10 things you should know about the Fifa World Cup

[Ayo Akinfe]

[1] Do you k know that the first ever World Cup was hosted by Uruguay in 1930? There were 13 teams that participated in this tournament - Argentina, Uruguay, USA, Yugoslavia, France, Mexico, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Romania, Peru and Paraguay

[2] Back then, teams used to travel by boat, so few European teams chose to participate because of the difficulty of travelling to South America. Only Four European teams - Yugoslavia, Romania, France and Belgium were present

[3] I am surprised though that England, who have always laid claims to be the home of football and the developers of the modern game were not present. Do you know that England did not in fact feature in the World Cup until 1950, which was the fourth tournament. They withdrew from Fifa in 1920 and only returned in 1946. England basically did not want to feature in a tournament with countries it had been at war with and as usual, the normal British arrogance of objecting to "foreign interference" in our football was also an issue

[4] Uruguay won the first ever World Cup, beating Argentina 4-2 in the final

[5] Few South American teams were willing to travel to Europe for the 1934 and 1938 tournaments, with Brazil the only South American team to compete in both. Hence why Brazil is the only team to have ever participated in every tournament so far

[6] In 1938, hosts Italy were still required to qualify, the first and only time the host nation was not granted automatic qualification

[7] The 1934 World Cup was the first for which teams had to qualify to take part. Africa and Asia were offered one slot, which Egypt took up. Egypt was placed in a group with Turkey and Palestine, then a British mandate. Turkey withdrew and Egypt beat Palestine 7-1 in Cairo and 4-1 in Jerusalem to qualify for the World Cup finals. In 1934, Egypt lost 2-4 to Hungary in Naples with Abdulrahman Fawzi scoring twice to become the first African to score at the World Cup finals

[8] In 1954, Egypt was the only African country to apply to compete at the World Cup. They were placed in a two-team group with Italy, but lost 1-2 in Cairo and 1-5 in Milan and thus did not qualify

[9] In 1962, Morocco sought to be the second African country to qualify for the World Cup. After elominating Tunisia and Ghana, Morocco proceeded to a Uefa/Caf playoff with Spain. They lost both legs of this playoff, meaning that no African nation made it to the World Cup finals for the fifth time in a row

[10] Fifa's allocation of only one place to three continents (Africa, Asia, Oceania) was subject to significant criticism, especially given the large increase in applications from newly independent African countries. After Ffa confirmed the allocation, the remaining fifteen African nations withdrew in protest. As such by 1970, Fifa was forced to grant Africa an automatic slot, which Morocco took up. At the 1970 World Cup, Morocco was placed in Group Four along with West Germany, Peru, and Bulgaria. They lost 1–2 to eventual semi-finalists West Germany, lost 0–3 to Peru and drew 1–1 with Bulgaria

[Workman]

Thanks for the info. I consider myself a World Cup "guru" but the 1954 and 1962 info about Africa was informative.

[Lager-back]

I think you forgot number 11 which is interesting.

Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines all withdrew before the draw, so India qualified automatically. But India later also withdrew "because of the expense of traveling such a long way to play,"[2] and the AIFF wanted to concentrate on the Olympics.[3] Although according to some reports, it was caused by a FIFA ruling that players were not allowed to play barefoot.[4] FIFA decided not to invite anyone else, leaving the World Cup three teams short.

[Lager-back]

I think you forgot number 11 which is interesting.

Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines all withdrew before the draw, so India qualified automatically. But India later also withdrew "because of the expense of traveling such a long way to play,"[2] and the AIFF wanted to concentrate on the Olympics.[3] Although according to some reports, it was caused by a FIFA ruling that players were not allowed to play barefoot.[4] FIFA decided not to invite anyone else, leaving the World Cup three teams short.

1950 world cup

[Ayo Akinfe]

I think you forgot number 11 which is interesting.

Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines all withdrew before the draw, so India qualified automatically. But India later also withdrew "because of the expense of traveling such a long way to play,"[2] and the AIFF wanted to concentrate on the Olympics.[3] Although according to some reports, it was caused by a FIFA ruling that players were not allowed to play barefoot.[4] FIFA decided not to invite anyone else, leaving the World Cup three teams short.

(1) You are right in that India qualified for the 1950 World Cup but did not attend
(2) I have always been perplexed as to why India has never taken to football
(3) If India showed the same passion for football as it does for cricket, she will be up there with the Brazil’s of this world
(4) Also, I wonder why “soccer” has never really taken off in the US. They are one of the founders of the World Cup
(5) England for all their arrogance have been a marginal figure in the World Cup
(6) In Africa, we actually owe Egypt a debt of gratitude for opening the way for our continent
(7) Morocco also needs to be praised for her heroics in 1970
(8) In 1978, Tunisia became the first African nation to win a World Cup match
(9) Of late, sub-Saharan Africans have taken over but it was the Arabs that led the way for our continent
(10) Come 2018, we will have two Arab and three West African nations representing our continent. I just hope they all scale through. Imagine five African nations in the second round!