By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (January 2^nd 2021)

International football has a long history – well over a century – but it was disorganised. Odd matches some with trophies meant little. However, organised football tournaments actually pre-dated the establishing of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA).

The Modern Olympic Games was the brainchild of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. It began in 1896. Four years later football made its bow. It was a far cry from what most think international football to be. The first two Olympic Games Football Tournaments bore no resemblance to the World Cups – Official and Unofficial. They were very limited club competitions – hardly worth commemorating, but they would develop into something important in the development of the world’s favourite sport.

The Final Rehearsal – the pre-War tournaments paved the way for football to establish itself. But there was an obvious flaw – the national team tournaments 1908 and 1912 were exclusively European.

The Final Rehearsal for the Unofficial World Cup would be silenced by the War to end all wars. But as this series will show, the Olympic Games once played a very important part in football’s development.