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Template:Infobox Football World Cup

The 1950 FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil from June 24 to July 16, was the fourth staging of the World Cup, and the first staged in 12 years due to World War II. Brazil was chosen as hosts by FIFA in July 1946. It was also the first tournament that the trophy itself would be referred to as the Jules Rimet Cup, to mark the 25th anniversary of Rimet's presidency of FIFA. It was won by Uruguay, who had won the inaugural competition in 1930, clinching the cup by beating the hosts Brazil 2-1 in the deciding match of the four-team final group (this was the only tournament not decided by a one-match final).

Background

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 the world scenario did not favour a sportive celebration, and also (more importantly) that the resources that would have to be put into organizing the World Cup could not be diverted from other more urgent fronts. For some time, 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 (it was originally planned to take place in 1949). 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.

Qualification

Having secured a host nation, FIFA would still dedicate some time to persuading countries to send their national teams to compete. Italy was of particular interest: the Italians were the long-standing defending champions (winners in 1938), but the country was reconstructing from the end of World War II, and at first there was little to no interest from the country in participating. The Italians were finally persuaded to attend, although rumours have had it that FIFA had to cover all travelling expenses in order for Italy's national team to be able to come to Brazil and play.

With Italy and Austria, two successful pre-war teams had not been subject to international sanctions, while Japan, still under occupation, and occupied and partitioned Germany had not been permitted in time to compete or qualify. The French-occupied Saarland had been accepted by FIFA two weeks before the World Cup, several months before (West) Germany's DFB was reinstated, while Soviet-occupied East Germany had not even founded a football association yet.

The British nations were able to take part, having rejoined FIFA four years earlier, after 17 years of self-imposed exile. It was decided to use the 1949-1950 British Home Championship as a qualifying group, with whoever finished first and second qualifying. England finished first and Scotland second, but the Scots withdrew as they were not British Champions.

Two other teams, Turkey and India, also withdrew after qualifying, with India refusing to go because FIFA would not allow the team to play barefoot. France and Portugal were invited as replacements but declined. Initially France agreed to play but they worked out that the venues for their two group matches were over 3,000 kilometres away from each other. The French told the Brazilians that they would stay at home unless the arrangements were changed. The Brazilian Federation refused and France withdrew. Therefore, even though 16 teams were originally going to participate, after the withdrawals only 13 teams were left to take part.

Summary

Originally, the tournament format would be that the 16 teams be divided into four first round groups (or "pools" as they were then called) of four teams, with the group winners advancing to a final group stage, playing in round-robin format to determine the winner. However, because only 13 teams competed, this left two first round groups with four teams, another with three teams, and the last group with only two teams. In fact, 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 program, although Brazil was allowed to play two of its three group matches in Rio de Janeiro while its other game was in (comparatively) nearby São Paulo.

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, it was not to be, as they went crashing out in a shocking 1-0 defeat by the United States (when the score appeared in English newspapers, many thought it was a typo) which, combined with their 1-0 defeat by Spain, led to England being eliminated.

The final group stage involved the teams who 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 managed to finish 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 didn't 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. Before the decisive match, Brazil was sitting on top of the final group and had one game left to play against Uruguay, in second and only a point behind. On July 16, 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, especially as the home nation 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, and Uruguay was crowned World Cup winners for a second time. The stunning defeat of Brazil 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.

Venues

Six cities hosted the tournament:

• Belo Horizonte, Estadio Sete de Setembro
• Curitiba, Estádio Durival de Britto
• Porto Alegre, Estádio dos Eucaliptos
• Recife, Estádio Ilha do Retiro
• Rio de Janeiro, Estádio do Maracanã
• São Paulo, Estádio do Pacaembu

Squads

For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see 1950 FIFA World Cup squads.

Results

First round

Group 1

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
Brazil	5	3	2	1	0	8	2
Yugoslavia	4	3	2	0	1	7	3
Switzerland	3	3	1	1	1	4	6
Mexico	0	3	0	0	3	2	10

Brazil	4 – 0	Mexico
Ademir 30', 79' Jair 65' Baltazar 71'	(Report)

Yugoslavia	3 – 0	Switzerland
Mitić 58' Tomašević 78' Ognjanov 84'	(Report)

Brazil	2 – 2	Switzerland
Alfredo 3' Baltazar 32'	(Report)	Fatton 17', 88'

Mexico	1 – 4	Yugoslavia
Ortíz 89' (pen)	(Report)	Bobek 19' Ž. Čajkovski 23', 51' Tomašević 81'

Brazil	2 – 0	Yugoslavia
Ademir 4' Zizinho 69'	(Report)

Mexico	1 – 2	Switzerland
Casarín 89'	(Report)	Bader 10' Timini 37'

Group 2

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
Spain	6	3	3	0	0	6	1
England	2	3	1	0	2	2	2
Chile	2	3	1	0	2	5	6
United States	2	3	1	0	2	4	8

England	2 – 0	Chile
Mortensen 39' Mannion 51'	(Report)

Spain	3 – 1	United States
Igoa 80' Basora 82' Zarra 85'	(Report)	Pariani 17'

Spain	2 – 0	Chile
Basora 17' Zarra 30'	(Report)

United States	1 – 0	England
Gaetjens 38'	(Report)

Spain	1 – 0	England
Zarra 48'	(Report)

Chile	5 – 2	United States
Robledo 16' Cremaschi 32', 61', 82' Prieto 54'	(Report)	Wallace 47' Maca 48' (pen)

Group 3

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
Sweden	3	2	1	1	0	5	4
Italy	2	2	1	0	1	4	3
Paraguay	1	2	0	1	1	2	4

Sweden	3 – 2	Italy
Jeppson 25', 68' Andersson 33'	(Report)	Carapellese 7' Muccinelli 75'

Sweden	2 – 2	Paraguay
Sundqvist 24' Palmér 26'	(Report)	A. López 32' C. López 89'

Italy	2 – 0	Paraguay
Carapellese 12' Pandolfini 62'	(Report)

•  India withdrew

Group 4

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
Uruguay	2	1	1	0	0	8	0
Bolivia	0	1	0	0	1	0	8

Uruguay	8 – 0	Bolivia
Míguez 14' 45' 56' Vidal 18' Schiaffino 23' 59' Pérez 73' Ghiggia 83'	(Report)

•  Turkey withdrew
•  Scotland withdrew

Final round

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
Uruguay	5	3	2	1	0	7	5
Brazil	4	3	2	0	1	14	4
Sweden	2	3	1	0	2	6	11
Spain	1	3	0	1	2	4	11

Brazil	7 – 1	Sweden
Ademir 17', 37', 51', 59' Chico 39', 87' Maneca 85'	(Report)	Andersson 67' (pen)

Uruguay	2 – 2	Spain
Ghiggia 27' Varela 72'	(Report)	Basora 39', 41'

Brazil	6 – 1	Spain
Parra 15' (o.g.) Jair 21' Chico 29', 55' Ademir 57' Zizinho 74'	(Report)	Igoa 71'

Uruguay	3 – 2	Sweden
Ghiggia 39' Míguez 77', 84'	(Report)	Palmér 4' Sundqvist 41'

Sweden	3 – 1	Spain
Sundqvist 15' Mellberg 34' Palmér 79'	(Report)	Zarra 82'

Uruguay	2 – 1	Brazil
Schiaffino 66' Ghiggia 79'	(Report)	Friaça 47'

Awards

1950 World Cup Winners
Uruguay Second title

Scorers

Footnotes

1. Planet World Cup - 1950
2. RSSSF credits this goal as occurring in the 31st minute.
3. FIFA report credits this goal to Kosta Tomašević; RSSSF and Cris Freddi to Mitic.
4. RSSSF credits this goal as occurring in the 43rd minute.
5. FIFA credits this goal as occurring in the 22nd minute.
6. FIFA credit this goal as occurring in the 62nd minute.
7. RSSSF credits this goal as occurring in the 89th minute.
8. RSSSF credits this goal to Charles Antenen in the 44th minute.
9. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 49th minute.
10. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 69th minute.
11. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 34th minute.
12. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 78th minute.
13. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 17th minute.
14. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 25th minute.
15. RSSSF credits this goal to César López in the 34th minute.
16. RSSSF credits this goal to Atilio López in the 74th minute.
17. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 13th minute.
18. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 63rd minute.
19. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 12th minute.
20. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 37th minute.
21. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 51st minute.
22. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 20th minute.
23. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 54th minute.
24. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 78th minute.
25. See talk page.
26. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 61st minute.
27. RSSSF credits this goal as coming in the 70th minute.

External links

• 1950 FIFA World Cup on FIFA.com
• Details at RSSSF; note that they often disagree with FIFA on goal scorers and times
• World Cup Stories - 1950 Brazil/Uruguay summary - The "Maracanazo" video. World Cup final, where Uruguay defeats Brazil and proclaims itself champion of the world for second time.

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• 1950 FIFA World Cup
• FIFA World Cup tournaments
• Sports festivals hosted in Brazil