by ROBERT SIDAWAY

TWELVE EMPTY YEARS

Now came a long pause. Although three countries – Brazil, Argentina and Germany – applied to host the 1942 World Cup to be allocated at the next FIFA conference in Luxembourg in 1940, it fell victim to the outbreak of war in 1939. Internationalism and everything FIFA represented was shattered.

FIFA’s Secretary at this time, Dr Ivo Schricker, a German, managed to keep the office going in Zurich during the hostilities, and continental members of the executive managed to meet several times. Spain, Switzerland, Portugal and Sweden played each other in the war, and even the Germans managed a limited international programme until 1942. The prized FIFA trophy was put into the safe of the Italian FA, but when the Germans finally occupied Rome in 1943 after the Italian surrender, General Vaccaro, the equivalent of the Italian Sports Minister and organizer of the 1934 Tournament, and Giovanni Mauro, a former lawyer and later a referee, had the piece of gold secretly sent to a Swiss bank.

It was to take long years of work and hardship to carve a new Europe out of the ashes left by war. For FIFA, too, it was a time of renewal and reappraisal. In 1946 the FIFA congress met in Luxembourg, and the British associations were now present. Two resolutions were passed: the tournament should be given to Brazil, as South America had largely been unaffected by the ravages of war, and the World Cup statuette should be officially named the ‘Jules Rimet Trophy’.

1950: POOLS, SHOCKS, EXCITEMENT & A SAMBA

Brazil and its people were by now disciples of the game and fanatical in getting the show on the road. They built the huge and famous Maracana stadium in Rio on the banks of the Little Maracana River, a ground capable of holding 200,000 spectators. The final was to be watched by 199,000 people, to this day a world record football crowd.

Thirty-three teams entered what was in many ways an extraordinary competition with exciting dynamic football. There were the usual withdrawals: Argentina quarrelled with Brazil. Austria, Belgium and Burma cancelled their entries and of the sixteen finalists, Scotland, Turkey and India pulled out. India’s withdrawal was for the oddest reason — they were most upset at FIFA’s insistence that their players should wear boots! France (although they had lost their qualifying place in their group to Yugoslavia) and Portugal were asked to fill the vacant spaces, but only France agreed. But because of adverse results with an experimental side before the finals, they eventually declined to grace the tournament with their presence. In any case, they disliked the idea of the travelling they would have to endure in these finals. One match would have been in Porto Alegre, followed by the next in Recife, two thousand miles away.

Henri Delaunay, Rimet’s fellow pioneer, resigned before this World Cup, for he could not suffer the new idea of playing the tournament in four pools rather than on a knock-out basis as before. The four winners from each of the pools would then each play the other in the final pool matches. Points would decide the winners: two for a win, and one for a draw.

One of the biggest surprises of the tournament was England’s quick exit. After winning the first match in her group against Chile 2-0, she lost to Spain 1-0 and in between to the USA 1-0. This last result was a tremendous shock, against a rag-tag assortment of players captained by Eddie Mcllvenny, a Scotsman.

Another shock was the success of the new Swedish team managed by a little Yorkshireman, George Raynor. With astonishing speed he had put together a squad that not only qualified, but came third in this tournament. He was much loved and admired by his players although he had been a very moderate player himself, turning out for lowly British Football League teams such as Aldershot and Rotherham. But Stanley Rous, the then secretary of the English FA, encouraged Raynor to go to Sweden, after noticing his success in Baghdad, where he had organised an international team with lightning speed.

Brazil, as hosts, were not surprisingly a determined side, and boasted gifted players along with a coach, Costa, who was determined to lift gold. It was no small help to them that they were to play five out of their six matches in the Maracana Stadium. Goals were plentiful in these finals. The highest number scored was Uruguay’s eight against Bolivia. Brazil scored 22 in six matches, including seven against Sweden and six against Spain. The deciding match in the pools was Brazil versus Uruguay. Today it is remembered as the World Cup match, although this tournament had not provided for it. It just happened to be the final game which would, by chance, decide the outright winner in the final pool matches. But what a magnificent game it was, a glorious climax, a thrilling showpiece. Brazil were 10-1 favourites, and already a celebratory samba had been written and recorded called ‘Brazil the Victors’. The huge crowd crammed the stadium and were shocked into silence, mass faintings, mass hysterics, even suicide. The samba was left unplayed. Uruguay beat the sparkling Brazilian side 2-1.

£600,000 was taken. FIFA smiled. Nobody could deny this sort of reaction. The World Cup had bounced back to an unparalleled reception.

1954: TELEVISION CAPTURES THE 'BATTLE OF BERNE'

Switzerland were the hosts for 1954, and travelling for the sixteen competing finalists was far less complicated than in the previous competition. Not so FIFA’s new and complex eliminating scheme in the tournament. This time the finalists were split again into groups of four, but it was decided that two countries in each group were to be seeded and would not meet. Seedings had been worked out before the teams qualified. Spain, seeded, did not get through, so Turkey were seeded in their place above Germany. This proved to Germany’s advantage. Though losing 8-3 to Hungary, they forced a play-off with Turkey who were level on points and qualified for the quarterfinals. Germany had been welcomed back to FIFA in 1950 but for this tournament were low on the list of contenders.

The Swiss tournament was not particularly efficiently organised, but television covered the event for the first time, and it was a first-class introduction for the limited viewing public. Goal-scoring was plentiful, and in 26 games there were 140 goals, an average of over five per game.

Never has a World Cup had such hotter-than-hot favourites from the kick-off. Mighty Hungary was a team of footballing stars, with the legendary Puskas as their captain. Teamwork and discipline formed the key to the Hungarians’ success, for Iron Curtain countries took the finest talent available, put them into uniform and formed an army team, in this case Honved. All but one member of this World Cup team played for Honved. England and Scotland were present, England not as strong as in the past but still fielding Matthews, Finney, Lofthouse and an excellent captain in Billy Wright. Scotland was represented by a weak team and even Brazil arrived without their full complement of talent. Yugoslavia were still strong and France looked a firm set-up. Italy were a broken team: Pozzo had gone, and discipline and confidence had disappeared.

Excitement and drama throughout the finals was not lacking, however. Hungary hammered 17 goals in their first two matches, nine against Korea and eight against Germany. Turkey scored seven against little Korea and then lost to Germany 7-2 in the play-off of Pool 2. Uruguay crushed Scotland 7-0 and England reached the quarter-finals only to be accounted for by Uruguay as well, 4-2. Italy went out in the early stages, Switzerland emerging victorious 4-1 in a play-off. West German players gritted their teeth and muscled determinedly to the quarter-finals.

The final stages of this tournament formed a knock-out competition. Hungary was involved in the worst game of the tournament, then the best and ultimately the final itself. Brazil against Hungary, now known as ‘The Battle of Berne’, is probably the worst example of violence on and off the pitch in a World Cup game. It was a brawl and only excellent refereeing by Arthur Ellis saw it to its completion. Bozsik was dismissed from the pitch with two Brazilians. Hungary finally mastered Brazil 4-2, but the on-pitch fighting continued in the dressing rooms below with bottles. There were immediate moves to ban Brazil, who in hindsight were seen as the more guilty team, and attempts were even made to end the World Cup altogether. However, the hysteria quickly died down.

Hungary against Uruguay in the semi-final was in complete contrast to this and the match is still rated as one of the most outstanding in any World Cup. Hungary won 4-2 in torrential rain and a sea of mud. West Germany, in their semi-final, rushed to a 6-1 victory over an Austrian team which simply fell apart. The Germans showed that they could play incisive, sweeping football after all. The Wankdorf Stadium held the final, which was played on a rainy Sunday to a crowd of 60,000. Hungary gambled and played an unfit Puskas. His presence helped his team to make a devastating start, however, for within eight minutes they had scored twice and West Germany looked demoralised. But with their determination tempered with talent, they had swept back to 2-2 by half-time. By full-time they had won 4-2 and Hungarian pride felt as injured as Puskas physically looked.

In pouring rain Jules Rimet presented West Germany with the gold trophy. Rimet had shown the world, through the compelling eyes of television, a stunning tournament. Now he was ready to retire.

WINNERS AND LOSERS (V)

1958 & 1962