FIFA World Cup: When the Maracana fell silent
Only 13 teams participated in the post war world cup. Countries of eastern Europe abstained from the world cup and then there were other high profile withdrawals as well. Argentina, Scotland and Turkey did not participate and so did France.
SOCCER TOOK a new turn after the second world war. During the war, the game and the world cup took a long hiatus. Throughout the war, the gold trophy for the world cup had been hidden in a shoebox under the bed of the Italian FIFA president, Dr Ottorino Barassi. To celebrate the revival of the cup, the name of the trophy was changed from Goddess of Victory to the Jules Rimet Cup in honour of the first FIFA president who instituted it all. However the shock of the tournament was the ill-prepared English succumbing to USA. They could not equalise or better the first half goal by the Americans. Back in England the newspaper editors thought that the result was a typing mistake and changed it to 10-1 in favour of their country.
Brazil with an emphatic win over Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1 were all set to win the world cup. However, Uruguay had something else in store for them. In fact, buoyed by the rout of Sweden and Spain, the Brazilians were so confident of the win that one of the leading newspapers in the country had a headline a day before the final declaring "Tomorrow we will beat Uruguay!" The mayor of Rio announced Brazil as world champs even before the kick-off. But it was Celestewho celebrated while Brazil plunged into a sea of deep sorrow.
 | Previous Post |
| Next Post |  |
Login
 Login through Social ID
|
