The World Cup is the most celebrated sporting event on the planet, with the most recent confirmed viewing figures from the 2018 World Cup totalling 3.57billion combined spectators.
Boasting an illustrious 92-year history, this latest edition in Qatar is the first to be held in an Arab country which came as a surprise to the majority fans given their lack of footballing heritage.
However, when we rewind all the way back to 1930, the year of the very first World Cup, we soon find a flurry of remarkable, and frankly bizarre facts about the inaugural 13-nation tournament first hosted in Uruguay.
And Then There Were 13
Egypt were set to become the first and only nation to represent Africa at the 1930 World Cup, and have since gone on to become one of three countries to compete at three iterations and remain winless.
However, a boat carrying the Yugoslavians from Marseille was due to pick up the Egyptian team on their way to South America, but their initial voyage from Africa was halted by a storm in the Mediterranean Sea and, as a result, the Pharaohs missed their connection.
This left the tournament with an awkward 13 teams, and the groups were split into one containing four nations and the rest containing three.
Below is a picture of the European’s steamship, which carried Romania and France before picking up the Brazilian team in Rio. FIFA president Jules Rimet, whom the trophy would later be named after, also joined them aboard their voyage as they trained on the top deck.
A First Taste of Argentina’s Dirty Tricks
Argentina and the ‘dark arts’ of football have gone hand in hand throughout their history as a national team, and it seems the fiercely competitive, and often violent nature of their ethos may have trickled down from generations now 100-years-old.
La Albiceleste, although eventual runners-up to hosts Uruguay, were perhaps the most memorable team at the tournament after a hot-tempered, barbarous encounter in the latter stages.
Having already had their opening fixture intervened by police following a blood-thirsty affair with Chile, their semi-final against the USA is where they really made name for themselves as the badboys of the tournament.
A broken leg following an ugly tackle in the first half sparked a mass brawl between all 22 players.
One of the Americans was later hospitalised with severe injuries to his stomach, while another of his teammates had four teeth dislodged by a maniacal Argentina player.
Watch The Chloroform!
From cut-throat to calamity, the same match saw perhaps the funniest moment ever witnessed at a World Cup with a Monty Python-esque sketch coming to life.
Following the exchange of fisticuffs, the USA physio rushed onto the pitch in order to tend to an injury-stricken player and confront the referee. However, he lost his footing before landing on a bottle of chloroform in his pocket, which then knocked him unconscious.
Both the physio and the player were stretchered off once he regained consciousness!
By Royal Appointment
King Carol II, who took over the throne in Romania just a month prior to the World Cup, granted amnesty to all suspended Romanian players just before the tournament.
He also threatened to close down businesses, including an English oil company for whom many of the players worked for, if they didn’t grant their employees paid leave.
And to cap it all off, the ‘Playboy King’ as he has been dubbed due to his sexual promiscuity and partying habits, selected the squad himself and even joined them in pre-tournament training sessions.
Premature Funeral, Fainting Mothers and Olympic Figure Skating
Romania’s 1930 World Cup story doesn’t end there however – strap in for this next tale.
After defeating Peru but subsequently losing out to hosts Uruguay, Romania set sail on their voyage back to Europe.
Alfred Eisenbeisser, one of the Romania players, fell critically ill in transit having nearly died of pneumonia following a cold bath, and was shipped off to hospital when the boat stopped off in Genoa.
Upon arriving back in Bucharest, a rumour of his untimely death soon spread after people noticed he had not traveled with the rest of the team, to which they confirmed this was the case.
As such, his mother made the necessary funeral arrangements following the apparent death of her son, but he would later arrive home having fully recovered and his grieving mother was said to have fainted on the spot upon seeing him alive.
Eisenbeisser was also a man of many talents, and his near-death experience didn’t hamper his sporting efforts after the World Cup. He would subsequently go on to compete for Romania in both figure skating and bobsleigh at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Germany.
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