The first football World Cup was held between 13 and 30 July, 1930 in Uruguay, in Montevideo, the capital of this South American country. 13 national teams participated. The tournament was an invitational tournament, no qualifiers were held, and all teams that responded to FIFA’s invitation could come to Uruguay.
At the Congress in Barcelona on 18 May, 1929, FIFA decided that the first place for the World Cup and the review of the best football selections would be Uruguay and its capital, Montevideo. The decision was made on the basis of two important facts: that Uruguay celebrated the centenary of independence that year, but also that at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928, as well as 4 years earlier in Paris, the Uruguay football team was the Olympic champion.
The decision of the World Football Association to award the organization of the premier “Mundial” to Uruguay, as the first football superpower of that era to consecutive winners of the Olympic tournaments in 1924 and 1928, competitions that brought together the best national teams in the world, caused outrage in Europe. The English, although very interested in showing their strength, decided to boycott the championship, considering that the organization of the first World Cup should have been awarded to the country where modern football was born. Italy, Spain, the Netherlands also canceled their trip to Uruguay…
As difficult as it was to organize the first world championship, it was as much, if not more difficult, to gather the participants to play in it. Due to the high costs, but also the length of the trip (the trip lasted about 3 weeks and most of the selections “did” part of the preparations on the ships), many representatives, especially the European ones that had to cross the Atlantic, decided not to participate. At that time, it seemed that only American national teams would participate or that the championship would not even be organized. However, thanks to the agility and determination of FIFA, that changed after all, because this was the only championship for which qualifications were not required, while FIFA, with the help of the Uruguayan government, paid the travel expenses of all participating national teams and one of the main problems was solved.
And so, the final tournament featured the selections of Argentina, Chile, France, Mexico, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Bolivia, Romania, Peru, the United States of America, Paraguay, Belgium and the host Uruguay.
The entire World Cup in Uruguay was played in only 3 stadiums, which is almost unimaginable from today’s perspective. More precisely, the championship was played in only 2 stadiums for the first 5 days, while the biggest one was not completely finished. Of course, that first match at the biggest Centenario stadium, or the popular “football temple” with a projected capacity of around 100,000 was reserved for the host when he played against Peru, and at the very opening of the stadium there was about 85,000 spectators. 10 out of 18 matches in the entire championship were played at this stadium, including both semi-finals and the final.
Next in terms of capacity was the Gran Parque Central Stadium, owned by Nacional, with 20,000 seats, where 6 matches were played. The last one was the Pocitos Stadium, owned by Peñarol, with a capacity of about 10,000 seats. Only 2 games were played there, but this stadium went down in history because the first goal in the World Cups was scored there. It was scored by the Frenchman Lucien Laurent, with a goal in the 19th minute in the game against the Mexico.
The competition system at this first championship was made so that all the teams were divided into 4 groups and the winners of the groups automatically became participants in the semi-finals, which also seems unimaginable from today’s point of view. Since there were 13 participants, only one group had 4 selections, while all the others had 3. Before the draw, it was known that each group would have its own seed. The host Uruguay, followed by Argentina, Brazil and the USA were seeded and waiting for their opponents. After the draw, all the groups were known.
The first group was the largest and also the only one with 4 participants: Argentina, France, Mexico and Chile.
The interesting things related to the matches of this group were:
- in the game between Argentina and Mexico, refereed by the Bolivian manager, the first penalty in the world championships was awarded, and then 4 more in the same game.
- In the same game, the first hat-trick was achieved (which was renamed to the second in order since 2006), and it was done by the Argentinian Guillermo Stabile, the best scorer of this championship.
- The end of the match between Argentina and France was originally played in the 84th minute, but only after the protest of the French was it continued, the players were returned from the dressing rooms and finished regularly.
- The main detail of the match that directly decided the semi-final between Argentina and Chile was a massive fight between the players of both teams.
Group 2
Brazil, Yugoslavia and Bolivia.
The interesting things related to this group were:
- Yugoslavian team consisted only of Serbs, mainly composed of players from two clubs (BSK and Yugoslavia) due to the Croat boycott because the headquarters of the football association had been moved from Zagreb to Belgrade.
- What is perhaps less well known is that the Brazilians were also weakened and made up of players who played for clubs from Rio de Janeiro.
Group 3
Uruguay, Romania and Peru.
Interesting things in this group were:
- In the match between Romania and Peru, the first red card at the World Cups was shown, and the Peruvian Placido Galindo was expelled.
- The home team waited 5 days from the opening of the championship to play their first game, as they waited for the Centenario Stadium to be completed.
Group 4
USA, Belgium and Paraguay.
The interesting things about this group were:
- The USA team was made up of Americans, but also Englishmen with American passports.
- In the match USA – Paraguay, the first hat-trick in history was scored, which had to wait 76 years to be publicly recognized by FIFA, and was achieved by Bert Petenaude.
The first semi-final between Argentina and the USA was played on 26 July, and it was uncertain only in the first half when the Argentine team led 1:0, and in the second half a real cannonade from the Argentines followed, while the Americans only managed to reduce the result to some extent and they score an consolation goal. The result at the end was 6:1 for Argentina.
The second semi-final between Uruguay and Yugoslavia, played on 27 July, the result was the same 6:1 (3:1), but the events on the field were significantly different. Namely, Yugoslavia took the lead in the 4th minute and surprised both the audience and the home players. After that, everything went to the mill of the hosts. Carried away by a great roar from the stands, where at that moment there were over 80,000 people, the home team started to play much better, first they equalized, and then they took the lead.
The grand final was played on 30 July at the Centenario Stadium, unofficially in front of around 100,000 fans, and officially in front of 93,000 people. It again had a lot of bizarre situations and a domestic trial. The gates of the stadium were open for 6 hours before the start of the match due to unprecedented interest. The two national teams had an argument before the very beginning for a very unusual reason: they could not agree on which ball to play the final with, because each national team insisted that theirs should be played with. That knot was cut by Gilles Rime himself and brought about the Solomonic solution: the first half would be played with the ball that the Argentines wanted, and the second with the one that the hosts wanted.
And the result itself, coincidentally, moved in the same way. The Argentines won the first half with 2:1, and in the second half the hosts turned around and won with 4:2. With that, they became the first official champions of the world and grabbed the Golden Goddess, a trophy intended for the winner of the world championship.
It was the reason for a fierce fight between fans of Uruguay and Argentina on the streets of Montevideo. The guests, of course, were very mad and everything ended with a political conflict at the highest levels and a break in diplomatic relations. The ambassadors were ground up again only after the Second World War!
