{"id":4625,"date":"2025-12-28T18:29:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=4625"},"modified":"2025-12-28T18:30:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:30:53","slug":"for-shame-part-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2025\/12\/28\/for-shame-part-five\/","title":{"rendered":"For Shame (Part Five)<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (December 24th<\/sup> 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come of Age<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

South America\u2019s first continental football tournament the Copa Am\u00e9rica took place in 1916 \u2013 Uruguay won the first of their 15 titles to date, despite drawing 0-0 with the hosts Argentina 0-0 in the last match of the tournament. Within a decade Uruguay began its domination of the football world winning the Olympic Games Football title of 1924, succeeding Belgium\u2019s only winning Golden Generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Uruguay\u2019s first appearance in that competition. Four years later Uruguay retained their Olympic title \u2013 17 teams took part, eclipsing the 13 that took part in the inaugural FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1928 South America proved that it was the dominant force in world football \u2013 Uruguay beat Argentina 2-1 (after a replay) in the final. Both teams had earned their place in the final at the expense of Italy and Egypt, both of whom missed the 1930 FIFA World Cup, but for different reasons. Italy thrashed Egypt 11-3 in the match for the bronze medal, but the aspiring Pharaohs had established their right to a place at football\u2019s top table even if they did not get to take the slot that they had earned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European Slot Buying<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1929 FIFA Congress in Bar\u00e7elona decided that Urugay should host its inaugural World Cup in 1930 \u2013 European hands did not object then, but a year later they did with their feet. France had to be persuaded at the last minute and Romania\u2019s King Carol II was allowed to buy his country a slot at the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Romanian monarch, later deposed, ensured that the players he wanted \u2013 he selected the team \u2013 were given time off work and had their expenses paid. This was the first time a country had been allowed to buy a place in the World Cup, but far from condemning this conduct, FIFA celebrate it (see https:\/\/www.fifa.com\/en\/tournaments\/mens\/worldcup\/articles\/romania-king-carol-second-1930-uruguay<\/a> from FIFA\u2019s website).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Participants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIFA faced a crisis in its inaugural World Cup. Despite the unanimous agreement in 1929 that Uruguay should host there were many withdrawals as European nations objected to the long journey to Uruguay \u2013 it appears they had no problem inflicting such a voyage on the South Americans despite the last three Olympiads having occurred in Europe, meaning the South Americans had to travel those distances in 1924 and 1928. They did so and won. Uruguay had earned the right to host the first FIFA World Cup<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The list of European absentees from the 1930 World Cup was telling, especially when compared to the 1928 Olympiad, which was the third in a row to take place in Europe \u2013 Amsterdam in this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Argentina, Chile, Egypt, M\u00e9xico, the United States of America, Turkey and Uruguay contested the Olympic Games Football Tournament in Amsterdam. Only 13 countries would attend FIFA\u2019s inaugural World Cup. France was a late addition \u2013 after initially deciding not to travel, they were persuaded to attend by Jules Rimet who travelled with them and the trophy, among others to the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belgium, France and Yugoslavia were the only European nations involved in the Olympic Games Football Tournament to make the trip to Uruguay \u2013 they were joined by Romania, whose King Carol II had bought them a place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina, Chile, M\u00e9xico, the United States and Uruguay were the other veterans of 1928 to cross the Atlantic Ocean to South America, so less than half of the participants in Amsterdam played in Uruguay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Per\u00fa and Romania were the other participants in 1930. Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland were European countries who had played in Amsterdam, but did not go to Uruguay. Turkey was an absentee, but by far the strangest absentee was Egypt, which alone represented Africa at the Olympic Games Football Tournaments throughout the 1920s almost two decades before the Confederation of African Football, Conf\u00e9d\u00e9ration Africaine de Football, (CAF) was established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The participants in the inaugural FIFA World Cup were considerably weaker than in Amsterdam\u2019s Olympiad. Less than half of the participants of 1928 took part. And the tournament of 1924, admittedly lacking Germany and Argentina was stronger too. Why then, are two of Uruguay\u2019s stars disputed \u2013 they earned them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games Football Tournaments were clearly of a higher standard than the 1930 World Cup and worse would follow \u2013 far worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (December 24th 2025) Come of Age South America\u2019s first continental football tournament the Copa Am\u00e9rica took place in 1916 \u2013 [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,17,14],"tags":[821,1672,1671,783,245,1674,124,35,1666,277,1677,1673,1675,1676,1670,1629,274],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4626,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625\/revisions\/4626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}