The FIFA World Cup was first held in 1930, when FIFA, the world's football governing body, decided to stage an international men's football tournament under the era of FIFA president Jules Rimet who put this idea into place. Rimet, the president of FIFA from 1921 to 1954, was appreciated so much for bringing the idea of FIFA to life that in 1946 the trophy was named the Jules Rimet Cup instead of the World Cup Trophy. The inaugural edition, held in 1930, was contested as a final tournament of only thirteen teams invited by the organization. Since then, the World Cup has experienced successive expansions and format remodeling, with its current 48-team final tournament preceded by a two-year qualifying process involving over 200 teams worldwide.

International football before 1930

The first official international football match was played in 1872 in Glasgow between Scotland and England, although at this stage the sport was rarely played outside Great Britain.

At the end of the 19th century, games that were considered the "football world championship" were meetings between leading English and Scottish clubs, like the 1895 game between Sunderland A.F.C. and the Heart of Midlothian F.C., which Sunderland won.When Sunderland met Hearts in the first ever 'Champions League' match | Nutmeg Magazine, , Nutmeg Magazine, September 2017

By the twentieth century, football had gained ground all around the world and national football associations were being founded. The first official international match outside the British Isles was played between Uruguay and Argentina in Montevideo in July 1902. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris on 21 May 1904 – comprising football associations from France, Belgium (the preceding two teams having played their first national against each other earlier in the month), Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, with Germany pledging to join.

As football began to increase in popularity, it was contested as an IOC-recognized Olympic sport at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics, as well as at the 1906 Intercalated Games, before becoming an official FIFA-supervised Olympic competition at the 1908 Summer Olympics. Organised by England's Football Association, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. The England national amateur football team won the event in both 1908 and 1912.

There was an attempt made by FIFA to organize an international football tournament between nations outside of the Olympic framework in 1906 and this took place in Switzerland. These were very early days for international football and the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been a failure.1906 - Athens at the IFFHS (archived)

With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, competitions involving professional teams also started to appear. The Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva, held in Turin in 1908, was one of the first, and the following year; Sir Thomas Lipton organized the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, also held in Turin. Both tournaments were contested between individual clubs (not national teams), each one of which represented an entire nation. For this reason, neither was really a direct forerunner of the World Cup, but notwithstanding that, the Thomas Lipton Trophy is sometimes described as The First World Cup, at the expense of its less well-known Italian predecessor.

In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognize the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for organizing the event. However, the outbreak of the First World War led to the cancellation of the 1916 Summer Olympics. The tournament that was played that year instead was the inaugural edition of the competition now known as the Copa América. That same year, CONMEBOL, the South American continental confederation, was founded.

Olympic football resumed at the 1920 Summer Olympics, won by Belgium.VII. Olympiad Antwerp 1920 Football Tournament rec. sport. soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved on 10 June 2006. Uruguay won the tournaments in 1924 and 1928.

Beginning of the World Cup

Eventually, FIFA made the decision to stage their own international tournament. FIFA president Jules Rimet thus set about organizing the inaugural World Cup tournament. With Uruguay now a two-time Olympic champion and due to celebrate its centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country.

The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for the European sides at the time of the Great Depression. No European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet eventually persuaded the national teams of Belgium, France, Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia to make the trip and play the tournament.Stewart, Mark. Soccer: A History of the World's Most Popular Game. New York: F. Watts, 1998. Print. In total, 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 United States, who beat Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0, respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France. Four days later, the first World Cup hat-trick was achieved by Bert Patenaude of the U.S. in the Americans' 3–0 win against Paraguay. In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo to become the first nation to win the World Cup.FIFA World Cup Origin FIFA Media Release. Retrieved on 9 January 2006.

The 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles did not include football as part of the programme. FIFA and the IOC also disagreed over the status of amateur players, and so football was dropped from the Games.The Football World Cup - An Introduction , h2g2. Retrieved on 1 March 2006.

The 1934 World Cup was hosted by Italy and was the first World Cup to include a qualification stage. Sixteen teams qualified for the tournament, a number which would be retained until the expansion of the finals tournament in 1982. Uruguay, the titleholders from 1930, still upset about the poor European attendance at their World Cup in 1930, boycotted the 1934 World Cup, the only time the defending champions didn't take part in the next tournament. Bolivia and Paraguay were also absent, allowing Argentina and Brazil to progress to the finals in Italy without having to play any qualifying matches. Egypt became the first African team to compete, but lost to Hungary in the first round. Italy won the tournament, with a 2-1 extra time win over Czechoslovakia, becoming the first European team to do so.

The 1938 World Cup competition was also held in Europe (in France), much to the consternation of many South Americans, with Uruguay and Argentina boycotting. For the first time, the title holders and the host country were given automatic qualifications. Following a play-off match against Latvia, Austria qualified for the tournament, but because of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938, Austria withdrew from the tournament, with some Austrian players being added to the German team, which was eliminated in the first round by Switzerland. Austria's place was offered to England, but they declined. This left the finals with 15 nations competing. France hosted, but for the first time the hosts did not win the competition, as Italy retained their title, beating Hungary 4-2 in the final. Polish striker Ernest Willimowski became the first player to score four goals in a World Cup game during Poland's 6–5 loss against Brazil; his record was later equalled by other players, but was not bettered until 56 years later in the 1994 World Cup.

Hiatus due to World War II + CountryResult Germanyrowspan=2 Brazil (resume) The FIFA World Cup was planned to take place in 1942. Germany officially applied to host the 1942 FIFA World Cup at the 23rd FIFA Congress on 13 August 1936 in Berlin. In June 1939, Brazil also applied to host the tournament.

On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, triggering the outbreak of World War II. This fact, along with the United Kingdom and France declaring war on Nazi Germany, resulted in further plans for the 1942 FIFA World Cup to be cancelled, before a host country could be selected. During World War II, FIFA struggled to keep itself afloat, and had no financial or personnel resources to plan a peacetime tournament for when hostilities ended.Tomlinson, Alan; FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association): The Men, the Myths and the Money, p. 19

When the war ended in 1945, FIFA had no hope in planning and scheduling a 1946 World Cup in one year. FIFA's first meeting was on 1 July 1946 – around the time the 1946 FIFA World Cup would ordinarily have been played. When FIFA planned the next World Cup for 1949 no country would host the competition.Lisi, Clemente Angelo; A History of the World Cup, 1930-2010; p. 44 The only major international tournament in 1946 was the 1946 South American Championship in which Argentina beat Brazil 2–0 on 10 February 1946. Eventually, the World Cup would resume in 1950, with Brazil (who was unaffected by the war despite joining the Allies and sending an expeditionary force to Italy to fight) hosting the tournament.

Post-war years

1950s The competition resumed with the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, which was the first to include England. British teams withdrew from FIFA in 1920, partly out of unwillingness to play against the countries they had been at war with, and partly as a protest against foreign influence on football,Scotland and the 1950 World Cup, , BBC. Retrieved on 1 March 2006. but rejoined in 1946 following FIFA's invitation. England's involvement, however, was not to be a success. The English failed to make the final group round in a campaign that included a surprise 1–0 loss to the United States.It was rumoured that initial news reports, thinking that the 2–0 score was a typing error, said that England won 10–1. Historical newspapers, however, indicate that story is a myth. Cf. 1950 FIFA World Cup Brazil, US shock England and

The tournament also saw the return of 1930 champions Uruguay, who had boycotted the previous two World Cups. For political reasons, Eastern European countries (such as Hungary, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia) did not enter. Title-holder Italy did take part, despite the Superga air disaster of 1949 in which the entire Grande Torino team (many of whom were national team players) were killed. The 1950 World Cup was the only tournament not to stage a final tie, replacing knockout rounds with two group phases. The last match of the second group phase, however, is sometimes referred to as a "final", as the group standings meant the winners would be the overall winners. Uruguay were surprise victors over hosts Brazil with a final score of 2–1 (the game would later be known as Maracanazo), and became champions for the second time. This game also held the record for the highest attendance at any sporting match, at roughly 200,000.