First World Cup
Estadio Centenario, the location of the first World Cup final in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay
Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with President Jules Rimet the driving force, again started looking at staging its own international tournament outside of the Olympics. On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship organised by FIFA.[8] With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions (as 1924 was the start of FIFA's professional era) and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament.
The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides. Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet eventually persuaded teams from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total thirteen nations took part: seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America.
The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously on 13 July 1930, and were won by France and USA, who defeated Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France.[9] In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and in doing so became the first nation to win the World Cup
World Cup Summaries of previous tournaments
• France 1938 - Winners: Italy
• Brazil 1950 - Winners: Uruguay
• Switzerland 1954 - Winners: West Germany
• Sweden 1958 - Winners: Brazil
• Chile 1962 - Winners: Brazil
• England 1966 - Winners: England
• Mexico 1970 - Winners: Brazil
• West Germany 1974 - Winners: West Germany
• Argentina 1978 - Winners: Argentina
• Spain 1982 - Winners: Italy
• Mexico 1986 - Winners: Argentina
• Italy 1990 - Winners: West Germany
• USA 1994 - Winners: Brazil
• France 1998 - Winners: France
• Japan/South Korea 2002 - Winners: Brazil
• Germany 2006 - Winners: Italy
