Nearly a century ago, the first World Cup went off with many hitches

Next summer World Cup will be the largest, most complex and most profitable sporting event in history, with 48 teams playing 104 games in three countries. The tournament is expected to attract approximately 5 billion viewers worldwide. FIFA, event organizerhopes for revenue of between $10 billion and $14 billion, which is why tickets for the Iran-New Zealand game at SoFi Stadium cost nearly $700.

All this seemed unlikely after first tournament in 1930when the idea of ​​a World Cup almost died in its cradle, a victim of lack of planning, lack of money and lack of interest. That the competition survived, much less thrived, is nothing short of a miracle, says English writer and podcaster Jonathan Wilson, author of the deeply researched book The Power and the Glory: The Story of the World Cup.

“1930 is an incredibly amateurish film in many ways,” Wilson said. “It’s like a school sports day.”

Only 13 countries took part in the first tournament; There were supposed to be 16, but the Egyptian team missed the ship to Uruguay, and Japan and Siam (now Thailand) could not afford the travel costs and refused to participate. England, meanwhile, not only refused to play, but the British press ignored the event, as did most of Europe.

It seemed like a wise decision at the time, as the first two matches of the inaugural tournament were affected by snow and one of the first games had only 4,444 fans in attendance. The smallest crowd in the history of the World Cup, about 300 people, attended the next first-round game between Romania and Peru, and the television audience… well, there was none, since television had not yet been invented.

The refereeing was above suspicion – Romania coach Constantin Radulescu also worked two games as a linesman – and USA coach Jack Call had to be pulled off the field during his team's semi-final – yes, the USA made it to the semi-finals! — with Argentina, when he passed out after inhaling fumes from a bottle of chloroform that broke in his pocket.

In another game, a penalty was mistakenly marked 16 yards from goal instead of the correct 12 yards, and no one noticed.

“Some of the details don’t make sense,” Wilson said. “It's all so low-grade compared to today.”

When Argentine captain Nolo Ferreira withdrew from the tournament and returned home to take his law exams, his replacement Guillermo Stabile scored a tournament-record eight goals in four games and then never played for the national team again (although he coached it after leading the team). Albiceleste six South American titles and the 1958 World Cup).

Given the farcical nature of the 1930 World Cup, the tournament probably should have ended right there. Instead, 1930 became the foundation on which the following year's competition was built.

However, the origins of the tournament actually make sense. Until 1930, FIFA recognized the winner of the Olympic competition as world champion. But this competition was for amateurs, and the International Olympic Committee did not budge.

As the popularity of professional football grew, FIFA decided to organize its own tournament and host it in Uruguay, the country that had won the last two Olympic titles.

This quickly turned out to be a big mistake. The growing effects of the Great Depression meant that many countries could not afford the long, slow journey by steamship to South America. The first tournament was open to any country that wished to take part, but two months before the first game, no European team agreed to come.

“Uruguay and Argentina have taken this issue very seriously,” Wilson said, but not many others.

That changed soon after Romania's King Carol II, who came to the throne in a coup that overthrew his son, hand-picked his country's World Cup squad and sent it on its way. France quickly agreed to go, too, joining a temporary team under pressure from FIFA President Jules Rimet, a Frenchman. Belgium also bowed to FIFA pressure and all three teams boarded the same ship to Uruguay, training together on a 15-day voyage aboard the Italian ocean liner SS Conte Verde.

“Even the four European countries that went for it, it's not entirely clear how seriously they took it,” Wilson said. “The French and Romanians kept diaries. They seemed to take it as a laugh. We'll try to win, but it doesn't really matter.”

Things didn't get that crazy until the tournament started. The Bolivian team, for example, played in berets, as did the Argentine midfielder, while the 15 referees who worked the games, some of whom traveled and interacted with the players on the long boat journey from Europe, were formally dressed in briefs, long-sleeved shirts, blazers and ties.

Well-dressed officials spent much of the tournament working with police to break up fights; The game was so brutal that at least two players broke their legs, and the USA-Argentina semi-final turned into a full-blown brawl, with one American having four teeth knocked out and another being hospitalized with abdominal injuries.

The tournament finally ended with the hosts defeating Argentina 4-2, after which the Argentines broke off diplomatic relations with their neighbor and an angry crowd in Buenos Aires threw stones at the Uruguayan embassy.

“It ended,” Wilson said of the tournament, “with everyone kind of fighting each other.”

Few people disagreed with the opinion of the Argentine magazine Graphics, which seemed to foretell that this young event had little future. “The World Cup is over,” it wrote. “The development of this competition has brought not only an unpleasant atmosphere, but also an ungrateful one.”

Yet, almost a century later, the World Cup is still here. And this too was predicted in 1930 in the story of Romanian midfielder Alfred Eisenbeiser (who was also known as Fredy Fieraru, why not?).

On the way home from the first World Cup, Eisenbeisser fell ill with pneumonia and a priest was called to perform the last rites. The ship eventually docked in Genoa and was taken to a sanatorium while the rest of the crew continued on to Romania.

Assuming that her son had died in Italy, Eisenbeiser's mother held a wake, only to have her son attend the ceremony alive, causing the woman to pass out. Eisenbeisser played professional football for another 12 years and competed in figure skating at the 1936 Winter Olympics, where he placed 13th in the pairs competition.

It turns out that reports of Eisenbeiser's death, like those of the World Championship, were greatly exaggerated.

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