The 1934 World Cup
By: Taylor
The second World Cup was held in Italy, an honor the relatively young Italian fascist regime worked hard to attain. Mussolini was not the first leader to see the political usefulness of sport, Stalin had made wide use of it within the Soviet Union, but while Stalin refused to let the USSR’s athletes compete internationally, Mussolini saw international competition as a powerful nationalist propaganda tool.
The 1934 football World Cup took place between May 27 and June 10, 1934 in eight Italian cities: Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Rome, Trieste, and Turin.[1] Thirty-two teams, including the host nation who did not yet automatically qualify, entered the qualifiers.[2] Sixteen teams made it through to the actual tournament.[3]
Italy eventually won the final against Czechoslovakia with a two to one come from behind victory at the Stadio Flaminio or Fascist National Party Stadium in Rome on June 10.[4] This World Cup triumph would be but one in a string for Italy who went on to win the gold medal in football at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and become the first repeat champions in World Cup history with a victory in 1938.
The World Cup victory in 1934 has entered into the world of Italian legend, “In truth, however, very little is known about the games themselves.”[5] Without television, except for those who saw matches in person, the reality of the games was largely shaped by the media personalities and press that reported on the matches. In Italy, this largely meant a very nationalistic interpretation of the events by the Fascist controlled media.
The 1934 World Cup Poster
One of the more hard fought contests was the quarterfinal between Italy and Spain. It was one of the most physical games of the tournament and Belgian referee Louis Baert, “let many fouls go unpunished.”[6] Many argue that this officiating played to the favor of the Italians. Gianni Brera, an Italian football journalist, later wrote of the match, “the referee Baert behaved as if he was well aware where the game was taking place.”[7] The match ended in a one to one tie.
Questions of biased officiating escalated with the replay of the quarterfinal—the first replay in World Cup history—where the game winning goal by Guisseppe Meazza could have been disallowed.[8] Still, as John Foot points out, possibly legitimate claims of bias toward the host nation by officials is not something unique to the Fascists or this World Cup.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/GWCM2WwI6og" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
(Slideshow of Italian football star Guisseppe Meazza)
The semifinal between Italy and Austria took place in a downpour at San Siro stadium in Milan in front of 60,000 fans.[9] The Match against the Austrian “Wunderteam,” “had all the talent and intensity of a final.”[10] The Italians were able to muster a one to nil victory and were through to face Czechoslovakia in the final in Rome. The night before the match Mussolini himself game the Azzurri a pep talk. He urged, “If the Czechs play fair, we’ll play fair. That’s the most important thing, but if they want to play dirty, then we Italians have to play dirtier.”[11]
After seventy scoreless minutes, the Czechs went ahead with a goal from Puc off of a corner.[12] With ten minutes left to play the Italians equalized with a score by Orsi off of a pass from Guaita.[13] It wasn’t until early in overtime that the decisive goal was scored. An injured Meazze was left unmarked and was able to initiate a play that went through Guaita and then to Schiavio for the championship winning goal in the 95th minute.[14] As time expired, Vittorio Pozzo was carried off the pitch by his players.[15]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/VmTOb15xMbQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
(Clips from the 1934 World Cup Final between Italy and Czechoslovakia)
Mussolini stood and applauded his Azzurri from the stands. After the match, Mussolini’s newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia described the moment, “In the name and in the presence of the Duce, the azzurri win a new world title.”[16] This World Championship would be but the first in an unprecedented string of victories for the Italian national team under Mussolini’s Fascist rule.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Iwvurx3Ih3s" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
(Clips from Italian matches throughout the 1934 World Cup)
Check Out this photo slideshow from FIFA
Also,
Check Out this 1934 World Cup Summary
Navigation Links:
Football and Politics in Europe, 1930s-1950s
[1] Gordon, “Italy 1934: Football and Fascism,” 41.
[2] Gordon, “Italy 1934: Football and Fascism,” 41.
[3] Gordon, “Italy 1934: Football and Fascism,” 41.
[4] Gordon, “Italy 1934: Football and Fascism,” 41.
[5] Foot, Calcio: A History of Italian Football, 442.
[6] Clemente Angelo Lisi, A History of the World Cup 1930-2006 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007), 28
[7] Foot, Calcio: A History of Italian Football, 440.
[8] Foot, Calcio: A History of Italian Football, 440.
[9] Lisi, A History of the World Cup 1930-2006, 28.
[10] Lisi, A History of the World Cup 1930-2006, 28.
[11] Lisi, A History of the World Cup 1930-2006, 30.
[12] Lisi, A History of the World Cup 1930-2006, 30.
[13] Lisi, A History of the World Cup 1930-2006, 30-31.
[14] Lisi, A History of the World Cup 1930-2006, 31.
[15] Lisi, A History of the World Cup 1930-2006, 31.
[16] Gordon, “Italy 1934: Football and Fascism,” 49.
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[...] website Soccer Politics is an excellent resource it tells of how the Italians took special relish in their competitions [...]