1934 FIFA World Cup

The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second time countries came together to compete in a big soccer tournament, called the FIFA World Cup. This event happened in Italy between May 27 and June 10, 1934.

For the first time, teams had to qualify to join the World Cup. Thirty-two countries tried to get in, but only sixteen made it to the big games. The winners of the last World Cup, Uruguay, decided not to play this time because not many European teams had come to their tournament in 1930.

In the final game, Italy won against Czechoslovakia with a score of 2–1, becoming the first team from Europe to win the World Cup. This tournament happened during a time when leaders tried to use sports to show off their power. The special soccer ball used in all the games was called the Federale 102 and was made in Italy.

Host selection

Main article: FIFA World Cup hosts

Italy was chosen to host the 1934 FIFA World Cup after many meetings by FIFA's leaders. They picked Italy during a meeting in Stockholm on October 9, 1932, instead of Sweden. The Italian government spent a lot of money, Lire 3.5 million, to organize the tournament.

Qualification and participants

The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second time countries came together to play a big soccer tournament. This time, it was held in Italy. Because more countries wanted to join than could fit, some had to play extra matches, called qualifiers, to see who would get to play in the main event.

Some important teams did not join. The winners of the last World Cup, Uruguay, chose not to come because they were unhappy that some European teams had not traveled to their country for the previous tournament. Also, teams from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland did not join, as they were not working with FIFA at that time.

Even though Italy was hosting the event, they still had to play in the qualifiers — the only time a host country has had to do this. Some teams, like Argentina and Brazil, didn’t have to play any qualifiers because other teams dropped out before they could play.

List of qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.

Ten of these teams were playing in their very first World Cup ever. This included many European teams like Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, and Egypt. Egypt was the first team from Africa to ever join a World Cup tournament.

Venues

Many fans traveled from other countries to watch the games. About 7,000 fans came from the Netherlands, and around 10,000 each came from Austria and Switzerland. This was more fans from other countries than any football tournament before.

Format

The 1934 FIFA World Cup changed its format from the group stage used in the first World Cup. Instead, it used a straight knockout tournament. If a game ended in a tie after ninety minutes, teams played thirty more minutes of extra time. If it was still tied after that, the match was replayed the next day.

Eight strong teams – Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary – were placed in separate parts of the tournament in the first round.

Summary

All eight first-round matches of the 1934 FIFA World Cup started at the same time. The host team, Italy, won very well, beating the USA 7–1.

This World Cup was special because all the teams that made it to the last eight were from Europe. In the quarter-finals, Italy and Spain played a very tough match that ended in a draw, so they had to play again. Italy won the second match and went on to win the tournament. The final was held at the Stadium of the National Fascist Party, where Italy came back from behind to win the World Cup.

Squads

For a list of all teams that played in the 1934 FIFA World Cup, see 1934 FIFA World Cup squads.

Final tournament

The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second time countries came together to compete in a big soccer tournament. This time, it was held in Italy from May 27 to June 10, 1934. For the first time, teams had to qualify to join the main event.

Round of 16

On May 27, 1934, the first matches of the tournament began. Games took place in cities like Genoa, Naples, Milan, Rome, Trieste, Bologna, and Turin. Each match had a referee from a different country to keep things fair.

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals happened on May 31, 1934. More exciting games were played in Bologna, Florence, Milan, and Turin. One match had to be played again on June 1 because it ended in a tie.

Replay

Semi-finals

On June 3, 1934, the semi-finals were held. Two big matches decided which teams would go to the final. These games were in Milan and Rome.

Match for third place

On June 7, 1934, a match was played to decide who would finish third. This game was in Naples.

Final

The final match was on June 10, 1934, in Rome. Thousands of fans watched as the two best teams competed for the championship.

Goalscorers

Oldřich Nejedlý from Czechoslovakia scored the most goals in the tournament, with five. In total, 45 players scored 70 goals, and none of these goals were own goals.

Players who scored four goals included Edmund Conen from Germany and Angelo Schiavio from Italy.

Three goals were scored by Raimundo Orsi from Italy and Leopold Kielholz from Switzerland.

Two goals were scored by players from several countries, including Johann Horvath from Austria, Bernard Voorhoof from Belgium, Antonín Puč from Czechoslovakia, Abdulrahman Fawzi from Egypt, and several others from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.

One goal each were scored by players from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

FIFA retrospective ranking

In 1986, FIFA created a report to rank all teams in the World Cup tournaments up to that year. The rankings were based on how far teams went in the competition, their overall performance, and the strength of the teams they played against. The rankings for the 1934 tournament are shown here.