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The World Cup is the greatest tournament ever created in the history of football—on that, we can all agree. Countries from different continents battle to lift a trophy that represents far more than mere sporting merit; on many occasions, it provides a vital injection of joy and a breath of fresh air for a population living through times of heightened tension.
The inaugural World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930. Since then, every four years, the spotlight has returned to a tournament that had never once had to halt its activity—until 1942. The Second World War forced FIFA to suspend the 1942 edition, a disruption that was repeated in 1946. Two consecutive tournaments were cancelled due to the grave global conflict engulfing the world at that time.
By the third edition of the World Cup, held in France in 1938, the tournament was already heavily overshadowed by geopolitical dispute, forcing several nations to withdraw. Italy were crowned champions that year, taking custody of the original trophy known as the Jules Rimet Cup. This piece, a representation of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike, went on to endure its own wartime odyssey. To protect it from the Nazis, Ottorino Barassi, vice-president of the Italian Football Federation, secretly removed it from a bank vault in Rome. The official hid it inside a shoebox under his own bed; despite soldiers searching his house, they never managed to find it.
For the subsequent 1942 edition, two nations had put themselves forward as potential hosts: Germany and Brazil. However, the conflict escalated to such an extent that FIFA had no choice but to halt the organisation of football’s showpiece event. It marked the first time in history that the World Cup failed to take place—an historic anomaly. Sadly, it would not be the only one.
Although the war came to an end in 1945, the global situation remained extremely critical. Consequently, the 1946 World Cup was never contested. A total of two consecutive editions of the World Cup were lost to armed conflict and its aftermath. In June 1946, a congress was held with the intention of resuming the tournament three years later, in 1949—a move that would have altered history and disrupted the traditional even-numbered years in which all World Cups are played.
With the European continent undergoing a massive period of reconstruction, no nation from the region submitted a bid to host. Brazil stood alone as the sole candidate, but on the condition that the tournament be delayed by a year, until 1950. FIFA accepted the proposal, and in 1950, the World Cup finally returned with a magnificent tournament. It concluded with Uruguay pulling off their famous 'Maracanazo' against a Brazilian side featuring Zizinho and Ademir. In doing so, Uruguay did not simply reclaim their throne; they restored hope to a world that desperately needed to be moved by a football once again.
