WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ARGENTINA 1950
That was the original composition of the entries but it was soon modified; Italy dropped out for
financial reasons and was replaced by the third team in the Nice tournament, Yugoslavia, which
as we will see later caused another type of incident. Uruguay pulled out because the Argentine
government refused the Uruguayan radio journalists permission to enter the country. Politics had
reared its ugly head.
The incident that caused the absence of Uruguay was so petty that these days it would almost
make us laugh, but at that time the world situation was so complicated and authoritarian
attitudes were so commonplace that people didn't blink an eye. There were radio programmes
broadcast from Montevideo in which a few Argentine exiles attacked Peron's regime. These could
be received from the opposite bank of the River Plate so the Argentine government asked Uruguay
to put a stop to them. As they received no satisfactory reply the Argentine authorities refused the
Uruguayan media permission to enter the country. The Uruguayan Federation therefore withdrew
its team and was substituted the Peru, the first reserve country.
However, this was not the end to the problems: the Spanish and French teams flew in on the
same plane and almost missed the opening ceremony because they had to spend 36 hours trying
to land in Buenos Aires. This simple anecdote shows the organizational problems of the time.
As there were ten participating teams the organization of the competition was very complicated.
There were two preliminary rounds, another two classification rounds, and a final round for the top
six along with a consolation round for the bottom four. The first preliminary round matched Peru
with Yugoslavia and Egypt with Ecuador. The winners, Peru and Egypt, went through to the second
preliminary round to join USA, Chile, Argentina, France, Brazil and Spain. The four winners from
this phase (USA, Argentina, Brazil and Egypt) went through to the final round while the four losers
(Chile, France, Peru and Spain) went to the classification round with Ecuador and Yugoslavia who
had both been beaten in their first preliminary matches. Out of these teams France and Chile
went through to the final phase and the rest played in the consolation round. In these final phases
each team played all the others on a league basis. As we can see, a real mess!
ARGENTINA, THE FIRST CHAMPION
Three teams started as favourites. Argentina in their capacity of hosts with an excellent squad
including stars like Oscar Furlong and Ricardo Gonzalez; USA whose true potential in the
championship was unknown; and Brazil, bronze medallists in the previous Olympics. All three
teams lived up to expectations although Chile, on top form, pushed the Brazilians down to fourth
position.
The scoring in this championship was low, Argentina was the only team to score more than 60
points in a game (they did it on four occasions, including the de facto final against USA). The
competition was a great success with the public who piled into the overflowing Luna Park in
Buenos Aires to cheer on their team. However, this championship gave us a foresight of the
problems that would come with the Cold War. Marshal Tito refused to allow socialist Yugoslavia to
play against the Spain of the fascist General Franco. Spain was awarded the match with a 2-0
score line, their only victory during the tournament.
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FUNDACIÓN PEDRO FERRÁNDIZ