1934 FIFA World Cup

The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second FIFA World Cup, the international title for the men's national association football teams. It was carried over from May 27 through June 10, 1934, in Italy. The 1934 World Cup became the first team to participate in the qualification process of the games. Thirty-two nations joined the competition, and after qualifying, 16 of those teams got to compete in the final tournament. Reigning champions Uruguay declined to take part because their invitation to the 1930 tournament had already been accepted by four European nations. Italy became the second World Cup winners, and the first European team to participate, eventually beating Czechoslovakia 2-1. Like the Berlin Olympics two years later, the 1934 World Cup acted as a high-profile example of a sporting event being used for obvious political benefit. Benito Mussolini was keen on using the game as a means of encouraging populism. Made in Italy, the Federale 102 was the match ball issued for the 1934 World Cup. At a meeting held in Sweden on 9 October 1932, Italy was chosen as the host nation after a lengthy decision-making process during which the FIFA Executive Committee met eight different times until they could agree upon one. Without a leaders ballot, the Executive Committee did the vote. The Italian bid was ideally chosen from Sweden; the Italian Government accepted the tournament with a budget of 3.5 million lire. Thirty-six countries applied for admission to the tournament, thus needing qualifying matches to limit the field to sixteen. Back though, there weren't many noticeable absentees. Reacting to the refusal of many European nations to travel for the recent World Cup to South America, which Uruguay hosted in 1930, Uruguay declined to join. Consequently, the 1934 World Cup is the only one the defending champions did not participate in. The British Home Nations had refused to partake in a period of self-imposed exile from FIFA, but, without qualifying, the FIFA had granted free access to the tournament in England and Scotland. The chairman of the Football Association Board, Charles Sutcliffe, called the competition a "joke" and said that "the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland have much to do in their own International Championship which appears to me to be a much better World Championship than the one to be held in Italy." Of the 32 entries, only 10 came from outside Europe, only four of the 16 qualified teams came. The final spot in the final was determined in a one-off match between the U.S. and Mexico in Rome just three days before the start of the tournament which the U.S. won. The number of fans from other countries, including 7,000 from the Netherlands and 10,000 from Austria and Switzerland, was greater than any other football tournament since. The group stage featured in the first World Cup was eliminated, in favour of a single elimination competition. If a match has been tied then thirty minutes of extra time played after ninety minutes. The match was replayed the next day, since after extra time the score was still tied. Over the years, several sources have indicated that the competition may have been marred by corruption and corrupted by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who used the rivalry for fascism as a propaganda tool. Mussolini himself, according to these reports, named referees for matches in which the Italian national team played, while the Italian government interfered in FIFA's game preparation, reorganising match planning to better support fascism. Nevertheless, Italy won the next edition of the World Cup, as well as the race for Olympic football in 1936.