FIFA Through The Ages

Every four years fans around the world join together to watch the FIFA World Cup, the most viewed and followed sporting event on Earth, with more fans than even the Olympics. This year's Cup in Brazil is no exception; nearly 3 million tickets have been sold, and the knockout stages haven't even begun! Football is by far the most widespread sport on the planet, but this hasn't always been the case.

In fact, it wasn't until the beginning of the 20^th century the football began to be played between countries – the first official match between two national teams outside of Britain took place in 1902, between Uruguay and Argentina. Football was played in the Olympics from 1900 onwards, but at first between clubs instead of national teams, and more importantly, only by amateur players. FIFA, which was formed in 1904, tried to organize a tournament outside of the Olympics in 1906, but it was a failure – even according to FIFA's own official history.

Eventually, FIFA agreed to recognize Olympic football as the world football championship for amateurs, and took responsibility for the event. However, the 1932 Olympics, which were to be held in Los Angeles, were not to have football because of it's low popularity in the United States. This, along with disagreements with the International Olympic Committee over the amateur player policy lead to FIFA deciding in 1928 that they would organize their own tournament. This was the beginning of the World Cup as we know it today.

The inaugural World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay, with selected national teams invited by FIFA. However, the decision to host the Cup in South America meant that the European teams would all have to endure the trip across the Atlantic. The FIFA president himself had to persuade teams himself to play, and in the end only four European teams did. Thus, the first World Cup was played between just 13 teams. 

Ironically enough, one of these teams was from the USA, whose Bert Patenaude also scored the first World Cup hat trick. Eight years later, Poland's Ernest Willimowski became the first player to score four goals in a single World Cup game, which wouldn't be beaten until 1994. The next two World Cups, meant to be held in 1942 and 1946 were canceled because of World War II.

The World Cup resumed again in 1950, and the final saw the highest attendance of any match ever: 199,000. The next one saw the highest average goals per game, the highest scoring team and the most goals in a single World Cup match. Frenchman Just Fontaine would then score the most goals in any World Cup in 1958. 1962 would see Colombia's Marcos Coll score a goal directly from a corner kick, the only time that feat, known as an “Olympic goal” has been achieved in a World Cup.

England hosted the first World Cup to have significant marketing in 1966, where there was an official mascot and logo for the first time. The trophy was stolen before the tournament, but found a week a later by a dog named “Pickles”. The English Geoff Hurst scored the only ever hat-trick in a World Cup final that year. The next Cup would see what has been called the best save ever by the English goalkeeper Gordan Banks. 1974 brought in a new trophy, and was the first time the Total Football tactic, in which every field player can play in every position, was used in the World Cup.

The 1982 World Cup saw an expansion to 24 teams. During the group stages, Hungary beat El Salvador 10-1, the only time a team has gotten 10 goals in a World Cup match. There was incident between Kuwait and France when the Kuwaiti team stopped playing because they heard a whistle which turned out to be from a fan in the stands. The French defender Maxime Bossis scored, but the referee disallowed the goal after hearing an earful from the president of Kuwait's Football Association. Bossis scored again a few minutes later. Kuwait ended up losing 4-1.

The 1990 World Cup witnessed a strange record from the Irish team, who reached the quarterfinals without winning a single match. They drew all three matches in their group stage and made it past the Round of 16 by winning a penalty shootout after drawing yet again. The following World Cup saw tragedy when Colombian Andres Escobar was murdered ten days after he hit an own goal that knocked Colombia out. However, it also had the highest total attendance of any World Cup, and the most goals by a single player in a match by the Russian Oleg Salenko.

The World Cup was expanded again in 1998 to 32 teams. Iran beat the Maldives in a qualification match 17-0, setting a new record.  Australia beat that record in 2002 in 31-0 win against American Samoa – which translates to a goal every three minutes or so. In 2006, four African teams debuted, with Ghana beating the Czech Republic, who were ranked third, and then making it to the quarter finals. The 2010 World Cup final saw a record number of yellow cards, with the Dutch playing nearly violently. They eventually lost thanks to header in the last five minutes of extra time by the Spaniard Iniesta.

That brings us, of course, to the present day, with the 2014 Cup being held in Brazil, which has already shockingly seen Spain getting knocked out and upsets from Costa Rica. World Cup favourites, Brazil, were taken apart by the German side with a shocking result of 7-1, as Germany inch “Klose-r” to the title. Looks like we’ve got a World Cup just as exciting as its predecessors, and perhaps even a few more records getting broken to boot!

By: Humza Hemani