FIFA made a decision in 1928 to hold a new tournament and on 13th July 1930 it was finally held. The World Cup had been given life. President Jules Rimet’s dream, of bringing teams from around the globe together to one tournament, competing to be crowned champions of the world, was realised.
The first nation to host the World Cup was Uruguay in the year of the country’s centenary celebration of its independence, despite bids from Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain. Unfortunately, at the time that was quite a distance for anyone outside of America to travel and in the end only 13 nations agreed to take part. Moreover, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland were actually ineligible for the first World Cup as they had withdrawn from FIFA at the time. There is a rumour that the Uruguayan Football Association sent an invitation to the English FA, but it was rejected nonetheless.
Furthermore, out of the 13 nations attending there were no teams representing Africa or Asia, belittling the claim that it was a ‘World’ tournament. Out of the four groups, Argentina, Yugoslavia, Uruguay and the USA went through, straight into the semi-finals. The semis both finished a thrilling 6-1, with Argentina and the hosts, Uruguay, proceeding to the final full of confidence. The final saw an attendance of around 80,000 people, who also witnessed their first World Cup disagreement. Remember the debate going on through this World Cup about the ball making the game less exciting? Well a similar feud took place in the final of the first World Cup over what match ball to use. To resolve the issue, FIFA decided that it would be Argentina’s choice of ball for the first half and Uruguay’s choice of ball in the second. After the full time whistle had blown the host nation fans were in chaos as they witnessed their home nation win the first World Cup, beating close rivals Argentina 4-2 in the process.
The 2010 World Cup is a very different arena. 32 teams have taken part in the finals alone, never mind the qualifiers, and teams from continents all over the globe, including Africa and Asia have attended. Now nearing the final match of the tournament, tension is high and the pressure is on. The majority of big teams have fallen at one stage or the other, including France, Italy, England, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal. On a financial note, the winner of the 2010 FIFA World Cup gets a hefty $30 million in prize money, whilst the runners up get $20 million, with the total prize money for the tournament amounting to a staggering $420 million. That certainly gives the teams another incentive other than the prestige of winning the World Cup for their respective countries. Don’t miss out on the World Cup Final on 11th July, 2010.