history of the fifa world cup
DESCRIPTION
origenes de la FIFATRANSCRIPT
26/10/2015 English Reading Comprehension Comprensión de lectura en inglés
http://saberingles.com.ar/reading/worldcup3.html 1/2
saberingles.com.ar Name:Date:
History of the FIFA World Cup
The History of the FIFA World Cup started in 1928, when FIFA president Jules Rimet decided to stage an internationalfootball tournament. The first competition, in 1930, consisted of just the final tournament of 13 invited teams. Thecompetition has subsequently expanded to a 2 year qualifying process involving almost 200 teams from all over theworld.
The first international football match was played in 1872 between England and Scotland, although at this stage thesport was rarely played outside Great Britain. An expansion in international football led to FIFA being formed in May1904, comprised of football associations from seven continental European countries. As football began to increase inpopularity, it was held as a demonstration sport (with no medals awarded) at the 1900, 1904 and 1906 SummerOlympics before football became an official competition at the 1908 Summer Olympics. Organised by England'sFootball Association, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than acompetition. The England national amateur football team won the event in both 1908 and 1912.
With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the SirThomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin in 1909. The competition is often described as The First World Cup, andfeatured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland. The first tournament waswon by West Auckland, an amateur side from northeast England that was invited after the Football Associationrefused to be associated with the competition. West Auckland returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title, andwere given the trophy to keep forever, as per the rules of the competition.
In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and tookresponsibility for organising the event. This led the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition, at the1924 Summer Olympics. Uruguay won the tournament, before winning the gold medal again in 1928, with anotherSouth American team, Argentina, taking silver. In 1928 FIFA made the decision to stage their own internationaltournament. With Uruguay now twotime official football world champions and due to celebrate their centenary ofindependence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country.
The 1932 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, did not plan to include football as part of the programme due to thelow popularity of football in the United States. FIFA and the IOC also disagreed over the status of amateur players, andso football was dropped from the Games. FIFA president Jules Rimet thus set about organising the inaugural WorldCup tournament to be held in Uruguay in 1930. The national associations of selected nations were invited to send ateam, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Oceanfor European sides. Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of thecompetition. Rimet eventually persuaded teams from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make the trip. Intotal 13 nations took part — seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America.
The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously, and were won by France and the USA, who beat Mexico41 and Belgium 30, respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France. Fourdays later, the first World Cup hattrick was achieved by Bert Patenaude of the USA in the Americans' 30 win againstParaguay. In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 42 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and becamethe first nation to win a World Cup.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "History of the FIFAWorld Cup". You can explore more on the Wikipedia website. The text and the images are used here only for educational purposes.
Questions about the text
1. The first international football match was played in 1872.True.False.We don't know.
26/10/2015 English Reading Comprehension Comprensión de lectura en inglés
http://saberingles.com.ar/reading/worldcup3.html 2/2
2. FIFA was created in 1904.True.False.We don't know.
3. The first FIFA World Cup was played in Uruguay.True.False.We don't know.
4. Uruguay was the first nation to win the World Cup.True.False.We don't know.