Football World Cup 1950

Football World Cup 1950
IV Campeonato Mundial de Futebol
Number of nations	13  (of 34 applicants)
World Champion	Uruguay (2nd title)
venue	Brazil
Opening game	June 24, 1950 ( Rio de Janeiro )
Tournament end	July 16, 1950
Games	22nd
Gates	88  (⌀: 4 per game)
spectator	1,045,246  (⌀: 47,511 per game)
Top scorer	Ademir de Menezes (9)

The final round of the FIFA World Cup 1950 ( Portuguese Copa do Mundo FIFA ) was the fourth playout of the most important tournament for football - national and was from 24 June to 16 July 1950 in Brazil held. It was the first football World Cup after the Second World War (1939–1945). Thirteen teams took part after several associations canceled. The DFB had not yet been re-accepted into FIFA , Austria withdrew its application before the start of qualification . The only participant from the German-speaking area was Switzerland.

In contrast to European countries, Brazil had hardly suffered from the Second World War. Football went on practically undisturbed and the Brazilians had a large number of talented players to draw on. Therefore, the hosts were considered favorites along with England. But Uruguay became world champions for the second time , defeating Brazil in the decisive final game of the final group.

Planning, application and awarding

→ Main article : Football World Cup 1942

The fourth world championship was initially planned for 1942 according to the four-year cycle, but was postponed because of the Second World War. At the first FIFA Congress after the war in 1946, Brazil was the only candidate to host the tournament, which was initially planned for 1949 and was finally postponed to 1950 for organizational reasons.

Venues

The games were played in stadiums in six Brazilian cities. With one exception, the Brazilians competed in the not-yet-finished Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which was built especially for this World Cup and at that time held almost 200,000 spectators.

city	Stadium name *	Capacity*	Games	Total audience	cut	Play with the most viewers	Play with the fewest spectators
Belo Horizonte	Estádio Sete de Setembro ( Estádio Independência )	25,000	3	22,771	7,590	USA - England (preliminary round) 10.151	Uruguay - Bolivia (preliminary round) 5,284
Curitiba	Estádio Durival Britto e Silva ( Vila Capanema )	20,000	2	17,414	8,707	Spain - USA (preliminary round) 9,511	Sweden - Paraguay (preliminary round) 7,903
Porto Alegre	Estádio Ildo Meneghetti ( Estádio dos Eucaliptos )	25,000	2	14,658	7,329	Yugoslavia - Mexico (preliminary round) 11,078	Switzerland - Mexico (preliminary round) 3,580
Recife	Estádio Adelmar da Costa Carvalho ( Ilha do Retiro )	30,000	1	8,501	8,501	Chile - USA (preliminary round) 8,501
Rio de Janeiro	Estádio do Maracanã	183,000	8th	813,541	101,693	Uruguay v Brazil (Final Round) 173,850	Spain - Chile (preliminary round) 19,790
São Paulo	Estádio do Pacaembu	70,000	6th	168,361	28,060	Uruguay v Spain (Final Round) 44,802	Uruguay v Sweden (Play Offs) 7,987

Opening game of the Maracanã stadium before the 1950 World Cup.

* Status at the time of the World Cup in 1950

Recife Belo Horizonte Rio de Janeiro São Paulo Curitiba Porto Alegre

Location of the venues

qualification

→ Main article : Football World Cup 1950 / Qualification

34 countries registered for the fourth World Cup, which was to take place in South America for the second time since 1930. The hosts Brazil and the defending champions Italy qualified directly. The remaining 14 places in the final round were awarded through playoffs. Germany and Japan were not members of FIFA at the time and were therefore not allowed to send teams.

The continental qualifying tournaments turned into a farce because several national associations did not exercise their right to start. This was z. B. India qualified for the finals without having played a single game. India canceled their participation because of disagreement over the choice of players and because there was not enough time for training. For a long time it was rumored that India canceled due to the shoe requirement, which forbade players to play barefoot. Scotland and Turkey, although qualified, did not go to Brazil either. The vacancies were offered to France and Portugal, but both waived. France justified its cancellation by stating that it should have played group matches in locations 3,000 kilometers apart. Ultimately, only 13 countries took part in the finals, including England for the first time. The English had ignored the World Cup tournaments until then and saw themselves as the only legitimate world champions after their victory against world champion Italy in the " Battle of Highbury " in 1934.

Attendees

The following teams were qualified for the 1950 World Cup:

8 from Europe	England	Italy	Yugoslavia	Sweden
	Switzerland	Spain	Scotland *	Turkey *
5 from South America	Bolivia	Brazil	Chile	Paraguay
	Uruguay
2 from North, Central America and the Caribbean	Mexico	United States
1 from Asia	India *

* no start

World map of the participants and their final round placement

mode

Originally, as in the 1938 World Cup , a knockout system was planned. The Brazilian association protested against this, however , because it wanted as many games as possible because most of the income at that time was generated directly from the sale of tickets. The final round was held in two group phases. There should be four groups of four in the first group stage. Their first-placed players each played against each other for the world title in the second group stage. This mode was unique in the history of the World Cup .

Despite the cancellation of three teams, the mode was retained. There were only two groups of four, one group of three and a pair of two, but there were still 16 games (instead of 24) in the first group stage, including three with the host participating. The Brazilian side later criticized that the decisive game against Uruguay was their sixth, but only the fourth for the eventual world champions.

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4
Brazil	Chile	Italy	Bolivia
Yugoslavia	England	Paraguay	Uruguay
Mexico	Spain	Sweden	( Scotland )
Switzerland	United States	( India )	( Turkey )

Information on the individual groups and squads of the teams by clicking on the respective link.

Preliminary round

Brazil had little trouble winning their group. On the other hand, England's defeat against the USA in Group 2 was a sensation. Although the British played with all their strong players, they lost 1-0 to the amateur footballers from North America. The winning goal for the USA was scored by the Haitian student Joseph Gaetjens . One of the favorites England then lost the game against Spain and was eliminated in the preliminary round. Spain advanced as group winners.

In the group of three, Sweden prevailed against defending champions Italy, who had been massively weakened in the Superga plane crash a year earlier after losing many national players . Uruguay only needed one game to play and beat Bolivia 8-0.

Group 1

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Brazil	3	2	1	0	008: 200	+6	05: 10
2.	Yugoslavia	3	2	0	1	007: 300	+4	04: 20
3.	Switzerland	3	1	1	1	004: 600	−2	03: 30
4th	Mexico	3	0	0	3	002:100	−8	00: 60

June 24, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil	-	Mexico	4: 0 (1: 0)
June 25, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Belo Horizonte
Yugoslavia	-	Switzerland	3: 0 (0: 0)
June 28, 1950 at 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in São Paulo
Brazil	-	Switzerland	2: 2 (2: 1)
June 28, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Porto Alegre
Yugoslavia	-	Mexico	4: 1 (2: 0)
July 1, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil	-	Yugoslavia	2: 0 (1: 0)
July 2, 1950, 3:40 p.m. (7:40 p.m. CET) in Porto Alegre
Switzerland	-	Mexico	2: 1 (2: 0)

Group 2

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Spain	3	3	0	0	006: 100	+5	06-00
2.	England	3	1	0	2	002: 200	± 0	02: 40
3.	Chile	3	1	0	2	005: 600	−1	02: 40
4th	United States	3	1	0	2	004: 800	−4	02: 40

June 25, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Rio de Janeiro
Chile	-	England	0: 2 (0: 1)
June 25, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Curitiba
United States	-	Spain	1: 3 (1: 0)
June 29, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Belo Horizonte
United States	-	England	1: 0 (1: 0)
June 29, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Rio de Janeiro
Chile	-	Spain	0: 2 (0: 2)
July 2, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Rio de Janeiro
England	-	Spain	0: 1 (0: 0)
July 2, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Recife
Chile	-	United States	5: 2 (2: 0)

Group 3

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Sweden	2	1	1	0	005: 400	+1	03: 10
2.	Italy	2	1	0	1	004: 300	+1	02: 20
3.	Paraguay	2	0	1	1	002: 400	−2	01: 30

June 25, 1950 at 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in São Paulo
Sweden	-	Italy	3: 2 (2: 1)
June 29, 1950, 3:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. CET) in Curitiba
Paraguay	-	Sweden	2: 2 (1: 2)
July 2, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in São Paulo
Paraguay	-	Italy	0: 2 (0: 1)

India withdrew before the competition began.

Group 4

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Uruguay	1	1	0	0	008-000	+8	02-00
2.	Bolivia	1	0	0	1	000: 800	−8	00: 20

July 2, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Belo Horizonte
Uruguay	-	Bolivia	8: 0 (4: 0)

Scotland and Turkey withdrew before the competition began.
The substitute candidates France and Portugal also waived.

Final round

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Uruguay	3	2	1	0	007: 500	+2	05: 10
2.	Brazil	3	2	0	1	014: 400	+10	04: 20
3.	Sweden	3	1	0	2	006:110	−5	02: 40
4th	Spain	3	0	1	2	004:110	−7	01: 50

July 9, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil	-	Sweden	7: 1 (3: 0)
July 9, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in São Paulo
Uruguay	-	Spain	2: 2 (1: 2)
July 13, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil	-	Spain	6: 1 (3: 0)
July 13, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in São Paulo
Uruguay	-	Sweden	3: 2 (1: 2)
July 16, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in São Paulo
Spain	-	Sweden	1: 3 (0: 2)
July 16, 1950, 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CET) in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil	-	Uruguay	1: 2 (0: 0)

The group winners Brazil, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay played each against each other for the title in the final round. Brazil won the first two games high (for Sweden and Spain these defeats were the highest in a World Cup so far) and already looked like the new world champion, because a draw against the initially unconvincing Uruguay would be enough in the last game.

The de facto final took place in front of 200,000 Cariocas at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. It went down in history under the name Maracanaço . Brazil initially took the lead 1-0 shortly after half-time. Uruguay equalized in the middle of the second half. With ten minutes to go, Uruguay scored the decisive goal for victory and the World Cup. The trophy presentation to the winning team from Uruguay and their captain Obdulio Varela took Jules Rimet before in the catacombs of the stadium, because the French FIFA President feared excesses on the part of Brazilian disappointed viewers.

The game was considered to be the low point of Brazilian football until the 7-1 defeat in the semi-final against Germany at Brazil's second home World Cup in 2014 . The Brazilian national team's white clothing up to that day was no longer worn. The main blame was placed on defenders Bigode and Juvenal Amarijo and goalkeeper Barbosa . Barbosa was never forgiven for looking a little unhappy at Alcides Ghiggia's 2-1 draw . When Barbosa wanted to attend a training session with the Brazilian national team in 1993, he was denied entry on the grounds that he could be unlucky.

World champion team

 Uruguayan national soccer team

The line-up in the decisive game of the final round:

Roque Máspoli , Matías González , Eusebio Tejera , Schubert Gambetta , Obdulio Varela , Víctor Rodríguez Andrade , Alcides Ghiggia , Julio Pérez , Oscar Míguez , Juan Schiaffino , Rubén Morán

Coach: Juan López

List of goalscorers (final round)

rank player Gates 1  Ademir 9 1 2  Óscar Omar Míguez 5 3  Estanislao Basora 4th  Chico 4th  Alcides Ghiggia 4th  Zarra 4th 7th  Karl-Erik Palmér 3  Juan Schiaffino 3  Stig Sundqvist 3  Kosta Tomašević 3 11  Sune Andersson 2  Baltazar 2  Željko Čajkovski 2  Riccardo Carapellese 2  Andrés Prieto 2  Jacques Fatton 2  Silvestre Igoa 2  Jair 2  Hate Jeppson 2  Zizinho 2

rank player Gates 21st  Alfredo 1  Friaça 1  Maneca 1  Atilio Cremaschi 1  Fernando Riera 1  George Robledo 1  Wilf Mannion 1  Stan Mortensen 1  Ermes Muccinelli 1  Egisto Pandolfini 1  Stjepan Bobek 1  Tihomir Ognjanov 1  Horacio Casarín 1  Héctor Ortiz 1  Atilio Sosa Lopez 1  Cesar Fretes Lopez 1  Charles antennas 1  René Bader 1  Bror Mellberg 1  Julio Perez 1  Obdulio Varela 1  Ernesto Vidal 1  Joseph Gaetjens 1  Joe Maca 1  Gino Pariani 1  Frank Wallace 1

¹Some sources count eight hits from Ademir. His 1-0 win against Spain is considered an own goal by the Spaniard José Parra

Used referees

In Brazil, 14 referees and 11 additional linesmen from 18 different associations were used for the 22 games. With 11 referees, including 5 from the British Isles, the Europeans clearly outnumbered them. There were also 3 Brazilian referees. There were 5 line judges from Europe, 5 from South America and one from North America. With Eklind as referee and the linesmen Beranek and de la Salle, there were still three actors from the 1938 World Cup in France. There was no final referee in the sense that the decisive top game was whistled by the Englishman George Reader.

Surname	Association	Number of games as		space refer	annotation
		SR	LR
Generoso Dattilo	Italy	1	3	0
Ivan Eklind	Sweden	1	1	0
Arthur Edward Ellis	England	2	1	0
Giovanni Galeati	Italy	3	1	0
Mario Gardelli	Brazil	1	1	0
Mervyn Griffiths	Wales	2	1	0
Reg Leafe	England	2	0	0
Jean Lutz	Switzerland	1	2	0
Alberto Malcher	Brazil	1	0	0
Karel van der Meer	Netherlands	2	1	0
George Mitchell	Scotland	1	3	0
George Reader	England	3	0	0
Mario Viana	Brazil	1	1	0
Ramon Azon Roma	Spain	1	0	0
Linesman
Alfredo Alvarez	Bolivia	0	2	0
Alois Beranek	Austria	0	3	0
Sergio Bustamante	Chile	0	2	0
Jose da Costa Vieira	Portugal	0	3	0
Gunnar Dahlner	Sweden	0	3	0
Prudencio Garcia	United States	0	4th	0
Mario Ruben Heyen	Paraguay	0	1	0
Leo Lemešić	Yugoslavia	0	2	0
Esteban Marino	Uruguay	0	1	0
Cayetano de Nicola	Paraguay	0	2	0
Charles de la Salle	France	0	4th	0
Carlos Tejada	Mexico	0	1	0
Total:		22nd	44	0

See also

• Soccer World Cup / Records

literature

• Hardy Greens : Football World Cup Encyclopedia. 1930-2010. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-290-4 .
• Lorenz Knieriem, Matthias Voigt: Football World Cup 1950 Brazil (= "AGON World Cup history." Vol. 4). AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2003, ISBN 3-89784-217-3 .

Web links

Commons : Football World Cup 1950  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of FIFA for the 1950 World Cup
• fifa.com: "63 years ago: First World Cup final draw in Brazil"
• All details on Fussballdaten.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Los Angeles Times: "Did India withdraw from the 1950 World Cup because they were not allowed to play barefoot?"