In 1950, the first World Cup after World War II, when war-torn Europe was not suitable for the World Cup, Brazil volunteered at the FIFA Congress in 1946 and finally won the right to host the World Cup.
Unlike today, when all countries want to participate in the World Cup, many teams chose to withdraw because of various circumstances.
The 16 teams that originally participated in the final round were Bolivia, England, Mexico, Yugoslavia, Brazil, India, Paraguay, Sweden, the United States, Chile, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Uruguay, Scotland and Turkey.
Prior to the qualifiers, Scottish Football Association President George Graham said that Scotland would only participate in the World Cup if they won the British championship, but in the end Scotland ranked second among the British four teams, even if Scottish captain George Young pleaded with Graham to change his mind, the latter was indifferent, so Scotland withdrew. It is worth mentioning that in 1954, Scotland was still second in the qualifiers of the British four teams, but they participated in that World Cup in Switzerland, and the BBC wrote that the biggest reason for not going to Brazil that year should be insufficient money.
Turkey has also opted out because they cannot afford to spend enough to travel to South America.
With the withdrawal of both teams, FIFA invited Portugal, Ireland and France, who had been eliminated in the qualifiers, to fill the spots, but Portugal and Ireland refused to participate, and only France accepted the substitution and participated in the draw, so only 15 teams participated in the draw.
On 22 May 1950, the group draw took place in Rio, with 15 teams divided into four groups, each of which qualified for the round robin, with only three teams in the fourth group, Uruguay, Bolivia and France.
However, after the draw, the Indian Football Association decided to abandon the competition, and although FIFA agreed to bear most of the travel expenses, the Reason for the Indian side's withdrawal was still no money, and the lack of training time and their greater emphasis on the Olympic Games were also many reasons for the Indian Football Association's withdrawal. Yes, they did value the Olympics more, and in 1956 India reached the semi-finals of the Olympic Games. This withdrawal has also left Indian football with eternal regrets, and they have not participated in the World Cup so far.
Initially France wanted to participate, otherwise they would not have accepted the invitation and participated in the lottery. They sent a World Cup test team to Belgium, where they lost 4-1 and then lost at home to Scotland. These two defeats have hit the morale of the team. The last straw that crushed the camel was the schedule. The group's opponents are Uruguay and Bolivia, who need to play one game in Porto Alegre and then travel 2,000 kilometers to Recife for a second. Of course, the French Football Federation did not do it, they sent a telegram to the Brazilian Football Association threatening to change the venue of the game, but the reply was that they refused, so they simply withdrew. In the end, there were only two teams in the fourth group, Bolivia and Uruguay.
So in the end, only 13 teams competed in the 1950 World Cup. Brazil, as the host, must be very self-interested in the schedule, and the 6 games they played, except for the second game in São Paulo, the other 5 games were all arranged in Rio de Janeiro.
Other teams ran all over Brazil, and in Rio they faced Brazil, where they had to endure the tiring of the journey, but also fought against the wet and sweltering weather in Rio.
In the final round robin, Brazil beat Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1, and they could win the championship in the last game as long as they drew with Uruguay (uruguay and Spain drew 2-2, 3-2 against Sweden, Brazil was better from the score), but the final result made all Brazilians sad. Although Brazil scored first, Uruguay reversed the victory. Under the watchful eyes of 170,000 live Brazilian fans at the Maracanã Stadium, the Remit Gold Cup was handed over.
Ademir, a Brazilian who scored nine goals, the top scorer of the World Cup, later said: "Every place has its own catastrophe, our catastrophe, which was the defeat of Uruguay in 1950." ”
Speaking of disasters, one can't help but think of Italy, the team participating in this World Cup. In the year before 1950, they lost more than half of the national team players. The Turin team, which was about to complete five consecutive Serie A titles, went to Portugal to participate in the Latin Cup and returned home in an air crash, which was the core skeleton of the Italian team at the time, and the most they contributed 10 people to the national team start.
Although Italy was the champion of two consecutive World Cups before the war, the Supega air disaster greatly damaged the defending champions, and also made the new internationals extremely afraid of flying, and finally they chose to take a boat across the Atlantic to Brazil, drifting at sea for a month, and there was no state at all in Brazil. So their group was out.
In addition, at that time, the Soviet Union and Hungary did not participate in the qualifiers for political reasons, while the Argentine team chose to withdraw from the qualifiers after the draft draw, and the two football associations had a conflict. (Supine Braces/Qiu Yixi)