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The World Cup In An Hour
by Rupert Colley
Available on iTunes at a SPECIAL DISCOUNTED PRICE 99c/59p whilst the World Cup is still on.
On Friday, June 11, 2010 the opening match of the nineteenth FIFA World Cup took place between the hosts, South Africa, and Mexico in front of a capacity crowd of 91,000. Eighty years earlier, on July 13, 1930, Mexico played in another opening match - in the very first World Cup. This time in the city of Montevideo, capital of Uruguay, against France, the crowd numbered barely a thousand.
204 nations took part in this year's World Cup over a course of two years until 31 teams were left to join the hosts in South Africa.
Only thirteen nations took part in 1930, no qualification was needed, and with no representation from Africa or Asia the World Cup seemed somewhat a misnomer.
However, we would be mistaken to consider the game of football eighty years ago as less popular than it is today. It still attracted as much passion and fury as it does now, and at a time when nationalism was such a by-product of the global consciousness, perhaps more so. The first final, which took place on July 13, an estimated 93,000 crammed in to see the hosts, Uruguay battle it out against their South American rivals Argentina. So incensed at their loss, Argentinean fans in Buenos Aires stoned the Uruguayan embassy denting diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The stars of yesteryear were as much revered as they are now. Leonidas, Ademir, Puskas, Fontaine and Ghiggia, were, each of them, as famous in their day, as Pele, Moore, Beckenbauer and Cruyff were in recent decades and as Messi, Ronaldo, Drogba and Kaka are now.
The FIFA World Cup of 2010 will bring out the best and the worst of players, managers, officials and fans alike. Players, known only within their home nations, will become overnight stars throughout the world, others will exit the world stage following this tournament, there will be great games that will live in the memory and the dull we'd rather forget. And, at the end of it, one nation only will hold the World Cup. We know all this because it happens at every tournament, and this, in one hour, is the history of the World Cup.
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