A History of Soccer in the 20th Century

At the beginning of the 20th century, football was not played much beyond Britain. The Football League, and the FA Cup particularly, were well established in England, but beyond this, serious football championships were not so. As such, football in the 20th century is best traced back to 1904.

1904 was significant because it saw the emergence of FIFA. FIFA was founded in May 1904 in Paris to oversee international fixtures. The first president of FIFA was Robert Guerin.

With the emergence of FIFA, an international football championship soon followed. In 1908, the first Olympic football championship was held. A handful of teams played in this event, and perhaps not surprisingly, it was one by Great Britain with a 2-0 win over Denmark in the final.

However, it was not until 1930 that the FIFA World Cup was established. Jules Rimet proposed a World Cup beyond the Olympics. As such, Uruguay was selected as a first host for the World Cup in 1930. With home advantage, they also became the first team to win the FIFA World Cup, with a 4-2 win over Argentina. Further World Cups would be held up to 1939, then temporarily postponed.

In the 1950s, more European countries were playing the game. As such, UEFA emerged in 1954 as the governing body for European football.

It would not be too long before the first Eupropean club championship emerged, as a suggestion by L'Equipe to stage a pan-European club championship for Europe's top teams. As such, in 1955, 16 clubs agreed to the invitation, and a first European championship was held. The first European Championship was won by Real Madrid.

The emergence of the European Championship would also be followed by two further club championships. The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and the UEFA Cup Winners Cup was founded for European Cup-winning teams in 1960. Fiorentina were the first team to win the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

With such club championships, a pan-European championship also began in 1958. This was proposed by Henri Delauney of the French Football Federation. As such, in 1960, a small European Championship was held, with the USSR winning the first Henri Delauney trophy.

With such soccer championships, the 1960s were a golden era for the sport. The FIFA World Cup was hosted in England in 1966, with England winning the World Cup 4-2 after a great win over Germany in the final. In addition to this, Manchester United also became the first English club side to win the European Cup with a 4-2 win over Benfica in 1968.

In the 1970s, Holland probably had some of the best teams. Twice they reached the World Cup final, but were not able to win the World Cup. Equally, Ajax also had some of the best club teams and won the European Cup.

The 1980s saw the introduction of three points for a win. This proposal was agreed to by the FA in the early 1980s and was used in the English Football League. Soon, this would become a standard number of points for teams that won league games.

In 1985, Liverpool played Juventus in the European Cup final. While Juventus won the game, it was overshadowed by crowd trouble. With it, English clubs were banned from European football.

Events at Hillsborough further marred the game in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, the European Cup was revamped to the Champions League in '92. This included a group stage for the teams. In addition to this, gradual expansion would allow for non-champions to qualify for the Champions League as well as English clubs to enter once again.

The final World Cup of 1998 was hosted in France. It included up to 32 teams. In the end, it was the hosts, France, that won the event with a sweeping 3-0 win over the holders, Brazil, in the final. Overall, it was perhaps fitting that the final World Cup be won by France at the end of a century, as a championship that owed much to the French, such as Jules Rimet.

Soccer in the 20th century saw the introduction of a number of national and club championships. Overall, the FIFA World Cup proved to be the most influential, while the likes of the Olympic football declined in significance. At the club level, the emergence of the Champions League in 1992 has also seen other club championships, such as the Cup Winners Cup, and possibly also the UEFA Cup, decline somewhat. Still, despite this, the game is now much loved thanks to the likes of FIFA for their active promotion of the sport.