A few days back I told you an interesting fact about the T20 World Cup theme song. Now with football fever high, I thought of sharing an interesting fact about the FIFA world Cup.
Most of you who follow World Cup must be aware that the first World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay and was won by the host team. But do you know Uruguay was not present in the second world cup to defend their title!! This made them the only team in the history of the world cup not to defend their title.
Read this interesting post to know the reason behind this.
After seeing the success of football in Olympics, FIFA decided to host their own world championship for football. As Uruguay had won the Olympic gold medal for football in 1924 and 1928, and also since it was celebrating the 100th anniversary of independence in 1930, it was decided to host the first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930.
Since reaching Uruguay, which is in South America, involved a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for the European nations, most of them backed out. In the end only 13 nations took part, with just four from Europe.
When the second world cup was hosted in Italy (which is in Europe) in 1934, Uruguay decided not to participate. The official reason given by them was the lack of finance, but it is believed that this was an attempt to pay the Europeans back.
I don’t know if that was a good strategy, since they gave away their title without defending it. But they registered their name in the history for being the only team not to defend their title. What do you think about it? Share your views with us. Remember comments are Do-Follow.
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