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Home | International Football Competition | 1930 FIFA World Cup
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Thirteen teams, seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America entered the tournament. Few European teams chose to participate because of the difficulty of travelling to South America. The teams were divided into four groups, with the winner of each group progressing to the semi-finals. The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously, and were won by France and the United States, who defeated Mexico 4 � 1 and Belgium 3 � 0, respectively. Lucien Laurent of France scored the first goal in World Cup history, while American goalkeeper Jimmy Douglas posted the first official "clean sheet" in the tournament. Argentina, Uruguay, United States and Yugoslavia each won their respective groups to qualify for the semi-finals. In the final, hosts and pre-tournament favourites Uruguay defeated Argentina 4 � 2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people, and became the first nation to win the World Cup. In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic football tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for managing the event at the next three Olympiads: from 1920 to 1928. In the 1908 Olympic Games and the 1912 Olympic Games the football competitions had been organised by The Football Association and the Swedish Football Association respectively. The preliminary schedule for the 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles did not include football. FIFA and the International Olympic Committee disagreed over the status of amateur players, so association football was dropped from the Games. On 26 May 1928, at FIFA's Amsterdam conference and on the opening day of the Olympic football tournament, FIFA president Jules Rimet announced plans to stage a tournament independent of the Olympics, open to all FIFA members and with professionalism permitted. The membership voted 25 � 5 to accept the proposal. |
