1950 FIFA World Cup

Because of World War II, the World Cup had not been staged since 1938; the planned World Cups of 1942 and 1946 were both cancelled. After the war, FIFA were keen to resurrect the competition as soon as possible, and they began making plans for a World Cup tournament to take place. In the aftermath of the war, much of Europe lay in ruins. As a result, FIFA had some difficulties finding a country interested in hosting the event, since many governments believed that their scarce resources ought to be devoted to more urgent priorities than a sporting celebration.

The World Cup was at risk of not being held for sheer lack of interest from the international community, until Brazil presented a bid at the 1946 FIFA Congress, offering to host the event on condition that the tournament take place in 1950 rather than the originally proposed year of 1949.[2] Brazil and Germany had been the leading bidders to host the cancelled 1942 World Cup; since both the 1934 and 1938 tournaments had been held in Europe, football historians generally agree that the 1942 event would most likely have been awarded to a South American host country. Brazil's new bid was very similar to the mooted 1942 bid and was quickly accepted.

Having secured a host nation, FIFA would dedicate some time to persuading countries to send their national teams to compete. Italy was of particular interest as the long-standing defending champions, having won the two previous tournaments in 1934 and 1938; however, Italy's national team was weakened severely as most of its starting line-up perished in the Superga air disaster one year before the start of the tournament. The Italians were eventually persuaded to attend, but travelled by boat rather than by plane.[3]

Brazil (the host country) and Italy (the defending champion) qualified automatically, leaving 14 places remaining. Of these, seven were allocated to Europe, six to the Americas, and one to Asia.

Qualified teams and withdrawals after qualification

The following 16 teams originally qualified for the final tournament. After the withdrawals, only 13 teams would participate in the World Cup.

•  Bolivia
•  Brazil (hosts)
•  Chile
•  England
•  India (withdrew)
•  Italy (1938 champions)
•  Mexico
•  Paraguay
•  Spain
•  Scotland (withdrew)
•  Sweden
•   Switzerland
•  Turkey (withdrew)
•  United States
•  Uruguay (1930 champions)
•  Yugoslavia

Participating countries after 3 of the 16 qualifying countries withdrew.

Before the qualification competition, George Graham, chairman of the Scottish Football Association (SFA), had said that Scotland would only travel to Brazil as winners of the Home Championship[5] (England, by contrast, had committed to attending, even if they finished in second place).[5] After Scotland ended up in second place behind England,[6][7] the Scottish captain George Young, encouraged by England captain Billy Wright, pleaded with the SFA to change its mind and accept the place in Brazil; however, Graham refused to change his position and so Scotland withdrew from the tournament.[5]

Turkey also withdrew, citing financial conditions that included the cost of travelling to South America.[8] FIFA invited Portugal, Ireland (FAI) and France, who had been eliminated in qualifying, to fill the gaps left by Scotland, India and Turkey. Portugal and Ireland refused, but France initially accepted and was entered into the draw.

A new playing format was proposed by the Brazilian organisers of the tournament to maximise matches and ticket sales since the stadium and infrastructure were so costly. The 13 teams were divided into four first-round groups (or "pools" as they were then called) of four teams, with the winner of each group advancing to a final group stage, playing in round-robin format to determine the cup winner. A straight knockout tournament, as had been used in 1934 and 1938, would have featured only sixteen games (including the third-place playoff), while the proposed two rounds of the group format would guarantee thirty games, and thus more ticket revenue.[15] In addition, this format would guarantee each team at least three games, and thus provide more incentive for European teams to make the journey to South America and compete.[15] FIFA originally resisted this proposal, but reconsidered when Brazil threatened to back out of hosting the tournament if this format was not used.[15]

In each group, teams were awarded 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw. Had there been a tie on points for first place in a group, a playoff would have been held to determine the group winner.[16]

The entire tournament was arranged in such a way that the four first-round groups had no geographical basis. Hence, several teams were obliged to cover large distances to complete their programme, although Brazil was allowed to play two of its three group matches in Rio de Janeiro while its other group game was held in the relatively nearby city of São Paulo.

Ticket for the 1950 World Cup's decisive match between Brazil and Uruguay.

A combined Great Britain team had recently beaten the rest of Europe 6–1 in an exhibition match and England went into the competition as one of the favourites; however, they went crashing out after a shock 1–0 defeat by the United States and a 1–0 defeat by Spain. Italy, the defending champions, lost their unbeaten record at the World Cup finals with a 3–2 defeat by Sweden in its opening match and failed to progress to the second round.

The final match in Group 1 between Switzerland and Mexico was the second time a national team did not play in their own kit, the first being 1934 match between Austria and Germany when both teams arrived with white kits, and the Austrians borrowed blue kits from club side Napoli. Both teams arrived with only their red kits, so the Brazilian Football Confederation tossed a coin, with Mexico thus earning the right to play in their own kit, a right they waived as a friendly gesture, allowing the Swiss to wear their own kit while Mexico changed. The local team that lent their shirts was Esporte Clube Cruzeiro from Porto Alegre. The shirts had vertical blue and white stripes.[17]

The opening game of the Maracanã Stadium, shortly before the 1950 FIFA World Cup

The final group stage involved the teams that had won their groups: Brazil, Spain, Sweden and 1930 FIFA World Cup champions Uruguay, who were making their first World Cup appearance since winning the inaugural tournament. The World Cup winner would be the team that finished on top of this group. The final group's six matches were shared between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Brazil played all its final group matches at the Estádio do Maracanã in Rio while the games that did not involve the host nation were played in São Paulo.

Brazil won their first two matches with a 7–1 thrashing of Sweden and 6–1 rout of Spain, putting them on top of the group with one game left to play against Uruguay; in second and only a point behind. Brazil had scored 23 goals in the tournament and only conceded four, and so were strong favourites. The two teams had played three matches against each other in the Copa Río Branco, played in Brazil two months previously, with one match won by Uruguay 4–3 and two by Brazil (2–1 and 1–0), who won the tournament. Thus the difference in quality between the teams was not excessive; unlike Spain and Sweden the Uruguayans were used to the challenges in the big South American stadiums.[18]

On 16 July, before a huge home crowd of 199,954 (some estimated as 205,000) in the Estádio do Maracanã, the host nation only had to draw against Uruguay and the trophy would be theirs. After such crushing victories over Spain and Sweden, it looked certain they would take the title, and the home nation duly went ahead in the second minute of the second half, thanks to a goal from Friaça. However, Uruguay equalised and then, with just over 11 minutes left to play, went ahead 2–1 when Alcides Ghiggia squeaked a goal past Moacyr Barbosa, so Uruguay was crowned World Cup champions for a second time. This stunning defeat surprised Brazil and is referred to as the Maracanazo.

The average attendance of nearly 61,000 per game, aided greatly by eight matches (including five featuring hosts Brazil) held in the newly built Maracanã, set a record that would not be broken until 1994. Not counting the Maracanã matches, the average attendance was a still-impressive 37,500; however, the only venues that saw crowds comparable to or greater than those in recent World Cups were the Maracanã and São Paulo. Other venues saw considerably smaller crowds.

Six venues in six cities around Brazil hosted the 22 matches played for this tournament. The Maracanã in the then-capital of Rio de Janeiro hosted eight matches, including all but one of the host's matches, including the Maracanazo match in the second round-robin group that decided the winners of the tournament. The Pacaembu stadium in São Paulo hosted six matches; these two stadiums in São Paulo and Rio were the only venues that hosted the second round-robin matches. The Estádio Sete de Setembro in Belo Horizonte hosted three matches, the Durival de Britto stadium in Curitiba and the Eucaliptos stadium in Porto Alegre each hosted two matches, and the Ilha do Retiro stadium in far-away Recife only hosted one match. In order to present itself as a modern country, Brazil invested a today's equivalent of 290 million US-Dollars into new stadiums. The newly built Maracanã cost around 275 million US-Dollars alone.[19]

Rio de Janeiro, Federal District	São Paulo City, São Paulo	Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais
Estádio do Maracanã	Estádio do Pacaembu	Estádio Sete de Setembro
22°54′43.8″S 43°13′48.59″W	23°32′55.1″S 46°39′54.4″W	19°54′30″S 43°55′4″W
Capacity: 200,000	Capacity: 60,000	Capacity: 30,000
Rio de Janeiro São Paulo Belo Horizonte     Curitiba Porto Alegre Recife
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul	Recife, Pernambuco	Curitiba, Paraná
Estádio dos Eucaliptos	Estádio Ilha do Retiro	Estádio Vila Capanema
30°3′42″S 51°13′38″W	8°3′46.63″S 34°54′10.73″W	25°26′22″S 49°15′21″W
Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 10,000

With nine goals, Brazil's Ademir was the tournament's top scorer. In total, 88 goals were scored by 47 players.

Alcides Ghiggia of Uruguay became the first player ever to score in every game: Just Fontaine would be the second in 1958 and Jairzinho the third (and, as of 2020, the last) in 1970.[21]

9 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

In 1986, FIFA published a report that ranked all teams in each World Cup up to and including 1986, based on progress in the competition, overall results and quality of the opposition.[22][23] The rankings for the 1950 tournament were as follows:

R	Team	G	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts.
1	Uruguay	4	4	3	1	0	15	5	+10	7
2	Brazil	1	6	4	1	1	22	6	+16	9
3	Sweden	3	5	2	1	2	11	15	−4	5
4	Spain	2	6	3	1	2	10	12	−2	7
Eliminated in the first round
5	Yugoslavia	1	3	2	0	1	7	3	+4	4
6	Switzerland	1	3	1	1	1	4	6	−2	3
7	Italy	3	2	1	0	1	4	3	+1	2
8	England	2	3	1	0	2	2	2	0	2
9	Chile	2	3	1	0	2	5	6	−1	2
10	United States	2	3	1	0	2	4	8	−4	2
11	Paraguay	3	2	0	1	1	2	4	−2	1
12	Mexico	1	3	0	0	3	2	10	−8	0
13	Bolivia	4	1	0	0	1	0	8	−8	0

• Lisi, Clemente Angelo (2007). A history of the World Cup: 1930–2006. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5905-0. Retrieved 27 August 2010.

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• 1950 FIFA World Cup on FIFA.com
• Details at RSSSF; note that they often disagree with FIFA on goal scorers and times