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The World Cup: The World’s Biggest Event Essay

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Thirty-two teams, sixty-four games, eight groups of four, years of qualifying and one world champion. The World Cup is an international soccer tournament that takes place in the summer every four years. It is more than just a game to all who participate, and their fans as well “Husbands have mortgaged their homes to attend it [the World Cup] Careers are defined by it, and athletes have been murdered for making mistakes“, (Trecker 16). It is more than just the world’s biggest sporting event, it’s the biggest event period. (Trecker 6) Before the World Cup began, the only tournament that was played in international soccer was the Olympics. (“History of the World Cup) These Olympic tournaments intensified Fifa’s dream to …show more content…

By the time they had to leave, only four European teams made the journey to Uruguay: France, Belgium, Romania, and Yugoslavia (“History of the World Cup”). The first World Cup finally opened in the new Estadio Centenario on 18 July 1930. This started a new era in soccer, which brought remarkable success in a sporting sense as well as a financial sense. Uruguay continued their dominance left as the Olympics, as they won this first World Cup. Uruguay was invited to attend and host the next World Cup, but denied the offer because of Europe’s last showing at the World Cup. (“History of the World Cup”) They not only denied hosting the tournament, but playing in it as well. Fifa then chose Italy over Sweden to host this tournament. This was a surprise too, because Europe’s showing again. This tournament had only sixteen finalists with no groups. Favorites like Brazil and Argentina went home after playing only one game. (“History of the World Cup”) This was not an indication of what would be to come, because Europe dominated the tournament is years to come. Since this tournament there have only been seven different winners. Four years later, Rimet’s wish was fulfilled as France was selected to host the next tournament in 1938. Again, few things went as planned; Austria, Uruguay, and Argentina all withdrew and Italy was crowned champions again. The tournament should have taken place again four years later, bout could not

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