The Story Behind The First World Cup

It’s no secret that fútbol, or soccer if you want to say it the wrong way, is the most popular sport in the world with the World Cup being its biggest event.

The competition achieved its biggest moment in the spotlight back in 2018, when an estimated 3.5 billion people tuned in to the Russian broadcast. That’s 30 times the amount of viewers during the most watched Super Bowl ever. The first competition was held in 1930 and set the stage for the sports spectacle it is today. No, it didn’t take place in Brazil or some European powerhouse, but actually in Uruguay!

Before the world cup became the sport’s supreme international competition, football around the globe was just taking shape. In fact, the first international competition was in Glasgow, Scotland circa 1872. Football became an official competition of the Olympics in 1908, but was only regarded as a competition for amateurs, and still is to this day.

However, the event was becoming really popular, pushing FIFA to host an international competition of its own. With Uruguay winning the Olympic competition in 1924 and 1928, FIFA chose the country to host the inaugural World Cup in 1930 that would incidentally coincide with its 100th anniversary of independence.

The tournament ran into a few snags. For one, FIFA removed the qualification requirement to participate. Meaning any country affiliated with FIFA could participate and simply had to travel down to Uruguay. They had no problem drawing interest in the western hemisphere as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and the United States agreed to play. However, with 2 months before the tournament started not a single European team agreed to play.

Short on attendees and having not yet finished the brand new 90,000 seat Estadio Centenario, the first world cup was at risk of flopping worse than Luis Suárez. It wasn’t until pressure both FIFA officials like president Jules Rimet, and world leaders like Romanian King Carol II, that convinced teams from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to all hop on the SS Conte Verde and head for Montevideo.

The tournament was fiercely competitive, except for Bolivia which collapsed nearly every game. French player Lucien Laurent scored the first ever goal, and American Bert Patenaude scored the first World Cup hat trick against Paraguay.

The championship game was a rematch of the 1928 Olympic final with Argentina looking to take revenge against their neighbor Uruguay. The game gathered so much interest, that several boats carrying thousands of Argentina fans were heading to Montevideo to support their team, but weren’t able to dock at the busy ports before kickoff. Tensions were so high that the referee agreed to officiate only if a nearby boat would be ready for him to leave at a moment’s notice.

The two teams also couldn’t agree on which ball to use for the final. To settle this, Argentina supplied the ball for the first half, and Uruguay for the second. In the game, Argentina would gain an early lead, but it was home team Uruguay that would prevail, beating Argentina 4-2 to become the first ever winners of the World Cup. 

After the first tournament for the first world cup, host country Uruguay went on to protest the next 2 tournaments as they both took place in Europe, going against an agreement that the world cup would alternate between continents. After a 2 tournament hiatus due to World War II, Uruguay won its second and most recent championship in 1950, in which they beat host Brazil 2-1 in a shocking upset that is now referred to as the Maracanazo.

FIFA president Jules Rimet would later be credited as the inventor of the world cup and the iconic trophy would be named after him. The trophy would go missing in 1966 and, this is a true story, be found by a dog named Pickles. That is until it was stolen again in 1983 after being given to Brazil and is rumored to have been melted down by thieves.

Now you know the history of the very first World Cup! For more fútbol, check out LATV’s Quest To Qatar covering all the action in the Middle East.