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Back in the 1920s, FIFA President Jules Rimet and a group of French football administrators suggested the idea of bringing the world’s top national football teams together for a tournament. They would compete head-to-head for the title of “World Champions” with a gold trophy attesting to their accomplishment.

Rimet knew that any true global prize would have to include the reigning Olympic champions. Uruguay’s national team had won the Olympic Gold Medal for football in Paris in 1924 and again in Amsterdam in 1928, so he asked their government to host a World Cup competition. Well aware that such an event would require the construction of a new stadium in Montevideo, Rimet convinced the Uruguayans by linking the tournament to the country’s 100th anniversary celebrations in 1930.

Known in Spanish as “Estadio Centenario,” the 80,000-seat Centennial Stadium was built between 1929 and 1930. Only four European teams—Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia—were able to make the long sea journey to that first FIFA World Cup event. They were joined by the USA, Mexico, and seven South American teams.

Argentina, Uruguay, the USA, and Yugoslavia all cruised through their group matches undefeated, but it was the two South American rivals that met in the finals. In front of a sell-out crowd, the host nation struck first just 12 minutes in, but Argentina bounced back, and the centenary celebrants found themselves trailing 1-2 at the half, which made for an exciting finish.

Pedro Cea tied it at 57 minutes, and then Victoriano Iriarte gave Uruguay the go-ahead goal eleven minutes later. Hector Castro’s empty netter with a minute remaining clinched the victory. Uruguay emerged triumphant, winning 4-2 over the same team they had defeated in Amsterdam two years earlier. Guillermo Stabile of Argentina was awarded the Golden Shoe as outstanding player of the tournament. It was the perfect start of the World Cup era, with no cautions, no send-offs, and the true World Champion confirmed.

Read More >> The World Cup – Presenting the Gold Trophy

As the IFAB was getting its act together, organised football was also taking shape on the Continent. In May 1904, representatives from seven European football associations—France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland—met in Paris and inaugurated the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

Many advocates of football in the United Kingdom saw FIFA as a rival. They didn’t like the idea of a separate world body overseeing the sport for which they had developed its rules for. Reluctantly, IFAB joined FIFA in 1906 and, quite fortunately for all concerned, former FA board member Daniel Burley Woolfall was elected to replaced Frenchman Robert Guérin as the FIFA President, paving the way for FIFA to become a permanent member of the IFAB in 1913.

As a condition of joining, FIFA was given four official votes on all IFAB decisions. The original four U.K. associations were reallocated one vote each, so the total number of votes remained eight and the requirement for amendments stayed at 75% or six votes. That meant any changes in football rules would now require at least two supporters from either side of the Channel.

Read More >> Football – Two Authorities, One Voice

The Football Association’s inaugural set of 14 rules were written by Ebenezer Cobb Morley and agreed upon at the Freemasons’ Tavern in London in 1863. They gradually became the basic “Laws” of football played everywhere. Excluded from the sport was catching the ball with hands, hacking players with kicks below the knee, and violent outbursts in general. But the game as it as played today had to go through a long sequence of iterations to get where it is.

The offside rule was one of the first to change. Under the original rules, no attacking player was allowed ahead of the ball…period. In 1866, this was amended to allow players to be onside as long as there were at least three defenders between the ball and the goal. This change enabled teams to reduce the number of forward positions, previously as many as eight, and begin to develop a passing game.

Disputes over the rules ensued for more than two decades and a number of additional changes were made to the game. Goal-kicks were instituted in 1869. Then came corner-kicks in 1872. And a cross bar was introduced to replace tape at the top of the goal posts in 1876.

Still, officials were forced to stay on the sidelines and not allowed on the field of play, which made it difficult to control the matches. After much debate, referees were eventually issued whistles for the first time in 1878.

Read More >> Playing by the Rules

Football is not only the world’s most popular sport; it is also one of its oldest. Originally described as “kicking the ball,” the activity that evolved into football or “soccer” probably started in China nearly 3,000 years ago during the Han Dynasty. That’s when the game called “Tsu’ Chu” was invented.

According to ancient Chinese military manuals of 200~300 BC, Tsu’ Chu involved a leather ball stuffed with feathers and hair. In order to score, it had to be kicked through a 30-40cm opening into a net attached to bamboo poles. Players were not allowed to use their hands, only their feet, chests, backs, and shoulders, while avoiding opponents en route to the goal.

As familiar as this game may seem today, it was certainly not the only version of “kicking the ball” that arose in various cultures. Elsewhere in the Far East, the Japanese developed a game in the 7th century that they called “Kemari,” using a deerskin ball filled with barley grains to give it a round shape. Unlike Tsu’ Chu, the object was for a team of players standing in a circle to keep the ball aloft as long as possible by using only their feet, knees, backs, heads, and elbows, but no hands.

Read More >> Kicking the Ball

Once every four years, 32 teams gather for a month-long competition to determine who are the greatest footballers on the planet—the FIFA World Cup. Although the event typically takes place in only one country, it is an event of global proportion, viewed on television and the Internet by no fewer than 260~400 million fans and followed, according to some claims, by perhaps as many as one billion people.

In discussions of the “world’s greatest sporting event,” comparisons are often made between the World Cup and the Olympics. Both occur on a four-year schedule and attract furious competition for hosting rights. They are economic juggernauts, boosting tourism and commanding fees for sponsorships and television rights. Both evoke national pride, too.

Read More >> FIFA World Cup – The World Is Watching