Today marks the ninetieth anniversary of the start of the first World Cup soccer tournament, which was hosted in Uruguay from 13 to 30 July 1930.
Uruguay was chosen to host by the FIFA, after a conference was held in Barcelona on May 18, 1929, as Uruguay would celebrate the centenary of its independence, but this decision did not appeal to some countries, specifically the European ones, where the old continent was floundering Back then in a severe financial crisis. Also, participating in a World Cup held outside the European borders, it was necessary for the participating teams to suffer the hardship of traveling for a long time before reaching Montevideo, as this meant that European clubs would be deprived of the services of their most prominent players for a long time.
All the football teams affiliated with the International Football Federation are invited to participate in the tournament as a whole, as 13 countries participated in the first championship, seven of which were from South America, four from Europe, and two from North America.
The organization of the World Cup was different from what it is now, as it was not being held during the qualifying system, and all thirteen teams attended by invitation, and the draw of the finals was not taken until after all the participating teams arrived in Uruguay.
The participating teams made impressive artistic performances, and the opening match witnessed a funny incident when the referee blew his final whistle six minutes before the end of the original time. After strong protests, the referee returned to demand that the players return to the field, knowing that some of them had been washed after the match.
The opening match brought France to its Mexican counterpart, ending in a deserving victory for the first 4-1, while the final match landed the landlords in front of their Argentine neighbors. After the Uruguay national team was left behind at the end of the first half, the host team succeeded in returning from afar, turning its delay in the result into a 4-2 victory, and thus winning the cup title designed by French sculptor Abel LaFleur.
The celebrations in Montevideo did not stop for several days, to the point with which the country's authorities announced the next day of the match, corresponding to July 31, a national holiday.
Uruguay's victory in the first round title was a real start for the FIFA World Cup legend, as the global nature of football and its wide spread around the world were officially announced.
The idea of a World Cup:
Football officially saw the creation of FIFA in 1904, but only in 1924 during the Olympic Games in Paris, it was not formally practiced in a major tournament. In this major sporting event, which is held every four years, teams for the first time participated from different continents to compete for the title.
The Olympic Games achieved unprecedented success, especially in the final match that brought together Uruguay and Switzerland and ended in the interest of the representative of South America, attended by 50,000 spectators.
But in the next edition, which was held in Amsterdam in 1928, several countries announced their reluctance to participate, so it seemed necessary to create a football tournament, especially in light of the growth of professional football.
On May 26, 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam approved the holding of the first world session in 1930, when it was agreed to open the door for participation to all the federations under the banner of FIFA. On May 18, 1929, the FIFA Congress in Barcelona, Spain, granted the honor to host the first edition of the FIFA World Cup in Uruguay.