5-time World Cup semifinalists
1930, 1950*, 1954, 1970, 2010
 

English transcript of the interview with football historian Pierre Arrighi (originally in Spanish)

YouTube original interview:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaker 1: 

Hello. How are you?
 

Speaker 2:

00:00:01

Good. Good. Good. Perfect. We were talking about the book that had come out in 2014 about the 1924 Olympic football tournament and there have been certain evolutions in the analysis, because the investigation continued and then it has been completed. First of all, because the document is from 1924. It speaks only of 1924 and not about 1928. Ten minutes. A newspaper, let's say a reference, because everything was written by all the intellectuals who were on the periphery of the French Football Federation, which was directed by Rimbaud since 1919, which was to be transformed in 1921. The president of FIFA was this same Rimbaud. And there is a file, for example, that is not in the 1924 book that I discovered. But in reality the Uruguayan historians should have given it to me from the beginning, what appears in the file in the official report of the World Cup of 1930. In 1930, Rimbaud accompanied the European delegations on the ship that went to Montevideo and represented FIFA as FIFA president. When the final match between Uruguay and Argentina was over, he made statements to the press, but above all, he sent an official letter to the president of the Uruguayan Football Association, in which he told her: “It is incredible that Uruguay has won the football world championship three times in a row.” 

 

And he explains the following because although at that time, that is, referring to 1924 and 1928, those championships were not yet called the “World Cup”. They were true world championships. He then incites the Uruguayan Association. It says so in the same letter. To note on its crest, that is, on his Association shield, the three world championships of the team, constituting a true epic. At that time, Jules Rimet, lived the events as a contemporary. He wasn't checking them and he wasn’t transforming the story into a legend like he did a long time later. He knew very well that the Montevideo Championship of 1930 had not been truly done through the happy will of FIFA. It had been arranged because they couldn't stay in the Olympics and to save the Olympics Championship (their version). Rimet states the organization of the championship by FIFA in 1928. And so Rimet knows very well that there is total continuity between the 1930 championship and the previous ones, because the 1930 championship is, so to speak, the lesser evil at that time, the way to save what he had already had many difficulties in saving in 1928. There is another thing that is very little known and that is probably a fundamental historical fact in the history of football. It is when the 1924 championship ends in Paris. When the final between Uruguay and Switzerland ends, Uruguay wins 3-0 at the Colombes stadium. The Colombes stadium, which remains the same, surely has almost the same stands, the same organization, the same structure.
 

Speaker 1: 

00:04:16

I had seen a documentary on the program, “The Origin of Uruguayan Soccer”, in which you were interviewed in that same stadium.”
 

Speaker 2

00:04:21

We were there, I was sitting in the middle and it's impressive.

 

Speaker 1

00:04:26

It is identical.
 

Speaker 2

00:04:27

Yes. So when the finals ends, a few minutes later, Rimet speaks right at the  author and journalist of “L’Auto”, who had been captain of the Red Star team and had won the French National Championship three times. And he was captain. He had been captain of the French national team as well. You were a journalist for the Division. Is it not like this? He it explains to the journalist. “Now, We have to organize this world championship, this world championship of the Olympic Games by extending it and creating continental preludes. The idea of ​​edging. It is then that the World Championship that has just been held in Colombes in 1924 changed its structure in 1928 and instead of playing with many teams in the final Olympic round, it was limited to 16. But, beforehand what he calls a continental prelude, that is to say, what today are called World Cup qualifiers, simply qualifiers by continent, that is, qualifiers in South America, in North America, in and in Europe. At the moment, maybe it could be extended to Africa or Asia at some point under some conditions, but mainly what he was thinking of doing was qualifiers, rounds, qualifiers. So why is that so important? Not so much because Rimet recognizes that 1924 is a world championship, because for the people of the time there was such evidence. That is to say, it appeared in all the newspapers. Uruguay won the World Championship. Tomorrow is the final of the World Championship. The French Association entitled their tournament the World championship of the Olympic Games, etc. This is  important because FIFA, for the first time are about to take on a part of the world championship. Not the entire championship, but a part. The idea of ​​giving up at that point is great. Keep the world final within the framework of the Olympic Games. But, organizing those continental preludes is in the hands of FIFA, outside the Olympics. And that for FIFA, this was very important because, in the first place, they were getting rid of the pressure that was beginning to develop, especially from the most ambitious football associations of the time, which were Italy, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia. Those four associations were beginning to put pressure on the organization of a European Cup, a European Cup that Jules Rimet did not want because it was going to be a FIFA competitor. FIFA and the associations were going to be able to earn money. Because, the problem that teams faced at that time was that they were going to play the Olympic championship and not earn money. They lost money because the Olympic championship was only profitable for the Olympic organizers, for the French Olympic Committee in 1924. The Dutch in 1928. The Belgian in 1920. So the Uruguayan teams, for example, when they went to 1924, did not receive any help from anyone for their participation. The tour that they did in Spain and that was criticized as payment by patrons by some Swiss leaders who were in the football business, much more than the Uruguayan leaders. It was nothing more than a sacrificed tour to be able to finance the Olympic participation. So the teams did not gain anything by inventing that double scheme with the final round in the Olympic Games and the Qualifiers in the different continents. FIFA and the participating teams ensured a certain number of matches and, above all, control of the ticket office. The control of the ticket office during that part. Yes, it was a perfect plan. It was, on the other hand, the plan that FIFA used from the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936. Because, if you look at how many teams participated in the Olympic Games from 1936, you will realize that there are 16 teams, nothing more. The same thing is going to happen later in the FIFA World Cup. Because preliminary rounds are organized. And those preliminary rounds have a greater interest for FIFA, which is to raise money. Yes, and for associations too. Yes, like right now. Because what became very clear is that Rimet, the president of FIFA, wanted to thoroughly keep the world championship within the framework of the Olympic Games.

 

Speaker 1

00:10:14

So what is the overall story? In other words, has FIFA always wanted to officially recognize 1924 and 1928, or did they want to distance itself in a sense from that Olympic history? You have also mentioned in your book that there have been attempts at revisionism on the part of FIFA with some books created after 1980. What is your opinion on that?

 

Speaker 2

00:10:39

Look, it's a complicated issue because people believe that the history of football is a very easy thing, that it is resolved in three kicks, in two sentences and in some distorted quotes, like in a bowling alley, like a bar, in a discussion in a bar. The history of football, like the history of all sports or the Olympic Games, is as complicated as any other history. It is, without a doubt, less serious than the history of slavery. The history of war, world war etc. Or the history of the formation of Latin America. But it is a story that is complicated and requires study. To understand the situation well, we are going to put the case of 1924 and 1928. You have to change the era, that is, you have to enter an era, a century ago. And especially at a time that was the Olympic era of sport and the Olympic era of football. Do not forget that FIFA was created by the same organization that created the Olympic Games. Coubertin's French piggy bank created the Olympic Games in 1894 and ten years later created FIFA. He sees the Olympics Games as a worldwide movement. And he created FIFA, not as a world movement. Because it is often said that FIFA was created with the aim of organizing the World Cup in football. No, that is not like that. FIFA was originally created with the aim of organizing the European Football Championship. The European Cup, said Guerin. And the leaders of the time said. However, it was created with an Olympic optic, with the same Olympic concepts. And those Olympic concepts, what were they? They were an international championship, which is a championship that is discussed between the national teams. And a world championship is a championship in between the national teams of Europe and the Americas: the old and new world. 

​

This has been the case since the Olympic movement began, since the Olympic movement was founded. So much so that in 1900 the athletics championships were already considered the World Athletics Championships. Why? Because the extraordinary American athletes who dominated the tests were coming in droves. So the evidence is such. Before an international world championship that was America, Canada, sometimes representatives of Australia and the British, the French and with the result of the North American domination, that the world status of that championship cannot be denied. Then after the concept was established, it became a real world championship. An international championship in which the Old World faces the new world. It is the Olympic concept. And so much so that the founder of FIFA says: “We are going to create the European Championship, not the world championship. The World Championship will arise elsewhere. They have another part to play.” When the English took power in FIFA in 1906, they impose on FIFA, let's say, a form of self-censorship. That is, they prohibit you from organizing a soccer championship separate from theirs. It is specifically prohibited. As of 1906, FIFA refused to organize its own European championship, which was the original idea of ​​the founders.

 

Speaker 1

00:14:48

Sure.
 

Speaker 2

00:14:49

The football associations then turned to the only perspective, the natural and easiest perspective that was available, which was the Olympic soccer tournament. The Olympic football tournament is at first a European tournament. There were only teams from Europe in 1912, 11 teams from Europe and the tournament remained European in 1920, in Antwerp, although an Egyptian team participated, it participated as a British colony. But, before the First World War and immediately after the end of it, a globalist sentiment prevailed in Europe. FIFA considers, in 1914, that the Olympic Championship is going to become a World Championship imminently. The leaders now consider it. And in 1919, when the war ended, the American military command organized with the agreement of the French government, the inter-allied military games. And then there is a soccer championship that is known as the Inter Tournament, an ally of soccer in 1919, in which for the first time the American teams face off against the European teams, six teams from Europe play, as well as Canada and the United States. Among those selected from Europe are the strongest because there is Italy, which is already beginning to be a footballing power, and especially Czechoslovakia, which was considered at that time to be the maximum power in football. And what do those teams do? They put in their best professionals because all the important clubs were already professionalized. And the regulations of the Allied Games are completely open, that is, it is explicitly stated that both amateur athletes and professional athletes can participate in these games. That championship was the first world championship. Although it is not really the first championship to involve the entire world, because it is limited to the allied countries. There were only 20 countries invited to compete. This creates a precedent that completely changes the perception, especially in France, because it is the French who organize the tournament. At that time, the new French Association was being created. The French Football Federation,. wants this from now on, when the possibility arises, for the Olympic championship to resemble the Allied championship that had been played, but is open to all countries. The problem is that in 1920, the Olympic Games are organized in Belgium. And the Belgian Football Association, like other associations like the Swedish, the Dutch, partly the English, and Switzerland too. In part, they are organizations favorable to amateurism. This opposes professionalism. Then, the idea was to return to the scheme of the previous Olympic championships, that is, organized as a championship reserved for amateur soccer players. And American soccer players are already in a situation of very, very, very advanced professionalism. As soon as the Americans don't come, because they are afraid they will be told to leave when they reach the gate of the championship. “No, no, you are professionals. No, you cannot enter.” Yes, when you look at the history of American soccer, you realize that from 1905 to 1908, large industrial companies of the coast: shipyards, boat manufacturers., metallurgical industry, the textile industry, etc, create their professional teams with soccer players paid by the company and organizers of the championships. That results is that, in 1921, the famous American Soccer League, which will last for about 15 years and is so professional that it is inspired by the model of baseball professionalism, was born. Baseball has been professional since 1880.
 

Speaker 1

00:20:01

I think a very important question would be why the stars of 1924 and 1928 are legitimate world titles?
 

Speaker 2

00:20:09

Well, Uruguay put the stars on the shirt in the early 1990s. The first team that started that fashion, let's say, was Brazil, which was in 1968, that is, before winning their third World Cup. They placed two blue stars on the crest of their association. No, those stars are a creation of the associations. What did they mean at that time? What do they still mean today? Well, it says “We have won the soccer world championship so many times.” What was understood at that time by the World Cup? Not a championship or, as they say today, the World Cup organized by FIFA, but something much more, let's say, fundamental and broader, because the logic of international football initially comes from the Olympic world. So what was meant by doing this in the first place? It represented a true world championship, that is to say, a championship in which one faces each other. At least America and Europe, the old and new world. And in second place. And is this typical of football, or rather, of the most advanced part of the world of football: an open championship. What the English call open. The golf open. The Tennis Open. What does “open” mean? It means that athletes of the discipline can participate in this championship, whatever their category, that is, amateur, non-amateur or professional. Nowadays, when one reads some texts published, not by FIFA but by the FIFA presidency, one sees the story that they narrate in those texts that the Olympic Championships are all considered as amateur championships. Then it is presumably considered that 1908-1928 were amateur championships. And that, starting in 1930, the football championships were taken from Olympics games and as a result of that, it was finally possible to organize the true world championship open to all footballers, open to all players. The problem is that this story does not correspond to reality, because the reality is that, effectively, the soccer championships were amateur until the 1920 Olympic tournament. Because the three associations that organized those first three Olympic soccer championships were convinced that amateurism was the best for football. The English Federation in 1908, the Swedish in 1912 and the Belgian in 1920. But not the French! The French were not at all convinced of amateurism. The French wanted to organize a universal championship. This meant it was open to everyone, including the popular classes who received a salary to practice sports. So, when the Olympic football championship was organized in 1924, by chance, Jules Rimet was both president of the French Federation and president of FIFA. He had practically full powers at the time. Rimet even ignores the subject of the amateur and the professional in their documents. I mean, they just don't mention it. When a regulation does not mention the subject of the professionalism, the tournament becomes an open regulation, while drawing regulations for the Olympic Championship and on behalf of the French Federation, but also on behalf of FIFA, under the supervision of the president of FIFA, Julie Rimet. Then, he wrote to the French press, in which he explains why the regulations of the 1924 football championship are open and says, literally, that FIFA does not get involved in national issues of amateurism and that international football is, by definition for FIFA, a football open to all footballers. And he then gives as an example of the fact that in the international matches that when the continental teams play against the English team, the England team has been fielding a large number of top professional players since 1921. In other words, the England team, which were professionals from 1921 onwards, and after the defeat of the English amateurs in 1920, came to play friendly matches all over the continent. Was this a professional team? Yes, it was a selection of professionals. So, in 1924, the French said that the matter of English amateurism was over. That we are going to free ourselves from that oppression of amateurism. We are going to free ourselves from that obstacle that prevents our town players, our poor players, our

our working-class players who receive salaries to play soccer, so that their families don't starve, can come to play in the Olympic championship. 

 

At the same time, a phenomenon occurs, let's say, uncalculated, unexpected, that was considered imminent, that was felt in the air. It was there, in the air, but there was no certainty that it was going to happen. What is this phenomenon that in 1923, at the FIFA Congress in Geneva, Uruguay and the United States confirmed their participation. They promised that they would play the 1924 Olympic Championship. So, through the French Federation, they announce in the official press that the first true World Championship will be played in Paris and the suburbs in 1924. 

The conclusion of two factors is given. On the one hand, the open regulation of the tournament, which is promoted by Rimet and by the French Federation. And on the other hand, the historical fortuitous event that could have occurred before or after the arrival of the United States and Uruguayan teams that created the World Championship. In fact, in Olympic logic, a world championship is not announced in advance. For a very simple reason is that if only European teams appear and the championship that is announced is a world championship, the value of the title would be lowered. So the Olympic logic doesn't work like that. The Olympic logic works as follows: a world championship is recognized when it is certain that specific teams are going to participate in that championship. Significant representations of the Old World and the New World, Europe and America. That has been happening in athletics since 1900. But, in football, the phenomenon appeared in 1924. And there is a historical coincidence, a coincidental fact, which is that the two elements that allow a football championship to be classified as an absolute football championship coincide. What FIFA calls an absolute championship, that is, teams that can line up their best players, professional or not, and a meeting between America and Europe. This is what happened. That is the point of the books published by the FIFA presidency since 2004 or the FIFA Museum in 2017. They don't want to admit it because of their conflict with the Olympic Movement. The conflict is relatively recent with the Olympic movement, because that conflict dates back to 1930 mainly. And they always want to downgrade what the Olympic movement did. And at that time, in 1924, there was harmony between FIFA and the IOC, and there was harmony between the French FIFA leaders Rimet and Coubertin, because they really had known each other forever. Coubertin had worked freely in the USA in 1900 to organize the World Championships in athletics at the Olympiad, and in the second French Olympiad. There he was to cover the 1902 football test in Stockholm. Because the Swedes say that football is a game. It is not. It is not a sport. Coubertin truly intervenes to save football. So, at that time there was harmony and that harmony culminates with the world championship, which is recognized by all Swiss-French opinions, by all the leaders, and so on. What happens now? Why does Rimet go through the French Federation and not FIFA? Why are there no FIFA documents that say “Long live the 1924 World Championship What happiness! We finally have the world championship!” Why? Why is that happening? Because FIFA at that time was very divided and very backwards. There are a lot of influential associations under English influence who don't want the open championship of football. They do not want an absolute championship open to all footballers. So, in order to maintain the unity of FIFA, which had been very divided after the First World War, Rimet’s mandate is not to divide any more,but  to save the unity of FIFA. So he decides not to raise within FIFA the problems likely to exacerbate internal divisions. He could perfectly submit to the 1923 FIFA Congress the idea of ​​deciding, for example, to classify the 1924 World Championship as an open tournament. But, he knew that he was going to face two serious problems then. The first is the opposition of a series of more than influential associations. Founders like: Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Denmark. Four associations that had founded FIFA were going to oppose them and they were going to say “no, we want a world championship, but an amateur one, not open.” So they don’t want it to happen. Also, there's another problem in that Rimet has another mandate as president since 1921, which is to bring back within FIFA to the four British associations and he knows this perfectly well. He knows that  if FIFA decides to organize the Open World Championship, those associations will not join FIFA. So, Rimmet knew very well that at the Geneva Congress, those decisions would be too heavy for FIFA’s small shoulders, who were of backward and confused aristocrats, because there were many aristocrats at that time in FIFA and many monarchical countries. Notice that the defenders of amateurism are the monarchic countries: Sweden, monarchy, Denmark, monarchy. Monarchical Netherlands. Belgium with the king. So, they defend aristocratic football. They do not want the proletarians to enter their clubs. They want to leave them out, as do the English aristocrats from certain areas, from certain leagues. They want the workers to enter their clubs. So, Rimet lunges in very cleverly. He is FIFA. He tells himself that he is FIFA, but in reality he does not consult his decision with the Congress. Hence the ambiguity of the matter of recognition of these 1924 and 1928 tournaments. Because, in the opinion of FIFA, nobody is interested in them because FIFA annulled the proposed European Championship in 1905. They prohibited the organization of its own championships as of 1906. So, FIFA is considered as a kind of administrative bureaucratic office that manages the affiliations, but in no way, as a sports avant-garde capable of organizing a world championship or even a regional or European championship.

 

Speaker 1

00:34:45

In other words, not the type of organization that we know now.
 

Speaker 2

00:34:48

Nothing to do with the FIFA we know today. At that time the one that saved the face of FIFA, or rather, the one that saved the face of world football, was the French Federation. That provides a regulation at the height of the needs of football. Not only the needs of countries like: Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Italy, which already had a very high level of professionalization, or even France. But also the need of the American countries. Since professional championships had been organized in the United States and in countries like Uruguay and Argentina, they were called amateurs. Employment by clubs of soccer players was authorized at the time. That is to say, that while professionalism was lived, it was not a footballer's profession. But players would live like a professional footballer employed by the club. In other words, all those professional soccer players who received salaries, who received prizes and who were left out, in theory, by the regulations that had previously been applied in the Olympic Games, in the Olympic tournaments. They just didn’t want to let them in. Some people will tell you: “yes, but the Olympics were always amateurish.” As the Olympic Games were amateur. The players had to be amateurs. Yes, but that theory is also wrong. It does not correspond to the reality of the Olympic Games. When Coubertin founded the Olympic Games in 1894, he decided that the admission of athletes was not the prerogative of the Olympic movement. And that only the sports authorities of each discipline have the right and power to decide what type of athletes are going to play in those championships. That situation was maintained until 1925. In 1925, the Olympic Congress, let's say, was attacked by the monarchical countries, that is, by the Swedes who direct athletics and by the British Olympic Committee, which had a greater influence in the whole world at the time. They decide on amateurism, to go to the Olympic Games and impose for the first time the obligation of amateurism to enter the athletic, swimming or soccer teams of the Olympic Games. At that time, in 1925, Rimmet had in mind the plan that we had already discussed. In other words, extend the open soccer championship from 1924, the supreme world championship for all soccer players, creating continental qualifiers, etc. Continental preludes, as he said when the 1925 Olympic Congress opposed amateurism, Rimet says: “Here I am faced with a dilemma. If I obey and submit to the new British and Swedish directives imposed by the monarchies within the Olympic Games, my championship will no longer be a supreme world championship and it will no longer be a true soccer world championship. And I will no longer be able to put my professional footballers in the France team. And the Americans will no longer come, nor will the Uruguayans or the Argentines. So the championship is going to shrink more and more.” Yes. So he doesn't accept this alternative, but he still doesn't know what to do. He has the possibility of organizing his own FIFA championship, but using the the prestige of the Olympic Games. The attraction of the Olympic Games in the world, on the planet it is such: China, Japan, African countries, Australia, New Zealand, practically all of America, Central America participates and nobody knows FIFA at the time. In 1925 and 1926, Rimet had FIFA approve a series of statutory provisions that totally changed the nature of the International Federation. And among them a rule that says the following: for the international matches and championships of the future, the national associations will be able to freely compose their teams, lining up amateur, non-amateur and professional players. Then impose, as a fundamental rule of FIFA, “the Open”. The open and the amateur FIFA of the English. FIFA was lowered by the English during the previous years in which the English had promoted the famous Christiania resolution that recognized the Olympic championship as an amateur championship. That lowered FIFA but ,in 1925, they became an open FIFA. Not everyone was happy with what they did, because Rimet leans on the new countries. The new ones, the new associations that are coming. Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, United States. All those associations that come from outside of Europe, are not interested in the subject of materialism. The only thing that interests them is being able to line up their best players, the best teams and that they don't have any difficulties. So what do you get against the vote of the Dutch or Belgians and so on? The Danish? The English obtain that FIFA, by a small majority, becomes an open FIFA and in 1927 makes Congress vote on a provision, let's say a subversive one, that says the following: From now on, any professional player can be declared as amateur. It is a very simple and very practical way to avoid any obstacle, any obstacle at the time of execution. It is not a new rule. It has existed in tennis since 1900 and it has also existed in the English Football Federation since professionalism has existed. A professional in England can become an amateur if accepted by the association. So with that package of rules, Rimet discusses at the 1927 FIFA Congress, whether FIFA will participate or not in the 1928 Amsterdam Championship. Because there are two rules that oppose the Olympic rule that the FIFA congress voted for, according to which only amateur soccer players can play. 

 

And the rules that FIFA was voting on in 1925, 1926 and 1927 that set the opposite principle. In other words, those selected can be freely combined with amateurs and professionals. The Dutch and the Belgians. They suppose. And they say: “We are not going to go to the Olympic championship!” and “We are going to accept the rules that the International Olympic Committee imposes on us, which are definitely not so bad.” And Rimet says: “No, no, no, I didn't work for three years uselessly so now you come to demolish my work.” So he imposes on Congress a major resolution in which he says: “If the International Olympic Committee does not accept FIFA's rules, football does not participate in the Amsterdam Olympics.” In August 1927, and three months later, the International Olympic Committee gave in to FIFA's request. And then you get to what Rimet calls the maintenance of the world championship. He not only keeps it within the Olympic Games, but he keeps it under the same conditions as in 1924, that is, as a world and open championship. Yes Yes. Furthermore, the 1928 FIFA regulations were no longer drawn up by the French Federation. They are the statutes of FIFA themselves, thus extracted from the package of votes of the FIFA congresses. And put it like this: …

Rimet is a vindictive guy. He is a very personal guy and he does not concede anything. He is ruthless with his opponents. So, to definitively liquidate the maneuver of the British within the International Olympic Committee, he also imposes a text in which he authorizes the national associations. Furthermore, he asks the national associations to pay salaries to the members of the national teams from the day they embark in their country until the day they disembark back to their country. So, he not only promotes the open championship, but also promotes the professional Olympic championship in 1928, since the players who are going to play are authorized to receive an Olympic salary. What happens in that situation? America is coming en masse. Not just Uruguay and the United States, but Mexico, Chile and Argentina are added. But on the European side there is resentment. There is annoyance because of how Rimet had behaved.  Yes. He opposed his opponents with blackmail and with a maneuver passing through the FIFA Congress without really telling the FIFA Congress where his maneuver was going, what the International Olympic Committee supposed, and put the knife to their throat at the last moment. If tennis was already gone for the reasons of the matter, then the Dutch Olympic Committee could not afford to have tennis and football missing from its 1928 edition. So he wins that blackmail. But the associations of Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, are dissatisfied. So Sweden is not going to 1928. Huh? Denmark is not going. And Belgium and Holland go, but with an annoying tone because they don't dare to put all their professionals in their teams. And they get crushed by the American teams.
 

Speaker 1

00:47:40

Yes, the Netherlands lost their first game.
 

Speaker 2

00:47:43

The Netherlands has bad luck. The Netherlands were unlucky enough to lose to Uruguay in the first game. And what does the Netherlands do? The Netherlands files a claim against Scarone, supposedly a professional, because he had gone through a six-month trial period at Barcelona in 1926. And Rimet tells the Dutch: But what do I have to deal with it professionals are allowed to play in this championship? 

 

Then Belgium is rudely eliminated by Argentina. Uruguay eliminates Germany in a match where the German brutality shocks all observers and in particular the French observers. Germany publishes drawings of Jose Andrade furiously kicking German players. The dark legend of Uruguay and Argentina soccer begins. Then, both Uruguay and Argentina play the double final and Uruguay wins again. So what do you see in that 1928 championship? That the championship once again has the same characteristics recognized at that time as those of the Absolute World Soccer Championship. Recognized because they play the best in Europe. What was Italy at that time? Italy and Switzerland were the best in Europe. And the best of America, Argentina and Uruguay. Argentina, which at that time was champion of America and was not champion of America. They were champions of the Copa America in 1924, but not in 1928. Then the two characteristics are given again. But Rimet also, again, cleverly does something. No, he cannot ask the Netherlands and Belgium openly within FIFA to proclaim that we saved the absolute World Championship. Because the Netherlands and Belgium remain convinced that Rimet’s subversive path against amateurism is not theirs. The proof, the Dutch claim, against the Uruguayan players for professionalism, which is a direct attack against the presence of FIFA and against everything they really did in those years. So the Netherlands mistrusts the FIFA apparatus, they mistrust the Congress and thus limits himself to imposing that footballing path. That is why there are no documents from the FIFA Congress that openly say: “Long live the football world championship, this and that!” And that those championships were world championships. But these world championships must be considered not as FIFA world championships, but as association world championships, association world or Olympic championships and what is meant by associations. The most lucid associations, the most advanced, Italy and France, are at that time the vanguard of European football. Argentina and Uruguay are the vanguard of American football. Those four associations, three of which are represented in the final table of 1928. Which is completed with Egypt. Italy is third. Argentina, second. Egypt, 4th. And Uruguay occupies first place. What happens when the world championship ends again? If you look at the French press covers again, you will see exactly the same thing. Uruguay again world champion, Uruguay world champion. Uruguay wins the world championship again. Why? What is? What happens? It is that Rimet knows that in the 1929 Olympic Congress this time he is going to return the blackmail. In other words, he is going to sayif FIFA maintains its regulations on the games that are going to be played in Los Angeles in 1932. “We exclude it, we exclude soccer from the competition.” Then, money has only one outlet. FIFA proposes to create their own championship. The problem is that there are two orientations, two possible championships: The world championship, In replacement of the Olympic championship and that of Europe, and the one from Europe which has been requested by the associations of Central Europe plus Italy since 1926, which FIFA rejects. FIFA rejects it because it fears that when the European Cup is created, a European confederation is necessarily created, and that European Confederation, led by Hungarians, Italians, Czechoslovaks, Austrians, who are business people…were not diligent sports officials like the French, who were not business people. They monopolize the football of the area and in that movement FIFA disappears in a very complicated period. So the situation is complicated, but choose to go forward, go forward, go forward. “We are going to create our own championship since we can no longer continue to organize the world championship that we want within the Games Olympics, because every time you have to discuss the issue of amateurism, of this and that, and there is a lot of trouble and a lot of division.” “We are going to create the championship definitively open outside of the games and we are going to save the 1924 championship, as we saved the 1928 one, but in a definitive way creating that 1930 championship.” It is the birth of the World Cup.