1934 FIFA World Cup
The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934; the 1934 World Cup was the first. Thirty-two nations entered the competition, after qualification, 16 teams participated in the finals tournament. Reigning champions Uruguay refused to participate due to the fact that just four European teams had accepted their invitation to the 1930 tournament. Italy became the second World Cup champions and the first European team to win, beating Czechoslovakia 2–1 in the final. Like the Berlin Olympics two years the 1934 World Cup was a high-profile instance of a sporting event being used for overt political gain. Benito Mussolini was keen to use the tournament as a means of promoting fascism; the Federale 102, manufactured in Italy, was the match ball provided for the 1934 World Cup. After a lengthy decision-making process in which FIFA's executive committee met eight times, Italy was chosen as the host nation at a meeting in Stockholm on 9 October 1932.
The decision was taken by the executive committee without a ballot of members. The Italian bid was chosen in preference to one from Sweden. 36 countries applied to enter the tournament, so qualifying matches were required to thin the field to 16. So, there were several notable absentees. Reigning World Cup holders Uruguay declined to participate, in protest at the refusal of several European countries to travel to South America for the previous World Cup, which Uruguay had hosted in 1930; as a result, the 1934 World Cup is the only one. The British Home Nations, in a period of self-imposed exile from FIFA refused to participate though FIFA had offered England and Scotland direct entry to the tournament without qualification. Football Association committee member Charles Sutcliffe called the tournament "a joke" and claimed that "the national associations of England, Scotland and Ireland have quite enough to do in their own International Championship which seems to me a far better World Championship than the one to be staged in Rome".
Despite their role as hosts, Italy were still required to qualify, the first and only time the host nation needed to do so. The qualifying matches. Withdrawals by Chile and Peru meant Brazil qualified without playing a single match. Twelve of the 16 places were allocated to Europe, three to the Americas, one to Africa or Asia. Only 10 of the 32 entrants, four of the 16 qualified teams, were from outside Europe; the last place in the finals was contested between the United States and Mexico only three days before the start of the tournament in a one-off match in Rome, which the United States won. The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. 10 of these teams made their first World Cup appearance. This included 9 of the 12 European teams as well as Egypt. Egypt was the first team from Africa in the finals and would not qualify again until the next time the competition was held in Italy, in 1990; the number of supporters travelling from other countries was higher than at any previous football tournament, including 7,000 from the Netherlands and 10,000 each from Austria and Switzerland.
The group stage used in the first World Cup was discarded in favour of a straight knockout tournament. If a match was tied after ninety minutes thirty minutes of extra time were played. If the score was still tied after extra time, the match was replayed the next day; the eight seeded teams – Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Hungary – were kept apart in the first round. All eight first round matches kicked off at the same time. Hosts and favourites Italy won handsomely, defeating the USA 7–1. Internal disputes meant Argentina's squad for the tournament did not contain a single member of the team which had reached the final in 1930. Against Sweden in Bologna, Argentina twice took the lead, but two goals by Sven Jonasson and a winner by Knut Kroon gave Sweden a 3–2 victory. Fellow South Americans Brazil suffered an early exit. Spain beat them comfortably. For the only time in World Cup history, the last eight consisted of European teams – Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.
All four non-European teams who made the journey to Italy were eliminated after one match. In the quarter-finals, the first replayed match in World Cup history took place, when Italy and Spain drew 1–1 after extra time; the match was played in a aggressive manner with several players of both sides injured: rough play injured the Spanish goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora in the first match, leaving him unable to participate in the replay, while on the other side rough play by Spaniards broke the leg of the Italian Mario Pizziolo who would not play in the national team again. Italy won the replay 1–0. Italy went on to beat Austria in the semi-finals by the same score. Meanwhile, Czechoslovakia secured their place in the final by beating Germany 3–1; the Stadium of the National Fascist Party was the venue for the final. With 80 minutes played, the Czechoslovaks led 1–0; the Italia
Italy national football team
The Italy national football team has represented Italy in association football since their first match in 1910. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—the latter of, co-founded by the Italian team's supervising body, the Italian Football Federation. Italy's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Italy, their primary training ground is located at the FIGC headquarters in Coverciano, Florence. Italy is one of the most successful national teams in the history of the World Cup, having won four titles and appearing in two other finals, reaching a third place and a fourth place. In 1938, they became the first team to defend their World Cup title, due to the outbreak of World War II, retained the title for a further 12 years. Italy had previously won two Central European International Cups. Between its first two World Cup victories, Italy won the Olympic football tournament. After the majority of the team was killed in a plane crash in 1949, the team did not advance past the group stage of the following two World Cup tournaments, failed to qualify for the 1958 edition—failure to qualify for the World Cup would not happen again until the 2018 edition.
Italy returned to form by 1968, winning a European Championship, after a period of alternating unsuccessful qualification rounds in Europe appeared in two other finals. Italy's highest finish at the FIFA Confederations Cup was in 2013, where the squad achieved a third-place finish; the team is known as gli Azzurri. Blue is the traditional colour of the national teams representing Italy and it comes from the border colour of the royal House of Savoy crest used on the flag of the Kingdom of Italy; the national team is known for its long-standing rivalries with other top footballing nations, such as those with Brazil, France and Spain. In the FIFA World Ranking, in force since August 1993, Italy has occupied the first place several times, in November 1993 and during 2007, with its worst placement in August 2018 in 21st place; the team's first match was held in Milan on 15 May 1910. Italy defeated France by a score of 6–2, with Italy's first goal scored by Pietro Lana; the Italian team played with a system and consisted of: De Simoni.
First captain of the team was Francesco Calì. The first success in an official tournament came with the bronze medal in 1928 Summer Olympics, held in Amsterdam. After losing the semi-final against Uruguay, an 11–3 victory against Egypt secured third place in the competition. In the 1927–30 and 1933–35 Central European International Cup, Italy achieved the first place out of five Central European teams, topping the group with 11 points in both editions of the tournament. Italy would later win the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics with a 2–1 victory in extra time in the gold medal match over Austria on 15 August 1936. After declining to participate in the first World Cup the Italian national team won two consecutive editions of the tournament in 1934 and 1938, under the direction of coach Vittorio Pozzo and the performance of Giuseppe Meazza, considered one of the best Italian football players of all time by some. Italy hosted the 1934 World Cup, played their first World Cup match in a 7–1 win over the United States in Rome.
Italy defeated Czechoslovakia 2–1 in extra time in the final in Rome, with goals by Raimundo Orsi and Angelo Schiavio to achieve their first World cup title in 1934. They achieved their second title in 1938 in a 4–2 defeat of Hungary, with two goals by Gino Colaussi and two goals by Silvio Piola in the World Cup that followed. Rumour has it, before the 1938 finals fascist Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini was to have sent a telegram to the team, saying "Vincere o morire!". However, no record remains of such a telegram, World Cup player Pietro Rava said, when interviewed, "No, no, no, that's not true, he sent a telegram wishing us well, but no never'win or die'." In 1949, 10 of the 11 players in the team's initial line-up were killed in a plane crash that affected Torino, winners of the previous five Serie A titles. Italy did not advance further than the first round of the 1950 World Cup, as they were weakened due to the air disaster; the team had travelled by boat rather than by plane. In the World Cup finals of 1954 and 1962, Italy failed to progress past the first round, did not qualify for the 1958 World Cup due to a 2–1 defeat to Northern Ireland in the last match of the qualifying round.
Italy did not take part in the first edition of the European Championship in 1960, was knocked out by the Soviet Union in the first round of the 1964 European Nations' Cup qualifying. Their participation in the 1966 World Cup was ended by a 0–1 defeat at the hands of North Korea. Despite being the tournament favourites, the Azzurri, whose 1966 squad included Gianni Rivera and Giacomo Bulgarelli, were eliminated in the first round by the semi-professional North Koreans; the Italian team was bitterly condemned upon their return home, while North Korean scorer Pak Doo-ik was celebrated as the David who killed Goliath. Upon Italy's return home, furious fans threw fruit and rotten tomatoes at their transport bus at the airport. In 1968, Italy participated in their first European Championship, hosting the European Championship and winning their first major competition since the 1938 World Cup, beating Yugoslavia in Rome for the title. Th
Italian Argentines
Italian Argentines are Argentine-born citizens of Italian descent or Italian-born people who reside in Argentina. Italian immigration is one of the largest and central ethnic origins of modern Argentinians, together with Spanish immigration as well as the colonial population that settled to the major migratory movements into Argentina, it is estimated up to 25 million Argentines have some degree of Italian descent. Italians began arriving in Argentina in great numbers from 1857 to 1940, totaling 44.9% of the entire post-colonial immigrant population. In 1996, the population of Argentines with partial or full Italian descent numbered 15.8 million when Argentina’s population was 34.5 million, meaning they consisted of 45.5% of the population. Today, the country has 25 million Italian Argentines in a total population of 40 million. Italian settlement in Argentina, along with Spanish settlement, formed the backbone of today's Argentine society. Argentine culture has significant connections to Italian culture in terms of language and traditions.
Small groups of Italians started to immigrate to Argentina as early as the second half of the 18th century. However, the stream of Italian immigration to Argentina became a mass phenomenon only in the years 1880–1920 during the Great European immigration wave to Argentina, peaking between 1900–1914. In 1914, the city of Buenos Aires alone had more than 300,000 Italian-born inhabitants, representing 25% of the total population; the Italian immigrants were male, aged between 14 and 50 and more than 50% literate. The outbreak of World War I and the rise of Fascism in Italy caused a rapid fall in immigration to Argentina, with a slight revival in 1923–1927, but stopped during the Great Depression and the Second World War. After the end of World War II, Italy occupied by foreign armies; the period 1946–1957 brought another massive wave of 380,000 Italians to Argentina. The substantial recovery allowed by the Italian economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s caused the era of Italian diaspora abroad to finish, in the following decades Italy became a migration receiving country.
Today, there are still 527,570 Italian citizens living in the Argentine Republic. In the decades before 1900, Italian immigrants arrived from the northern regions of Piedmont and Lombardy. In Argentine slang, tano is still used for all people of Italian descent where it means inhabitant of the former independent state the Kingdom of Naples.. The assumption that emigration from cities was negligible has an important exception, and, the city of Naples; the city went from being the capital of its own kingdom in 1860 to being just another large city in Italy. The loss of bureaucratic jobs and the subsequently declining financial situation led to high unemployment. In the early 1880s epidemics of cholera struck the city, causing many people to leave. According to a study in 1990, considering the high proportion of returnees, a positive or negative correlation between region of origin and of destination can be proposed. Southern Italians indicate a more permanent settlement; the authors conclude that the Argentinian society in its Italian component is the result of Southern rather than Northern influences.
According to Ethnologue, Argentina has more than 1,500,000 Italian speakers, making it the third most spoken language in the nation. In spite of the great many Italian immigrants, the Italian language never took hold in Argentina, in part because at the time, the great majority of Italians spoke their regional languages and not many the national standard Italian language; this prevented any expansion of the use of the Italian language as a primary language in Argentina. The similarity of the Italian dialects with Spanish enabled the immigrants to assimilate, by using the Spanish language, with relative ease. Italian immigration from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century made a lasting and significant impact on the intonation of Argentina's vernacular Spanish. Preliminary research has shown that Rioplatense Spanish the speech of the city of Buenos Aires, has intonation patterns that resemble those of Italian dialects and differ markedly from the patterns of other forms of Spanish.
That correlates well with immigration patterns as Argentina, Buenos Aires, had huge numbers of Italian settlers since the 19th century. According to a study conducted by National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina, published in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition The researchers note that this is a recent phenomenon, starting in the beginning of the 20th century with the main wave of Southern Italian immigration. Before that, the porteño accent was more similar to that of Spain Andalusia. Much of Lunfardo arrived with European immigrants, such as Italians, Greek and Poles, it should be noted that most Italian and Spanish immigrants spoke their regional languages
U.S. Triestina Calcio 1918
Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918 referred to as Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Founded in 1918, the club folded and was re-established several times in its history; as of the 2017 -- 18 season, it plays in Italian third level. The club was founded in 1918 as merger of local teams Foot-Ball Club Trieste; the club reached Seconda Divisione in 1924. The club successively featured in the first-ever Serie A season in 1929, played consecutively to the Italian top flight until 1956. During those successful times, the team featured the likes of local Trieste native Nereo Rocco, who played as winger for Triestina from 1930 to 1937, becoming the first player from the team to become part of the Azzurri squad. Successively, Rocco returned to Triestina as a head coach in 1947, completed the 1947–48 as Serie A runners-up, only behind Torino. Rocco left in 1950 to be replaced by Hungarian Béla Guttman, who managed to save the club from relegation only in the final matchday.
Another struggling season followed in 1951–52, with Triestina escaping relegation only after winning playoffs against Lucchese and Brescia. During the 1952–53 season, Cesare Maldini made his Serie A debut as a Triestina jersey. In 1953 Rocco was sacked after 21 matchdays due to poor results. Three more mid-table seasons followed before Triestina suffered its first relegation in 1957. Successively, Triestina returned to Serie A in 1958, but were relegated in their first comeback season, their last top flight campaign to date; the club were successively relegated to Serie C in 1961 once, in 1965 twice, Serie D in 1971, forcing the alabardati to a local derby with Ponziana in 1975, quite unknown to local people in modern times. The club returned to Serie C in 1976, was admitted to Serie C1 in 1978, returned to Serie B in 1983, missing promotion to the top flight for a few seasons before being relegated in 1988. Triestina played in second level between 1962–1965 and 1989–1991. In 1994, the team was forced to fold, because of financial insolvency, was re-founded by Giorgio Del Sabato.
The team restarted as U. S. Triestina Calcio from Serie was readmitted to Serie C2 by the federation one year later. In 2001, after six seasons in Serie C2, the club won promotion to Serie C1 after playoffs. In the 2005–06 season, Triestina changed its manager five times; the list include the tandem Alessandro Calori-Adriano Buffoni, Pietro Vierchowod, caretaker Francesco De Falco, youth team coach Vittorio Russo and Andrea Agostinelli. In addition, Triestina's owner Flaviano Tonellotto was forced to resign on 1 February 2006 by the magistrates because of a pending court procedure for bankruptcy, his wife Jeannine Koevoets was named to replace him at the helm of the club. However, Tonellotto was successively ordered to leave the association because of financial troubles; the magistrates named Francesco De Falco as caretaker chairman with the idea of finding somebody interested to buy the club. Curiously, in the 2005–06 De Falco, a player for Triestina in the 80's, covered three different roles in the club: director of football and chairman.
In April 2006 the team was purchased by owners of a wine company in the region. In recent years, Triestina struggled to mount a promotion campaign to end half-century absence from the Italian top flight. Triestina finished 8th in 2008–2009 season; however failed to remain in Serie B in the 2009–10 season, with a crashing 3–0 defeat to Padova at the play-outs, was relegated to Lega Pro Prima Divisione after 8 years of endeavour in the second tier of Italian football, only to be readmitted to Serie B after Ancona filed for bankruptcy. On May 21, 2011, in the season 2010–11, after a disastrous campaign, Triestina was relegated from Serie B to Lega Pro Prima Divisione, having returned there in 2002 after 11 seasons in Serie C and Serie D. On January 25, 2012 the club in strong financial difficulty, has been declared bankrupt by the court of Trieste. In the season 2011–12 Triestina was relegated from Lega Pro Prima Divisione group B to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione. On 19 June 2012 the club was declared bankrupt and the team was disbanded.
Stefano Mario Fantinel, former chairman of the club, was suspended from football activities for 5 years after the prosecutor found accounting irregularities of the club. In July, three more months were added due to player transfer irregularities. Fantinel was suspended for 3 months in 2006–07 Serie B causing the club 1 point, for irregularities on preparing quarterly management report on 30 March 2006. On 31 July 2012 was founded the new company Unione Triestina 2012 S. S. D. a. r.l. that restarted from Eccellenza thanks to Article 52 of N. O. I. F.. The sports title was transferred to another "limited company in amateur sport" U. S. Triestina Calcio 1918 s.s.d. a. r.l. in 2016. After the promotion to Serie C on 4 August 2017, the company dropped the legal suffix "amateur sport" from the name; the team's colours are white. Serie A: 1929–1957, 1958–1959 Serie B 1957–1958, 1959–1961, 1962–1965, 1983–1988, 1989–1991, 2002–2011 Serie C/Serie C1/L. Pro I Div.: 1961–1962, 1965–1971, 1972–1974, 1976–1983, 1991–1994, 2001–2002, 2011–2012, 2017– Serie D/C2: 1971–1972, 1974–1976, 1995–2001, 2014–2017 Serie D: 1994–1995, 2013–2014 Eccellenza (as sixth
Czechoslovakia national football team
The Czechoslovakia national football team was the national association football team of Czechoslovakia from 1920 to 1992. The team was controlled by the Czechoslovak Football Association, the team qualified for eight World Cups and three European Championships, it had two runner-up finishes in World Cups, in 1934 and 1962, won the European Championship in the 1976 tournament. At the time of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the team was participating in UEFA qualifying Group 4 for the 1994 World Cup; the present-day Czech Republic national football team is recognized as the successor of the Czechoslovakia team. The country of Slovakia is represented by the Slovak national team. While part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bohemia played its first international on 1 April 1906, a 1–1 draw with Hungary in Budapest. On 7 October, Hungary came to Prague for a 4–4 draw; the two countries played three more matches up to 1908 – including Bohemia's only victory – and Bohemia played its last match on 13 June 1908, losing 4–0 at home to England.
After World War I, an independent Czechoslovakia entered its football team for the 1920 Olympic event in Antwerp, opening with a 7–0 win over Yugoslavia on 28 August. They beat Norway 4–0 the next day in the quarter-finals and France 4–1 in the semi-finals on the 31st. However, in the final against Belgium on 2 September, the Czechoslovaks left the field 2–0 down after 40 minutes in protest with the English referee John Lewis, were not given a medal. Czechoslovakia returned for the 1924 Olympics in Paris and defeated Turkey 5–2 in the first round, but were eliminated in the second 1–0 against Switzerland in a replay after a 1–1 draw; the nation entered the World Cup for the first time in 1934, won its qualifier against Poland after its neighbour withdrew following a 2–1 Czechoslovak win in the first leg. At the finals in Italy, Czechoslovakia advanced past Romania and Germany to reach the final, where it lost 2–1 to the host country after extra time. Oldřich Nejedlý won the Golden Shoe with five goals in the tournament.
Czechoslovakia qualified for the 1938 FIFA World Cup in France with a 7–1 aggregate victory over Bulgaria, reached the quarter-finals with a 3–0 win over the Netherlands in Le Havre. In the quarter-final against Brazil, known as the Battle of Bordeaux for its rough play, Czechoslovakia lost the replay 2–1. In 1939, under the German occupation name of "Bohemia", the team played three matches, defeating Yugoslavia 7–3 and drawing with both Ostmark and Germany itself. After an absence from the 1950 qualification campaign, Czechoslovakia qualified for 1954 by topping its qualifying group unbeaten against Bulgaria and Romania with three wins and a draw. However, in the finals in Switzerland, it was eliminated from a strong group after defeats to Uruguay and Austria, it topped its qualifying group for the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, ahead of Wales and East Germany. They opened their finals campaign on 8 June with a 1–0 defeat to Northern Ireland in Halmstad, followed by a 2–2 draw with reigning champions West Germany and a 6–1 win over Argentina.
On 17 June, Czechoslovakia lost a play-off to advance into the knockout stages 2–1 to Northern Ireland in Malmö. On 5 April 1959, Czechoslovakia played the first qualifying match in a UEFA European Championship, losing 2–0 away to the Republic of Ireland but advancing 4–2 on aggregate. Subsequent victories over Denmark and Romania put the country into the four-team finals in France, it lost 3–0 to the Soviet Union in the semi-final but gained third place with a 2–0 win over the hosts at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille. Czechoslovakia qualified for the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile by defeating Scotland 4–2 after extra time in a play-off in Brussels, after finishing level in their qualifying group. In the group at the finals, Czechoslovakia opened with a 1–0 win over Spain from a Jozef Štibrányi goal, drew 0–0 with holders Brazil. In the last group game on 7 June, Václav Mašek put Czechoslovakia ahead against Mexico in 12 seconds. After goalkeeper Viliam Schrojf's performance, a goal from Adolf Scherer in Rancagua was enough to beat Hungary in the quarter-final, two more late goals by him against Yugoslavia put Czechoslovakia into their second World Cup final.
In the final at the Estadio Nacional de Chile in Santiago, Josef Masopust put Czechoslovakia ahead after 15 minutes by finishing Scherer's pass, but Brazil soon equalised and exploited Schrojf's errors to win 3–1. Masopust's inspiration was awarded with the 1962 Ballon d'Or. Czechoslovakia did not go to the 1966 FIFA World Cup, with Portugal topping their qualifying group, nor did they qualify for the European Championships of 1964 and 1968. On 3 December 1969 they defeated Hungary 4–1 in Marseille in a play-off to reach the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, having finished joint top of their qualifying group. Czechoslovakia lost all three of their matches in the 1970 World Cup, in a group featuring holders England and eventual winners Brazil. After missing out on the 1972 European Championship and the 1974 World Cup, Czechoslovakia reached the 1976 European Championship in Yugoslavia, topping a group featuring England and Cyprus and defeating the Soviet Union 4–2 in a play-off. In the semi-final in Zagreb, they advanced after beating the Netherlands 3–1 after extra time.
In the final on 20 June at Crvena Zvezda Stadium in Belgrade, Czechoslovakia led 2–0 before the game went to penalties at a 2–2 draw. Antonin Panenka scored the winning penalty with
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War; the current champion is France. The current format of the competition involves a qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase, called the World Cup Finals. After this, 32 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation, compete in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about a month; the 21 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight national teams. Brazil have won five times, they are the only team to have played in every tournament; the other World Cup winners are Italy, with four titles each.
The World Cup is the most prestigious association football tournament in the world, as well as the most viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding the Olympic Games. Brazil, Italy and Mexico have each hosted twice, while Uruguay, Sweden, England, Spain, the United States and South Korea, South Africa and Russia have each hosted once. Qatar are planned as hosts of the 2022 finals, 2026 will be jointly hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico, which will give Mexico the distinction of being the first country to have hosted games in three finals; the world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England, which ended in a 0–0 draw. The first international tournament, the inaugural British Home Championship, took place in 1884; as football grew in popularity in other parts of the world at the start of the 20th century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics, at the 1906 Intercalated Games.
After FIFA was founded in 1904, it tried to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were early days for international football, the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been a failure. At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, football became an official competition. Planned by The Football Association, England's football governing body, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. Great Britain won the gold medals, they repeated the feat at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin in 1909; the Lipton tournament was a championship between individual clubs from different nations, each one of which represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as The First World Cup, featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional team.
Lipton invited an amateur side from County Durham, to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to defend their title. In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", took responsibility for managing the event; this paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition, at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and 13 European teams, won by Belgium. Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928; those were the first two open world championships, as 1924 was the start of FIFA's professional era. Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with President Jules Rimet as the driving force, again started looking at staging its own international tournament outside of the Olympics. On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship itself. With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament.
The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides. Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet persuaded teams from Belgium, France and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total, 13 nations took part: seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America; the first two World Cup matches took place on 13 July 1930, were won by France and the USA, who defeated Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent o
Romagna
Romagna is an Italian historical region that corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, the rivers Reno and Sillaro to the north and west; the region's major cities include Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and City of San Marino. The region has been formally expanded with the transfer of seven comuni from the Marche region, which are a small number of comuni where Romagnolo dialect is spoken; the name Romagna originates from the Latin name Romania, the generic name for "land inhabited by Romans", first appeared on Latin documents in the 5th century. It took on the more detailed meaning of "territory subjected to Eastern Roman rule", whose citizens called themselves Romans, thus the term Romania came to be used to refer to the territory administered by the Exarchate of Ravenna in contrast to other parts of Northern Italy under Lombard rule, named Langobardia or Lombardy. A number of archaeological sites in the region, such as Monte Poggiolo, show that Romagna has been inhabited since the Paleolithic age.
The Umbri, speaking an extinct Italic language called Umbrian, are the first traceable inhabitants of the region. The Etruscans dwelt in some portions of Romagna. In the 5th Century BC, various Gaulish tribes, most notably the Lingones and Boii, moved south into Italy, sacked Rome in 390 BC; the Senoni utterly settled in Romagna. The Senoni extended further south with their capital Sena Gallica; the lands inhabited by the Senoni were known as ager Gallicus to the Romans. According to the Italian linguist Giacomo Devoto, there are still a number of Celtic substrata in the Romagnolo dialect. Gallic predominance in the region was challenged by the Romans. In the battle of Telamon, the Romans defeated the joint forces of the Celtic tribes, thus achieving a hegemony over the new Roman Province of Cisalpine Gaul centred at Mutina. After the Second Punic War, the pro-Carthaginian Lingones and Senoni were expelled. To consolidate the Roman rule in the region, the Via Aemilia was built from Ariminium to Piacentia, a series of Roman colonies were founded.
The most significant ones are Forum Cornelii and Forum Popili. After the Social War, the Lex Julia was introduced in 90 BC, Roman citizenship was granted to all municipia south of the River Po. In the first Roman civil war, between Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, most cities in the regions supported Marius; as a result, Forum Livii and Caesena were razed to ground, the region was looted by Sulla's army. During the first triumvirate, the Roman Republic was divided along the infamous Rubicon. Most of modern Romagna was ruled by Julius Caesar, the notable exception of Ariminium, south of the river. In 49 BC, residing in Ravenna led the Legio XIII across the Rubicon and ignited Caesar's civil war. After the decisive battle of Actium, Augustus started a century-long era of Pax Romana. All of Cisalpine Gaul had been incorporated into the Roman province of Italia. Around 7 BC, Augustus divided all of Italy into eleven regiones, most of Romagna was in the eighth, Aemilia. By the beginning of the 3rd Century, Diocletian re-divided the Empire into four prefectures, each divided into dioceses, into provinces.
Under the new system, Italy was demoted to a mere Imperial province. Modern Romagna was organized into the Roman province of Flaminia et Picenum in the diocese of Italia Annonaria. Ravenna, surrounded by swamps and marshes and rose in importance, a Roman fleet was based at the city, it had developed into a major port on the Adriatic. However, in 330, the capital of the Empire was transferred to Constantinople, so with the fleet that stationed at Ravenna, thus weakened the coastal defence in the Adriatic. Stepping into the 5th Century, the Germanic migrations into the Empire further intensified. In 402, Emperor Honorius moved the Western Roman Empire's capital from Mediolanum to Ravenna because of the region's defensive terrain. 8 years Alaric I of the Visigoths looted Rome. In 476, Odoacer deposed Romulus in Ravenna. Encouraged by Emperor Zeno, Theodoric the Great led the Ostrogoths into Italy, he entered Ravenna and murdered Odoacer in 493, establishing a twofold kingdom of the Romans and Goths.
Under the Ostrogoths Italy was restored to its former prosperity. In 535 Justinian I initiated the Gothic War, it was fought for 20 years, the Ostrogoths were subjugated. The peninsula and devastated, was ruled by an exarch from Ravenna. However, Imperial authority was maintained for more than a decade. In 568 new Germanic tribes, the Lombards, entered Italy, established their capital at Pavia; the Empire could defend the region around Ravenna and Rome, connected by a narrow strip of land passing through Perugia, as well as a series of coastal cities. The Imperial frontier retreated to Bologna. In 727 the Lombard King Liutprand renewed war against the Byzantines, taking most of Romagna and besieging Ravenna itself; these territories were returned to the Byzantines in 730. In 737 the king took Ravenna; the exarch, retook the region in 740, with Venetian assistance. Another Lombard king, Aistu
Uruguay
France
United States
Paraguay
