The World Cup

Even though FIFA was formed as early as 1904, it took them almost three decades to start a true international competition. The Olympic tournament had been the only tournament so far with world wide participation, but that was for amateurs only.

FIFA and the International Olympic Committee were at loggerheads over who should control the Olympic soccer tournament. FIFA announced they were the highest footballing authority and so should run a tournament claiming to be the biggest soccer event in the world. With many top nations withdrawing from the Olympics in 1928, among them Denmark and England, FIFA made a decision. They accepted the resolution of Henri Delaunay, secretary of the French FA since 1919 until his death in 1956, that a World Cup competition would be organized immediately.

FIFA duly announced its plan to run its own competition, open to all affiliated countries. They did not immediately give name to the competition, but the world's press were quick to give it their own title. "World Cup", "World Soccer Championship" and "La Coupe de Monde" were favourite descriptions. Another was the "Jules Rimet Cup". Eventually that was how the World Cup officially became known, thus honouring the man who had done so much for FIFA in drumming up support amongst member nations.

By May 1929, FIFA still had not finalized plans for the first championship, although they had announced it would take place in 1930. The host nation had not been selected and as talks dragged on, it was apparent that finance was to be the biggest problem in running such a tournament, particularly if it was to be a true world championship.

Rodolfe Seeldrayers, the FIFA vice-president, proposed that the country given the honour of staging the first tournament should make funds available for (in the following order of priority) transport and accommodation expenses for referees, FIFA members and the teams. This was clearly going to be an expensive proposition for any national FA to undertake, but there were some willing takers. Holland, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay had all put their names forward, but Sweden and Holland soon withdrew and lent their support to Italy's claim. The South American nations stood by Uruguay, and the rest of the European candidates soon withdrew for various reasons.

So it was all left to Uruguay, the only remaining nominee. At last the dream was about to be realized, the date was set and the host country selected. Uruguay staged the first world cup