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Football World Cup 1950:

The 1950 Football World Cup is the only one which never had a Final. It was also the first year that the cup itself would be referred to as the Jules Rimet Cup, to mark the 25th anniversary of Rimet's presidency of FIFA.

World War II meant that the Football World Cup hadn't been held since 1938; it also meant that most of Europe lay in ruins after the ravaging effects of the war. As a result, the honour of hosting the World Cup fell to Brazil, the only country that applied.

The group stages of this years tournament took a a strange form, with some groups containing four teams, some containing three teams, and others just two teams. This was due to the fact that some nations qualified for the tournament and then withdrew. For example India withdrew after qualification due to the fact that FIFA would not allow them to play barefoot.

The British nations were able to take part having rejoined FIFA four years earlier, after 17 years of self-imposed exile. England and Scotland qualified, but the Scots then said they would only go if they became British champions. In the end they refused to attend after finishing runners-up in the British Championship to England, who beat them 1-0 at Hampden Park in April.

British football was widely considered to be superior to the game of their European and South-American counterparts. 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 hot favourites. However it was not to be, as England went crashing out in a shocking 1-0 defeat by the United States, which combined with their 1-0 defeat by Spain led to Spain continuing to the 'Final Pool'.

The Final Pool took the form of a final group stage, involving all teams who won their group stage. The teams that topped their group, and so continued onto the Final Pool were: Brazil, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay. They had eliminated the rest: Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Mexico, England, Chile, U.S.A., Italy, Paraguay, and Bolivia. The overall winner of the World Cup for 1950 would be the team that managed to finish on top of this final pool group.

In this Final Pool Brazil outscored everyone with a 7-0 thrashing of Sweden and 6-1 routing of Spain. In the decisive match, Brazil were sitting on top of the Final Pool and had one game left to play – Uruguay who lay just behind in second and only a point behind. On July 16th in the Estadio Maracanã, the host nation had only 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 Fraica. Uruguay equalised and then with just over 11 minutes left to play, went ahead 2-1 and Uruguay were crowned World Cup Winners for a second time.