“Italy had wanted to host World Cup 1930, and refused to participate when it was instead awarded to Uruguay. So when Italy were granted the right to host World Cup 1934, Uruguay pulled the same trick and didn’t travel to Europe. Leaving aside the politics of it all, in a way you can’t blame them. This 16-team tournament was contested as a straight knockout competition, meaning Brazil and Argentina made extraordinarily long journeys by sea, only to play a single game in Italy. Uruguay’s victory four years earlier was heavily dependent upon home advantage, but Italy took that home advantage to a completely different level. They replicated Uruguay’s intense training camp in the period leading up to the tournament, but more significantly, this World Cup was blatantly used by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as propaganda tool, and coach Vittorio Pozzo later claimed that ‘Il Duce’ had personally asked him to select only Fascist Party members for Italy’s squad, although the players claimed they were only really interested in football and had little choice but to ‘support’ the nationalistic cause. …”
NY Times/The Athletic – Michael Cox
The Italian team performing a fascist salute at the 1934 World Cup
How Italy won the 1934 World Cup: A solid defence, the class of Giuseppe Meazza and help from the officials
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“Kevin Day is talking about trophy cabinets and silver allergies. ‘We’ve only got two FA Cup finals to our name,’ the writer, comedian and lifelong Crystal Palace fan says. ‘That’s one of the things about Steve Parish insisting we were founded in 1861 and not 1905 — it just adds another 44 years to the amount of time we haven’t won anything.’ Parish, the Palace chairman, likes his history, and opportunity knocks right now for his club to create some. Palace are one of the four out of this weekend’s FA Cup quarter-finalists who have never won a major trophy — Fulham, Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth are the others — opening the door to the possibility of a first-time winner and a 45th different name being engraved on one of football’s most famous pieces of silverware. …”
Scissors Kick 