The British Empire and the Origin of the World Cup

The most-watched event in the history of human sport was not invented by the British. The British invented the form of football played in the World Cup; they did not enter the first three World Cups, and they did not win the trophy until 1966. The 1930 Uruguay World Cup was won by Uruguay against Argentina, 4–2. The 1934 and 1938 tournaments were won by Italy. The 1950 tournament, in which England and Scotland entered for the first time, was won by Uruguay. The 1954 tournament was won by West Germany. The British were present, in 1950, in body. They were not, in any meaningful sense, present in spirit.

The story of the British relationship with the World Cup is the story of a metropolitan sporting culture that was unable to take seriously the world it had done more than any other to create. As Brian Stoddart argued in Sport, Cultural Imperialism, and Colonial Response (1988) and refined in Pioneers of Culture (2017), the British invented the international cup competition, the international football association, and the international transfer system. They declined to enter the international football association that they had done most to make possible. The World Cup is, in that sense, the most imperial institution the British never joined.

The British Hold on the Early International Game

The first international football match was played at the Oval, Kennington, on 5 March 1870, between England and Scotland; the result was a 1–1 draw. The first official international under FA rules was the 1872 match at Hampden Park, which Scotland won 1–0. The 1884 founding of the British Home Championship — the annual tournament between England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland — gave the British international game its first institutional form. By the 1890s, the British Home Championship was the only regular international football tournament in the world, and the British home nations were, by common consent, the four strongest teams in the international game.

The 1900, 1908, and 1912 Olympic football tournaments were, in the early years of the international game, dominated by the British. The 1908 London Olympics, in particular, were the first Olympics in which international football was the principal team sport: the British team, drawn from the amateur ranks of the English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish amateur football establishments, won the gold medal. The British dominance of the early international game was not contested. The Danes’ 2–1 defeat of the British team at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics was, in this context, a shock. It was also a sign of the new world.

The Foundation of FIFA and the British Absence

FIFA was founded in Paris on 21 May 1904, by the football associations of France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The British home nations were conspicuously absent. The minutes of the founding meeting — recorded in the FA’s own minute book for 1904, now held at Wembley — record the French FA’s secretary, Robert Guérin, attempting to bring the English FA into the new body, and being politely but firmly refused. The English FA’s minute book entry for 23 May 1904 reads:

“The Secretary reported that he had received an invitation from the Fédération Française de Football to attend a Conference at Paris for the purpose of forming an International Football Association. Resolved that the invitation be declined.”

England joined FIFA in 1905, after a year’s courtship. Wales joined in 1910, Ireland in 1927, and Scotland held out until 1946. The British suspicion of FIFA was, in part, the suspicion of the foreigner; in part, the suspicion of the amateur who feared the continental professional; in part, the structural disinterest of a football culture that had its own cup (the FA Cup, founded 1871), its own league (the Football League, founded 1888), its own home international championship (1884), and its own network of clubs. The British had invented the international cup competition. They did not want to enter one.

The 1928 IFAB decision in principle to recognise a four-yearly world championship was, in this context, the institutional moment at which the World Cup became inevitable. The 1930 tournament in Uruguay was the consequence. The 1934 and 1938 tournaments, both won by Italy, were the consolidation. The 1950 tournament, in which England and Scotland finally entered, was the British catch-up.

The 1930 Uruguay World Cup

The 1930 Uruguay World Cup was, in form, an exercise in South American self-confidence. Uruguay had won the 1924 and 1928 Olympic gold medals, and the Centenary Stadium in Montevideo was, in 1930, the most ambitious football ground in the world outside London. The European response was, in the first instance, weak: the British home nations were not entered; France, Belgium, Romania, and Yugoslavia were the only European entrants; the costs of transatlantic travel, in the absence of scheduled air services, were prohibitive. The South American delegations arrived in Montevideo in numbers, and the tournament was won, as it was meant to be, by the host nation.

The 1930 final — Uruguay 4, Argentina 2, in front of 93,000 people at the Centenary Stadium — was watched in Europe as a curiosity, in South America as a founding moment. The British press, on the whole, did not cover it. The FA’s annual report for 1930 records the tournament in a single paragraph. The tournament was, in the British sporting memory, a South American event. It was, in the South American sporting memory, the founding moment of the world game.

The 1950 Brazil World Cup

The 1950 Brazil World Cup was the first in which the British home nations entered. The decision to enter was, as the FA’s minute book for 1949 records, the result of the post-war political settlement: the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and the new internationalism of the post-war period made the British absence untenable. The 1950 tournament was, in any case, a substantial and a successful competition. The Uruguay team won the deciding match against Brazil 2–1 at the Maracanã in front of 199,854 people — the largest crowd in football history.

The British performance was a humiliation. The England team, managed by Walter Winterbottom, lost 1–0 to the United States in the group stage in a result so unexpected that the Daily Express did not report it. The Scotland team, drawn in the same group as England, also failed to progress. Both teams were eliminated in the first round. The 1950 tournament was, in the British sporting memory, the nadir. The 1966 tournament, in which England beat West Germany 4–2 in the final at Wembley, was the corrective — and the only World Cup England has won.

The Post-Imperial World Cup

The post-imperial World Cup has been, on the whole, a post-British institution. The 1970 Mexico tournament, won by Brazil against Italy, was the first to be broadcast live in colour to a global audience. The 1978 Argentina tournament, won by the host nation, was the first in which the host nation’s political regime was a serious issue. The 1986 Mexico tournament, won by Argentina against West Germany, was the Maradona tournament. The 1990 Italy tournament was the most defensive in the history of the competition. The 1994 United States tournament, won by Brazil against Italy on penalties, was the first held outside Europe or the Americas. The 1998 France tournament was the first won by the host nation since England in 1966. The 2002 South Korea/Japan tournament was the first held in Asia. The 2010 South Africa tournament was the first held in sub-Saharan Africa. The 2014 Brazil tournament was the first held in the host nation since 1950. The 2018 Russia tournament, the 2022 Qatar tournament, and the 2026 North America tournament are the most recent.

The 2026 tournament, to be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with an expanded 48-team format, is the institutional expression of the post-imperial game. The 2022 final, watched by 1.5 billion people, was the Argentina–France final — a fixture between a former Spanish colony and a former British colony that the British had not, in 1930, considered joining. The World Cup the British did not enter is the World Cup the world now watches.

The Empire’s Football Legacy

The most honest assessment of the Empire’s football legacy is that the British invented the form, exported it with imperial confidence, and lost control of it within a generation. The football the world now plays is recognisably the football the FA codified in 1863. The football the world now plays best is not the football the FA invented. The 2022 World Cup final, the 2018 World Cup final, the 2014 World Cup final, the 2010 World Cup final, the 2002 World Cup final, the 1998 World Cup final, the 1986 World Cup final, the 1970 World Cup final — none of these have been won by England. The British invented the World Cup. They have won it once. The cricket, by contrast, is still mostly British. The football is not.

Historiographical Note

The historiography of the British Empire and the World Cup has been transformed, since the 1980s, by the work of Brian Stoddart (Sport, Cultural Imperialism, and Colonial Response 1988; Pioneers of Culture 2017), James Nauright (Sports, Cultures, and Societies 2004), and the contributors to the Oxford Handbook of Sports History (2010). The earlier celebratory accounts — the centennial history of the FA (1963), the FIFA centennial history (2004) — have been supplemented, and in places supplanted, by the more critical accounts of the post-colonial generation. The unresolved question is the same one Stoddart posed in 1988: how to weigh the imperial invention of the world game against the loss of imperial control over the game the world now plays.

In this Section

Other Sections