FIFA World Cup History: How It All Started

Due to the rapid increase in the number and popularity of international football competitions, the need for a single organization to manage all of world football became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then several major tournaments have appeared. In this article, we will discuss the FIFA World Cup history. Let’s get started!

How it All Started

FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) was founded on May 21, 1904 in Paris. Its first president was the French journalist Robert Guérin. However, he did not work in this position for long, only two years. Since FIFA did not achieve success in the early years of its existence. In 1906, the Englishman Daniel Woolfall was elected president of the federation. Indeed, he was the head of FIFA until 1918. During this time, the first non-European countries joined the federation: South Africa, Chile, Argentina, and the USA. Unfortunately, in 1914, the First World War broke out. And because of the fighting, the work of FIFA was significantly hampered. Online sportsbooks in France didn’t exist at that time but they are now following all the FIFA events.

FIFA World Cup History: Jules Rimet (President of FIFA 1921-1954)

After the war, the federation began to gain strength again only in 1921. It was the time when Jules Rimet became its president. Moreover, his term of office is still a record – 33 years (from 1921 to 1954). Besides, he was the initiator of the first World Cup. In 1930 the tournament took p in Uruguay. Thus, 13 teams took part in the draw. The winner was the team of the hosts of the tournament, having beaten the national team of Argentina 4:2 in the final match. If you are not an expert in this tournament, read our article Things You Should Know Before Betting on FIFA Games before visiting the 22BET Sportsbook.

The winner of the tournament was awarded a cup, which was called “Victory”. However, in 1946, the prize was officially renamed in honor of the founder of the World Championships and the third president of FIFA, Jules Rimet. All in all, the Frenchman has invested a lot of effort in the popularization and development of football. The number of countries included in FIFA has grown to 85, against 12 at the time of Rome’s election. Therefore, he is one of the most significant people in the history of football development.

The First TV Broadcast 

After World War II, FIFA continued to hold the World Championships. Indeed, tournaments in 1950, 1954, and 1958 were successful. And the 1958 Championship for the first time could be watched on television screens. In 1961, Stanley Rose became the president of FIFA. Sir Stanley’s main focus in his work was to reduce roughness on football fields. Thanks to his work, yellow and red cards were introduced into football rules. This proposal was made by English referee Ken Aston. Besides, President Stanley Rose picked up and implemented this idea. The cards were first used at the 1970 World Cup.

FIFA World Cup History: The Era of Joao Havelange

Sir Stanley was replaced in 1974 by Joao Havelange. His reign in the organization was the second-longest after Jules Rimet. Indeed, Havelange served as president for 24 years, until 1998. He greatly contributed to the popularization of football. including in Africa and Asia. During the Havelange era, the World Cup became the most popular sporting event in the world, and maybe not only sporting events.

The federation itself has significantly expanded its staff. In 1977, they implemented the idea of ​​Havelange – a youth world champion where players no older than 20 years old could take part. And in 1985, the championship among youth teams took place. However, that’s not all. In 1991, the Women’s World Cup was held for the first time. All this certainly makes Havelange one of the most famous FIFA presidents.

Joseph Blatter (Sepp) – 8th President of FIFA

In 1998, Havelange was replaced by his successor, Joseph (Sepp) Blatter. Having joined FIFA in 1975 as technical director, he actively participated in the work of the federation and the implementation of Havelange’s ideas. Thus, he earned the trust of FIFA members. Therefore, his election in 1998 to the presidency was not a surprise. During his forty years at FIFA, Sepp Blatter has done a great job. He has many important ideas and decisions to his credit. Despite this, his name is unlikely to stand on a par with Jules Rome and Joao Havelange. The Times once called Blatter “football’s number one enemy”. And no wonder, because his name was often at the center of scandals.

However, in 2001, FIFA’s longtime commercial partner, ISL/ISMM, became bankrupt. Blatter falls under suspicion of hiding the real damage from the collapse of ISL / ISMM and providing a “fake” report. But it never came to serious problems for Blatter. His guilt has not been proven. “For 16 years of work in the federation, I have never seen her affairs in such a sad state. We have a difficult job to revive the organization. We’ll have to start from the very beginning,” said Zen-Ruffinen, FIFA secretary-general, and opponent of Blatter. However, after the election of the president of the federation in 2002, he left FIFA. Online sportsbooks in France offer various bets on scandalous events. 

FIFA World Cup History: Blatter is Back

Although the scandal damaged the president’s reputation, he still managed to keep his post. In 2002, he was again elected president of the federation. The biggest scandal in FIFA broke out in 2015. Two days before the next presidential election, in Zurich, the local police arrested several functionaries of the federation. The reason for this was accusations of years of corruption in the selection of host countries for the World Championships, the distribution of broadcasting, and advertising rights. Despite the rising hype, Blatter repeated the success of previous years and on May 29, 2015,  they again elected him on the post of FIFA president. 

However, already on June 2, he resigned, appointing himself acting head of the federation until the next election. Subsequently, Joseph Blatter was suspended from football activities until 2022. During the investigation, several officials admitted to taking bribes. “I and other members of the FIFA Executive Committee agreed to receive a bribe for the selection of South Africa as the host country of the 2010 World Cup. I facilitated the bribe in the selection of the 1998 World Cup host country,” former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer confessed. Department of Justice as saying. To check FIFA World Cup 2022 news read our article!

New President Gianni Infantino

On February 26, 2016, an extraordinary FIFA Congress took place. At the meeting, they decided to dissolve the FIFA Executive Committee, and in its place to create the FIFA Council with a wider staff elected by the national confederations. Besides, the meeting elected a new president, Gianni Infantino, who has Swiss and Italian citizenship. During his, as yet, short reign (just over a year and a half), Infantino has already managed to make several major innovations. First of all, to avoid the fate of Blatter, Infantino intends to achieve maximum transparency of financial flows in FIFA. The changes also affected the game itself. Infantino allowed judges to refer to video replay in controversial situations. Now the match referee can use video replay to cancel and count a goal or, for example, to identify a player who has violated the rules.

An increase in the number of national teams participating in the final tournament of the World Cup has also happened. If earlier 32 teams took part in it, then from 2026 their number will grow to 48. However, this will not happen soon. Now the eyes of football fans are following the tournament in 2022. The tournament starts in less than a year, and the qualifying tournament is in full swing. Check the Best FIFA 22 Defenders Worth Buying and make your bet in the 22BET Sportsbook.

Here is a summary of the FIFA World Cup history of the main football organization in the world. It is difficult to imagine how the fate of the game we love so much would have been, if not for FIFA. People created it from nothing. They just loved football and wanted to develop it. Thanks to them, we have the opportunity to watch great players and matches.

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