00:57] Now in a previous episode, which we'll link in the show notes, we went all over how Fever started back in 1904, which started in Europe. So the question is, how did the very first World Cup come to be played in a small South American country of Uruguay?

[00:01:13] Well, to start with, what they needed to decide why they wanted to have the World Cup to begin with. As they had up until that point helped the summer Olympics hold their football competition on behalf of the IOC,

[00:01:26] but the problem was there was a growth of professional soccer or football being played all over the world. In the moment you became a professional, you were no longer eligible for the summer Olympics.

[00:01:37] So Fever thought they would hold their own tournament outside of the Olympics to be able to include any athlete to play for their country. No matter the status of amateurism or professionalism.

[00:01:51] And at the 17th FIFA Congress held an Amsterdam, they officially accepted to hold their own World Cup that would not be in confines of the Olympic rules. And they would not compete with the Olympics as they would hold it two years after the 1928 Olympics,

[00:02:08] and hold it every four years as to not compete. And so they sent out to their own all participating countries and they gave them a deadline of February 28, 1930 to accept being part of their first World Cup.

[00:02:21] And they wanted to have at least 16 teams for a knockout style tournament. And they would actually have a second division if there was enough teams. But they were not able to get to 16. And the main reason for that was due to it being held in Uruguay.

[00:02:36] And why did Uruguay get the very first World Cup? And the reason was because they were celebrating their first constitution, and they had recently started to build a giant stadium that could hold the event in the Estato Centanario, which would be able to hold almost 70,000 fans.

[00:02:57] But this decision actually was a reason why most countries didn't decide to participate. And it's not because they didn't like Uruguay, it was financial cost as they were currently going through the Great Depression. They had affected not only America but the entire world.

[00:03:13] So many countries thought that the long trip from Europe or Asia would cost too much and take too much time from their players to be traveling back and forth to compete during this time. They were able to get interests from the Americas, both North and South America teams,

[00:03:31] but few interests from the European teams. And by that February deadline there were zero European teams that accepted the offer.

[00:03:39] But as a show of support, the Uruguay football association sent letters saying they would help pay for travel expenses to be able to compete at the first World Cup.

[00:03:50] And this was enough to get four European countries to be able to agree to come to the first World Cup in Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia.

[00:04:00] Which brought their total of commitments up to 16 which on top of those European countries included Mexico, United States, Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Europe.

[00:04:13] Now there was two Asian countries that agreed to show up in Japan and Saeim, who later withdrew their acceptance as they didn't think they could make the trip. And then one African country accepted the invitation in Egypt.

[00:04:28] Although when it came time for the event, they missed their boat and were unable to make it to further start of the competition. So we ended up with only 13 teams out of the 14 that agreed to show up.

[00:04:41] And to just give you an idea of how hard travel was back then, these teams actually did end up traveling together.

[00:04:47] The Romanian's boarded the SS County Verde I in Italy on June 1921 and they went to go pick up the French and then you could Slavians at the French port.

[00:04:58] And then they all went to go pick up the Belgians from Spain and they also had all the referees for the tournament and the trophy for the tournament on board. And while they made their way to South America, they also picked up the Brazilians.

[00:05:12] And after all this on July 4th, 1930, they finally made it to Uruguay on almost two week trip just to make it to a soccer competition, which meant they would take them almost two weeks to completely return that home.

[00:05:27] So just a month taken away from their lives to compete in the soccer tournament, which is pretty incredible when you think about today as it only takes you maybe a day to travel anywhere in the world to compete in these international competitions.

[00:05:40] Then on July 13th, they started the actual World Cup and they did something very similar to what we have today in the World Cup where they had pool play

[00:05:51] where teams are broken up into different groups and all those teams play around Robin, which means you play everyone in that group. And whoever has the most wins and those points goes on to the knockout stage.

[00:06:04] And it's very similar to what we have today and this was on a smaller scale but still very exciting and fun. And they had four groups. Group one had Argentina, Chile, France and Mexico, which had Argentina winning and going to the knockout stage.

[00:06:19] Group two had Brazil, Bolveria and Yugoslavia where Yugoslavia was the winner in qualified for the knockout stage. Group three featured Uruguay, Peru and Romania and Uruguay, the home country one out and made it to the knockout stage. And the final group was Belgium, Paraguay in the United States.

[00:06:42] The United States was able to win this group and head to the knockout stage. And the knockout stage featured a couple of blowouts where the United States took on Argentina in a drain-ranged battle where Argentina came out on top six to one.

[00:06:59] And the other match was Yugoslavia versus Uruguay. In Uruguay with the local crowd, by its side was able to dominate and win six to one as well. Setting up Argentina and Uruguay on all South America world cup in on July 30th, 1930 in front of almost 70,000 fans.

[00:07:22] Played at the stadium that won them the right to host the games. The studio sent through in Montevito, Uruguay, started a tradition that is still going to this day.

[00:07:35] And at this time, many countries had their own style of ball and the ball was not as uniform as it is today. As every soccer ball back then was made by hand.

[00:07:45] And there were little differences depending on where your country you were from and how you were used to these balls. And so each team was fighting to use their ball for the World Cup final.

[00:07:55] And people made a compromise saying that Argentina could use their local ball in the first half and Uruguay could use theirs in the second half. As the game started, it was a hard fought battle between both teams.

[00:08:09] And it wasn't until 12 minutes when Pablo Durando put Uruguay on top. But just eight minutes later, Argentina wing Carlos Felacce was able to match it, making the score one to one. And after a hard fought first half, Argentina had the lead two to one.

[00:08:28] But coming out in the second half, Uruguay went out aggressively and in the 12th minute of the second half. Pedro Sia was able to tie it up two to two. Then in the 68th minute Santos Arate gave them the lead and they would not look back.

[00:08:45] And with just a minute left in the game, Hector Castro sealed the game in the victory for Uruguay with the final score of four to two. Making Uruguay the very first World Cup champion. And this World Cup was a great success as they continued in in 1934.

[00:09:05] They had 36 countries apply for entry and had had qualifications to get that number down to 16. And Uruguay showed its power as a national team in the 1950. They would again win the World Cup.

[00:09:21] But Argentina would have to wait a little while and it wasn't until 1978 when they won their first World Cup. But they also won in 1986 and in 2022. And Uruguay wasn't the only country to win the World Cup while also hosting as in 1934. Italy hosted the World Cup and won.

[00:09:44] And in the host is also won when England hosted in 1966 in West Germany in 1974, as well as Argentina in 1978. And this won tournament has led to the growth of soccer all over the world. And it's one of the most popular sporting events ever to be held.

[00:10:04] In 1991 they branched out and started to hold the women's World Cup, which is grown in popularity as well. Showing that soccer is still alive and strong.

[00:10:16] Now I want to thank you for jumping back in the past with us to learn all about this great crazy start to this tournament. And if you liked it, I want to hear about it. Please connect with us on our social media. We're on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube,

[00:10:30] Macedon, Dreads, wherever you'd like to socialize, we are there. You can follow us at Daily Sports History or even leave us a message or a voice. We're on our website, dailysporthistory.com and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History.

[00:10:47] And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question? Why were there only 13 teams that competed in the very first World Cup when they were supposed to be 14? Well it's because the only African country Egypt missed their boat.