Who Won The First World Cup Ever?

Not only that Uruguay won the first World Cup ever, but they were also the first country in the world which organized the first football world tournament ever.

The first world football competition ever took place in Montevideo, Uruguay from 13th to 30th July 1930. It numbered thirteen football teams that were mostly from South America.

To be precise, two teams were from North America, four teams were from Europe and seven from South America.

First ever football teams of the first ever world soccer cup were:

  • Uruguay,
  • Argentina,
  • Yugoslavia,
  • Chile,
  • France,
  • Mexico,
  • Brazil,
  • Bolivia,
  • Romania,
  • Peru,
  • United States,
  • Paraguay,
  • and Belgium.
Map of the world showing first ever world cup competitors
First football competitors came from these countries. SOURCE:
By The- – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39471597

Have you ever wondered what were the qualifications to participate in the first global football match ever – the truth is – there were none.

For instance, the only way a country could participate in the original World Football Championship is if it had a FIFA invitation.

First World Cup Ever was played in Uruguay in 1930.

How Was The First World Cup Organised?

To begin with, after a country got invited to participate, the first football teams were divided into four groups. Group A consisted of 4 teams while three other groups consisted of 3 teams each.

The first World Soccer Championship rules were simple, winner of the match got two points, runner-up zero points, while the teams that managed to get a draw, got one point each.

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As a result, only winners of their groups got their way into the semi-finals.

Photo of the first World Cup ever stadion – Estadio Centenario, Uruguay
SOURCE: By Unknown – Here, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45654031

Who Was In The Semi-Finals of First Football World Cup Ever?

Group winners were Uruguay, the United States, Yugoslavia and Argentina. Ultimately, Uruguay beat Yugoslavia, with a result of 6-1.

As a result of the other semi-final match, Argentina defeated the United States.

Can you guess what was the score of the historical semi-final match between Argentina and the United States? It was also 6-1.

Fun Facts About The First World Cup Finals

The score of the first ever football finals, between Uruguay and Argentina, was 4-2.

The first World Cup finals took place on Estadio Centenario, in front of 93,000 people in the audience.

It comes to no surprise that the first ever football world cup match ended with some organisational challenges, just the way it started.

Just before the start of the football match between Uruguay and Argentina, teams had a dispute concerning the ball.

Each team wanted to play the finals with their own football. Not only that each team considered their ball to bring them good luck, but also the teams loved the familiarity of playing with their own sports equipment.

If you are wondering how did the first world cup football look like, here is the photo of Argentina’s ball.

Photo of Argentina's football used for the first half of the first World Cup
Photo of
Argentina’s ball which was used for the first half of the first World Cup
By Oldelpaso – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7410682

One can say that this was the first ever official football dispute. Correspondingly, FIFA had to come up with a perfect solution to suit both Argentina and Uruguay.

As a result, they agreed to play each half with their own football.

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In case you want to see how Uruguay’s first ever world cup football looked like, take a look at the photo below.

Photo of Uruguay's first ever World Cup football
Photo of Uruguay’s first ever World Cup football which was used for the second half. By Oldelpaso – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7410660

Fun Fact About The First Soccer Third Place Match

Official sources say that the game for the third place of the first World Cup in Uruguay actually never took place. However, FIFA Bulletin from 1984., says differently.

According to FIFA historical match statistics, the game did take place and Yugoslavia won against the United States, with a result of 3-1.

Even though no one has any evidence that the match actually took place, some say that the United States won third place because of their goal difference from previous tournament matches.

1930s World Football Tournament Facts

  • 70 goals scored,
  • 18 matches played,
  • top scorer of the first world football tournament is Guillermo Stabile who scored 8 goals,
  • 590,547 people attended the World Cup in Uruguay. Comparatively, the football event in 2018 in Russia had an attendance of 3,031,768 football fans.

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