The 1950 FIFA World Cup took place in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. This was the first celebration of the World Cup after the World War II, as competitions planned for 1942 and 1946 were both cancelled due to the war.
13 teams from 3 confederations participated in the final tournament: 6 from Europe (UEFA), 5 from South America (CONMEBOL), and 2 from North America, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF). Three teams were withdrawn after qualifying (India, Scotland and Turkey); therefore, only 13 teams competed in the final tournament. Only one team made its first World Cup appearance: England.
The World Cup was won by Uruguay that defeated surprisingly the hosts Brazil 2-1 in the deciding match of the four-team final group. This was the only tournament not decided by a one-match final. Thus, Uruguay reached Italy as the only teams to win two World Cups. FIFA also announced that from 1950 the World Cup trophy would be known as the Jules Rimet Cup, to mark the 25th anniversary of Jules Rimet president of FIFA.
Germany invades Poland and occupies Moravia and Bohemia (1939).
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World War II begins. France and England declare war on Germany (1939).
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Hitler and Stalin divide Eastern Europe between themselves (1939).
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Siam changes its name to Thailand (1939).
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The Spanish Civil War ends (1939).
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Manhattan Project –the atomic bomb- begins to be conceived (1939).
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Batman, the fictional character created by Kane, appears (1939).
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The world’s first practical helicopter, took flight at Stratford, Connecticut (1939).
Igor Sikorsky in the VS-300, at the end of 1941
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Germany invades Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France (1940).
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Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain (1940).
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Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico (1940).
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URSS annexes Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (1940).
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Italy invades Greece (1940).
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The Japanese fleet attacks Pearl Harbor (1941).
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Germany attacks Finland, Soviet Union, and the Balkans (1941).
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Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece (1941).
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Australian and British forces attack Libya (1941).
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T-shirt is introduced (1942).
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The Japanese invades Burma, Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia (1942).
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The Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, and The Japanese submarines attack Sydney and Newcastle, Australia (1942).
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Holocaust begins. Approximately six million European Jews were exterminated during World War II by Nazi Germany (1942).
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British forces capture Tripoli (Libya) from the Nazis (1943).
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Josef Mengele becomes the new medical director of Auschwitz (1943).
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Operation Gomorrah and The British bomb Hamburg creates one of the greatest firestorms that kill more than 42,000 civilians. The entire city of Hamburg was destroyed (1943).
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Lebanon gains independence from France (1943).
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Allies invades Normandy: D-Day (1944).
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British Commonwealth and USSR propose the formation of the United Nations (1944).
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Jean Paul Sartre publishes No Exit (1944).
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Roosevelt was elected president of the United States for the fourth time (1944).
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Iceland gains independence from Denmark (1944).
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U.S. drops atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945).
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Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun commit suicide (1945).
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Benito Mussolini killed (1945).
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Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler commit suicide (1945).
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Harry Truman becomes U.S. president after Roosevelt's death (1945).
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Japan surrenders and World War II ends (1945).
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United Nations is founded on October 24, 1945.
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The first electronic computer (ENIAC) is built (1945).
The first ENIAC
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The first UN meeting held in London (1946).
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UNICEF is founded (1946).
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Juan Perón becomes President of Argentina (1946).
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Women vote for the first time in Italy (1946).
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World War II officially ends (1946).
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The Marshall Plan for rebuilding Europe is proposed (1947).
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India and Pakistan became independent of British rule (1947).
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Anne Frank's diary is published (1947).
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Palestine is separated in Jewish and Arab states (1947).
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New Zealand becomes independent of legislative control of the United Kingdom (1947).
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The Plague of Albert Camus is published (1947).
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Tom and Jerry, the one-reel animated cartoon, is released (1947).
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Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi (1948).
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The Nation of Israel was proclaimed (1948).
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The Republic of Korea was proclaimed (1948).
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Burma and Ceylon –later Sri Lanka- became independent of British rule (1948).
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Long-playing record invented (1948).
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The Big Bang Theory is formulated (1948).
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted by United Nations (1948).
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St Moritz, France, holds the V Winter Olympic Games (1948).
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London, United Kingdom, holds the XIV Summer Olympic Games (1948).
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South Africa institutionalizes apartheid (1949).
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The Republic of Ireland is formed as an independent nation (1949).
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The Communist People’s Republic of China is proclaimed by Mao Zedong (1949).
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David Ben-Gurion becomes, in the first Israeli election, Prime Minister of Israel (1949).
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Jorge Luis Borges, Simone de Beauvoir, and Agatha Christie publish new books (1949).
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First organ transplant (1950).
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Korean War begins (1950).
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Ernest Hemingway and Isaac Asimov publish new books (1950).
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Truman orders the development of hydrogen bomb (1950).
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The first race in the history of FIA Formula One World Championship is held in Silverstone, England (1950).
Antecedents
The World Cups planned for 1942 and 1946 were both wiped out by the World War II. When the war ended, FIFA wanted to resurrect the competition as soon as possible, but the global picture was not very encouraging. European countries were not enthusiastic to offer their bids; because their governments viewed the world stage was not favourable to celebrate a sporting event of this magnitude. In addition, many countries were still in turmoil and ruins after the war.
For some time the cup was at risk to be undertaken. However, at the conference held in Luxemburg on July 25, 1946, Brazil submitted a bid to host the World Cup that was unanimously and quickly accepted. Brazil would host the fourth World Cup.
Germany and Japan were banned from the qualifying process because they were still busy. Countries that were behind the Iron Curtain declined to participate. On the other hand, after a 21-year exile the British nations were able to take part in the qualifying process. The 1950 World Cup will see England playing in the finals for the first time.
Qualification
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Participating countries:
34
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Withdrew:
8
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Qualified automatically:
7
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Teams that played at least one qualifying match:
19
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Matches:
26
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Total goals:
121 (4.65 per match)
A total of 34 teams signed up to participate in the 1950 World Cup qualification rounds, competing for a total of 14 spots in the final tournament. Brazil, as the hosts, and Italy, as the defending champions, qualified automatically.
Several countries withdrew from the World Cup for a variety of reasons. Argentina said "no" because of a problem with the Brazilian soccer federation. Germany (occupied and partitioned) and Japan (occupied) were not allowed to participate in the qualification rounds. Countries that were behind the Iron Curtain declined to participate, including the Soviet Union, Hungary (the finalist of 1938), and Czechoslovakia (the finalist of 1934).
This was also the first time that the 4 teams from the UK (Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales) decided to take part in the qualifying process, after 17 years of self-impose exile. They would play the British Home Championship as a qualifying group, with the top two teams qualifying. FIFA made a real effort to convince the teams from UK. They offered the vice presidency of FIFA to an Scottish Football Association (SFA) member, a place on the executive to the UK associations, and two places for the winners and runners-up of the 1950 British International Championship in the World Cup finals.
The 14 available spots were distributed in continental zones as shown below:
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Europe (UEFA): 18 teams (including Israel and Syria) competed for 7 direct places. Italy, as the defending champions, qualified automatically. Austria and Belgium withdrew. Turkey qualified, but later withdrew.
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South America (CONMEBOL): 7 teams competed for a 4 direct places. Brazil, as the host country, qualified automatically. Argentina (a dispute with the Brazilian Football Confederation), Ecuador and Peru (a dispute with FIFA and CONMEBOL) withdrew. Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay qualified by default without playing any match.
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North America, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3 teams competed for 2 spots.
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Asia (AFC): 4 teams competed for 1 spot. Burma, the Philippines and Indonesia withdrew, so India qualified automatically. India qualified, but later withdrew.
A total of 19 teams played at least one qualifying match. 26 qualifying matches were played, and 121 goals were scored.
The preliminary competition became something of a farce. Some teams qualified and then withdrew, others were invited and then decided not to take part. Originally, 16 teams qualified for the final stage that would be played in Brazil. However, three teams declined to participate and the tournament finally started with only 13 participants. Scotland, who had won the second place in the British Home Championship, decided to resign for having obtained the second place. George Graham, secretary of the SFA, had previously declared that the Scots would only go if they became British champions. Turkey also resigned citing financial problems. Finally, Peru also withdrew at the last minute, due to a dispute with FIFA and CONMEBOL.
Three teams were invited to fill these three gaps: United States, Portugal and France. Portugal refused. After the draw, India, that had qualified for the final stage in Brazil, decided not take part because in those days Indian footballers used to play barefoot, as they did in the Olympics in 1948, and from the 1950 World Cup it was compulsary to wear shoes. France was offered Turkey's spot and originally accepted, but then also withdrew citing the amount of travel that would be required in Group 4.
The round-robin format used in the first World Cup was chosen again. The sixteen teams were divided into four groups and the winner of each of them would advance to the final round in which they would face in the round-robin format. The organizers wanted a format that ensured that teams will play at least three games, generating both more ticket revenue and more incentive mainly for teams that had to travel long distances to reach Brazil.
The groups were arranged on a non-geographic basis, so for every game the teams had to travel long distances between venues. One of the teams that had to travel a lot was the United States that had to play in Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Recife, accumulating a lot of miles.
The only criteria used to determine the winner of the group were the points. Thus, if two teams tied for first place, then a playoff would be necessary to determine the group winner.
The four seeded teams were: Brazil (hosts), Italy (defending champions), Uruguay and England. Withdrawals meant there were two groups of four, one of three and one of two.
Squads
For a complete list of all squads that appeared in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, please, visit: 1950 World Cup squads
26 match officials from 19 countries and 3 confederation were the responsible for enforcing the laws of the game during the course of the 22 World Cup matches.
The first round had some facts worth noting. In Group A, there was no surprise. Brazil, just as planned, advanced to the final round. Spain topped Group B ahead of England, Chile, and United States. This group produced the greatest surprise of the tournament. England came to the competition as one of the favourites. They never doubted that it was the best soccer nation in the world, especially considering that a Great Britain team recently had beaten the rest of Europe 6–1 in Glasgow, Scotland, in a game dubbed the “Match of the Century”. However, it was not to be. They suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to the United States in the northern industrial town of Belo Horizonte and were eliminated from the tournament after another loss to Spain. When news of the defeat against the United States came to England, people thought it was a misprint in the newspapers and the actual score of the game was 10-1. They began as one of the favourites but ended it in ignominy. A talented Sweden topped Group C after surprisingly beating the defending champions 3–2 in its opening match. Because of this defeat, Italy failed to progress to the second round. It must be said that the majority of its national team died in a tragic plane crash a year earlier, on May 4, 1949. Uruguay had no problems winning Group D, the only group with only two members. They thrashed Bolivia 8-0. The star forward Juan Schiaffino grabbed four goals.
The final four-team round robin involved Brazil, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay, who were making their first World Cup appearance since winning the inaugural tournament. The World Cup winner would be the team that finished on top of this group. Brazil came from thrashing to Sweden by a resounding 7-1 and Spain by a crushing 6 to 1. The Brazilians should not have trouble beating their South American neighbour Uruguay. In the worst case, they only needed a draw and they would be crowned world champions. That's what all Brazilians thought. But what Brazilians thought is not what happened.
The final and deciding match of the four-team final group was contested at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, before a crowd of 200,000 spectators, by Uruguay, who were making their first appearance after the first World Cup, and the hosts Brazil. The match was hard fought and was tied 1-1, but Ghiggia beat Bigode one more time and scored the winner 11 minutes from time to give Uruguay the second World Cup title. Uruguay definitely stunned the crowd and crowned World Cup champion after beating the heavily-favoured Brazil 2-1. One of the biggest surprises in the World Cups history had occurred. For the whole of Brazil, it was a national disaster. After the negative result, that match is referred to as the Maracanazo, a name still used to show a defeat for a Brazilian team by foreign rivals at the famous stadium. It was the first and only time in World Cup history that the champion was not decided by a one-match final.
Team captains of Brazil and Uruguay exchange pennats before the decisive march
In total, 88 goals were scored by 48 players, with only one of them credited as an own goal.
There was controversy regarding the number of goals Ademir had scored in the 1950 FIFA World Cup. At first, the 5-0 goal in the match between Brazil vs. Spain (6–1) was credited to Jair, but is now credited to Ademir.
Absolute frequency is a statistical term describing the number of times a particular piece of data, or value, appears during a trial or set of trials. Essentially, it is the number of times a particular thing happens. For example, in this World Cup one player from Brazil scored eight goals, one scored four goals, three more scored two goals, and finally four players scored one goal. The sum of the absolute frequency represents the number of players that scored at least one goal (9 players in the case of Brazil: 1 + 1 + 3 + 4 = 9). The sum of the product between the number of times per value results in the number of goals for a team (22 goals in the case of Brazil: 1*8 + 1*4 + 3*2 + 4*1 = 22)
Milestone goals. The goal number 300 in the World Cups history was scored by Chico from Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on 13 July 1950. Chico scored the 4-0. Brazil defeated Spain 6-1.
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The 1950 World Cup was the only tournament not decided by a one-match final.
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Alcides Ghiggia from Uruguay became the first player to score in every match of a World Cup. Ghiggia scored four goals in four matches. The only other players to do that were Just Fontaine of France in 1958 and Brazil's Jairzinho in 1970 - they both scored in all six games they played.
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Alfred Bickel, also referred to as Fredy Bickel, was born in Eppstein, Germany and was a Swiss football player and coach. He participated in the World Cup finals of 1938 and 1950. Bickel holds the World Cup record for the longest period between matches played (12 years, 13 days), and is one of only two footballers ever to participate in World Cups before and after World War II.
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Erik Nilsson, the captain of Sweden, is the other player ever to participate in World Cups before and after World War II.
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The average attendance of 60,733 per game in Brazil set a new World Cup record that lasted until the 1994 World Cup.
The youngest player was Carlos Ibañez from Chile: 18y (30 November 1931). The youngest goalkeeper was Antonio Carbajal from Mexico: 21y (07 June 1929). The youngest scorer was Kiki Antenen from Switzerland: 20y (3 November 1929). The youngest champion was Rubén Morán from Uruguay: 19y (6 August 1930). The youngest captain was Harry Keough from United States: 22y (15 November 1927).
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The oldest player was Stanley Matthews from England: 35y (1 February 1915). The oldest goalkeeper was Srdjan Mrkušić from Yugoslavia: 35y (26 May 1915). The oldest scorer was Obdulio Varela from Uruguay: 32y (20 September 1917). The oldest champion was also Obdulio Varela from Uruguay: 32y (20 September 1917). The oldest captain was Erik Nilsson from Sweden: 33y (6 August 1916).
The Swedish team
The Jules Rimet Cup
Clubs and players
The most important teams that contributed players to the national teams are shown in the table below.
26 match officials from 19 countries and 3 confederation were the responsible for enforcing the laws of the game during the course of the 22 world cup matches.
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The order of the table is based on the matches as referee.
This section presents the statistics of all dissmissals and cautions since the first 1930 FIFA World Cup held in Uruguay. However, the use of red and yellow cards to indicate sent-off and cautions were officially introduced at the 1970 World Cup.
Teams' discipline
Red cards are one of the most remarkable event that can impact the outcome of a game after goals and penalties. The team receiving the red card is in a vulnerable position and faces a significant disadvantage, mainly if it occurs in the first half. The opposing side on the other hand, receives the advantage and the score is more likely to be in their favor.
The top scorer (Golden Shoe) of the tournament was Ademir from Brazil, who would go on to score eight goals. The names that people probably remember from those times are:
The trophy that was given to the World Cup winners was named Victoria. In 1950, in order to pay homage to Jules Rimet who had been President of FIFA for 25 years and promoted the organization of the championship again after World War II, the trophy was first called Jules Rimet Cup, although it was subsequently referred to as the Jules Rimet Trophy.
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The Italian Ottorino Barassi, Vice President of FIFA in those years, hid the trophy in a shoebox under the bed in his house to avoid falling into the hands of the occupying army.
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India, who had been invited by FIFA to participate in the final stage in Brazil, decided to give up, because FIFA did not accept them play in bare feet, as they did in the Olympics in 1948.
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Italy, the defending champion, suffered the loss of most of their best players, who died in a plane crash, Superga air disaster, on 4 May 1949. The Torino team was returning to Italy after a match against Benfica in Portugal when the Fiat G.212, an Italian three-engine airliner, flew into a thunderstorm and crashed into the hill of Superga near Turin, killing all 31 aboard.
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United States stunned the world by defeating the mighty English team 1 to 0. The Haitian-born Joe Gaetjens gave the victory to the USA. The British media, assuming that there was a typographical error in the information they received, changed the result to 10 to 1. Unfortunately for England, the Kings of Football, there was no such misprint.
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Joseph Gaetjens, the goal-scoring hero for the USA against England, returned to his native Haiti in 1954. A decade later, he was arrested by the country's secret police and is believed to have been killed - like thousands of other Haitians - by the death squad.
Igor Sikorsky in the VS-300, at the end of 1941
The first ENIAC
