{"id":11963,"date":"2026-06-21T09:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=11963"},"modified":"2026-06-21T09:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:34:00","slug":"the-world-cup-that-almost-never-got-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=11963","title":{"rendered":"The World Cup That Almost Never Got Underway"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Uruguay<\/strong> secured the right to host the first World Cup<\/strong> in 1929<\/strong>, everything seemed ideal. <\/p>\n

The country was a two-time Olympic gold medalist<\/strong> in soccer, had a strong economy, and offered to cover the travel and accommodation expenses of all the teams, combining the tournament with the celebration of 100 years of independence<\/strong> for the country. However, when the time came to submit entries, European support<\/strong> vanished. <\/p>\n

The global economic crisis<\/strong> following the crash of 1929<\/strong> made the transatlantic journey of 15\u201320-day<\/strong> journey by steamship seem prohibitive. <\/p>\n

Italy<\/strong>, Germany<\/strong>, Spain<\/strong>, Austria<\/strong>, Hungary<\/strong> and Czechoslovakia<\/strong> refused to travel, citing economic and practical reasons. Behind these excuses, however, lay discontent. Many European federations believed that the first World Cup<\/strong> should have been held in Europe and viewed the selection of Uruguay<\/strong> as a blow to their prestige. <\/p>\n

Six weeks before kickoff, no European country had registered to participate. The president of FIFA, Gilles Rimet<\/strong>, was forced to resort to personal interventions. He sent letters to France<\/strong>, Belgium<\/strong>, Romania<\/strong>, and Yugoslavia<\/strong>, essentially asking them to save the tournament. In Romania<\/strong>, the intervention of King Charles II<\/strong> was even required, while in Yugoslavia<\/strong>, participation became a political issue due to the conflict between Serbs<\/strong> and Croats<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The Yugoslav delegation was a prime example of the ethnic tensions<\/strong> of the time. Croatian clubs refused to cooperate with the Belgrade<\/strong> federation, and ultimately the team that traveled to Montevideo<\/strong> consisted almost exclusively of Serbian players<\/strong>. Despite the internal division, it reached the semifinals<\/strong> and became one of the tournament\u2019s surprises. <\/p>\n

Uruguay<\/strong> never hid its bitterness over Europe\u2019s \u201cingratitude.\u201d The prevailing view in the local press was that Europe refused to acknowledge the strength of South American soccer<\/strong>, despite the two Olympic gold medals<\/strong> that had preceded it. In the end, only four European teams<\/strong> participated in a tournament that was literally saved at the last minute. <\/p>\n

Even the official poster for the event<\/strong> went down in history for a reason that very few people knew. It stated that the World Cup<\/strong> would take place from July 15 to August 15<\/strong>, but the tournament actually began on July 13<\/strong> and ended on the 30th of that month<\/strong>. The change was made due to late registrations<\/strong>, but the posters had already been printed. Thus, the first World Cup<\/strong> left behind not only the first world champion<\/strong>, but also the first major organizational paradox<\/strong> in the tournament\u2019s history. <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc6 You can read more stories like this in a 640-page, large-format study in the book \u201cWorld Cup Confidential”<\/b>, published by Historical Quest<\/b>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n When Uruguay secured the right to host the first World Cup in 1929, everything seemed ideal.<\/p>\n

The country was a two-time gold medalist …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}