Football History- First World Cup

Part Four

Estadio Centenario is the first location of World Cup final in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

FIFA, with President Jules Rimet the driving force again started looking at performance its own international tournament outside of the Olympic due to the success of the Olymipic footall tournaments. The FIFA assembly in Amsterdam on 28^th May, 1928, decided to phase a world championship. Through Uruguay now two-time official football world champions and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the opening World Cup tournament.

The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team. The choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides. In total thirteen nations took part. Among them seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America. Rimet finally persuaded teams from Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia to make the trip.

On 13^th July, 1930, the first two World Cup matches took place concurrently and won by France and USA to whom defeated Mexico 4-1 and Belgium 3-0 in that order. Through Lucien Laurent of France, the first goal in World Cup history was scored. In the final match, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in front of a crown of 93,000 people in Montevideo and in doing so became the first nation to win the World Cup.

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