格兰维尔: 世界杯足球赛的历史/GLANVILLE: History of the World Cup (The)

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- 格兰维尔: 世界杯足球赛的历史
  GLANVILLE: History of the World Cup (The)
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格兰维尔: 世界杯足球赛的历史 / GLANVILLE: History of the World Cup (The)
[ 读物介绍 ]
The History of the World Cupby Brian GlanvilleIntroductionGreat Oaks from little acorns grow. Today, as it has beennow for many years, the World Cup is a very great Oak indeed,perhaps even too great a one, given the way its branches havemultiplied and spread. Outside the summer Olympics, it is theworld’s largest sporting event by far. Television has meant thatbillions watch all over the globe ¡V the world TV rights for 2002were bought for approaching £1 billion.A steady relentless expansion has seen it grow to anarguably top heavy complement of 32, the winners ofcontinental qualifying groups that are strongly contested bywell over 100 countries. Failure to qualify is regarded as anational disaster even by countries with relatively recentfootball traditions.Yet when it began in Uruguay, in 1930, only 13 of thepossible 16 places were taken up, the tournament beingsnubbed by the major European nations, not to mention theBritish countries who were then not members of the rulingbody, FIFA. Incredibly, a mere 13 countries contested thefinals twenty years on in Brazil. Nowadays, countries wouldsell their soul, or the equivalent, to qualify for the finals.There have been other paradoxes: not least the fact that whatwas and may well remain probably the most exciting anddramatic climax to any World Cup was not technically a finalat all: the tumultuous match in Rio between Brazil andUruguay, before over 200,000 spectators. This was in fact thelast game in the final pool¡Xa miniature league, whose winnerwould take the Cup itself .The idea of a World Cup, or Championship, wasconceived as early as 1904, when half a dozen Europeancountries’ football federations met in Paris to form FIFA: theFederation Internationale de Football Association. Somewhatgrandiosely, the participants allocated to themselves the soleright to organise a world championship. South Americanfootball was then in an admittedly lusty infancy. Themillionaire sportsman and benefactor, Sir Thomas Lipton,initiated a trophy bearing his name to be competed for eachyear by Uruguay and Argentina, but it would be some yearsbefore the sub-continent would make an impact on the game,and 1938 before the Brazilians would mount what became sostrong a challenge.The bridge to the World Cup was the Olympictournament. It had been active since 1908 when, as in 1912, apowerful United Kingdom team, consisting chiefly ofamateurs playing for professional clubs, such as VivianWoodward of Spurs and Chelsea, defeated a resilient Denmarkteam in the London and Stockholm finals.By the end of the Great War, however, when theOlympics resumed in 1920 in Belgium, the tournament waswell on its way to being dominated by shamateur teams, madeup of concealed professionals. It was in the Parisian Olympicsof 1924 that South America, and Uruguay in particular,emerged as a power. A brilliant Uruguayan team, combininggreat technical skill with physical ardour, won the title, and didso again in Amsterdam four years later, beating an almostequally powerful Argentine team in a replayed final.Shamateurism in one form or another would be a constant ofOlympic soccer for many years to come, but its wilder abusequite clearly had to be curbed and so it was that the World Cupwas born."Other countries have their history," said Ondino Viera,the manager of Uruguay’s 1966 World Cup team in England."Uruguay has its football". There was no questioning that,least of all if one visited Montevideo as late as the 1960s, whenchuckling old men sat round tables in television studios,reminiscing about the anniversary of triumphs which had takenplace in the 1920s.The French, as so often in sport, were the grand pioneers:indeed , the World Cup would initially be named after one oftheir foremost officials, Jules Rimet. But it was his compatriot,Henri Delaunay, who pronounced at FIFA’s 1926 congress,two years before Uruguay’s second Olympic triumph, "Todayinternational football can no longer be held within the confinesof the Olympics, and many countries where professionalism isnow recognised and organised cannot any longer berepresented there by their best players." Following the 1928Olympics, FIFAadopted a resolution by Delaunay that the firstWorld Cup be organised.Curiously enough, though 25 countries voted in favour,no fewer than five voted against it including the Scandinavianbloc of Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Yet when it came tochoosing the hosts, Sweden were among the five bidders. ButUruguay won, emphasising the fact that 1930 would be thecentenary of their independence, and offering to cover theexpenses of every other contestant. They also promised tobuild a huge new stadium in central Montevideo, to holdbetween 80,000 and 100,000 spectators, to be called theCentenary Stadium. It wasn’t finished in time but then nor, 20years later in Rio, would the Maracana Stadium.