Once again this summer - like every 4 years, we will all dance to the rhythm of the FIFA World Cup, hosted for the first time in the African continent by beautiful South Africa. FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) is the absolute governing organization for international football, and it was founded for the first time in 1904. FIFA started as a federation responsible to schedule and control international football matches while making sure the rules of the game are properly enforced and remain uniform around the globe.
In 1924 and after a long fight with the English Football Federation, FIFA took control of everything regarding football and started by organising and bringing the tournament in the Olympic Games. The success in the Olympics was huge and the president of FIFA Jules Rimet had the brilliant idea of creating a World Cup competition that would occur every few years with countries from every corner of the world participating. The very first World Cup finals took place in Uruguay in 1930 without a qualifying round before. Uruguay was chosen since the country was the Olympic Gold medallist, ans was also celebrating 100 years of independence that same year. FIFA invited all countries/members of the Federation to participate in the first World Cup, but the trip to South America was a huge problem especially for most European football teams. Just two months before the opening game no country had the money to come play in Uruguay so Jules Rimet convinced the local government to cover all expenses. Even then only four countries from Europe decided to take the 3-week long boat journey to Uruguay, bringing the total number of participating nations to 13: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Belgium, Chile, France, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Yugoslavia, the United States and of course host Uruguay.
- All games were played in the capital of Uruguay Montevideo
- France beat Mexico 4-1 in the opening game, these 5 goals were a record for World Cup opener until 2006
- Both Uruguay and Argentina won their semi-final games with the same score 6-1 advancing to the first ever World Cup final
- The final game was in front a record 93,000 spectators on July 30 1930 and Uruguay won the first World Cup trophy
- Despite the many problems and lack of European support Uruguay managed to make a small profit of 280,000 USD from the tournament
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