1950 World Cup Brazil

This was the only World cup which never had a single final match.  To mark the 25th anniversary of Rimet's presidency of FIFA the cup itself was called the Jules Rimet Cup,

After a break caused by World War II FIFA struggled to find a host until Brazil presented the only bid to host the event.  The group stages of the tournament took a unusual form, with some groups containing two, three, or four teams.  Some nations qualified for the tournament and then withdrew. India withdrew after qualification because their team was not allowed to play barefoot.  Germany and Japan, still under occupation, were not permitted to take part.  The British nations were able to take part, having rejoined FIFA four years earlier, after 17 years of self-imposed exile.  The 1949-1950 British Home Championship was used as a qualifying group. Turkey also withdrew.

England were one of the favourites but went out in a shock 1-0 defeat by the USA  The Final Pool took the form of a final group stage, involving all group stage winners.  The overall winner of the World Cup being the team that managed to finish on top of this group.

Brazil were top scorers including 7-0 win over Sweden and 6-1 victory over Spain.  The decisive match was Brazil against Uruguay for which Brazil were favourites but Uruguay came from behind to win the trophy for the second time.

The average attendance of nearly 61,000 per game set a record that would not be broken until 1994.

Top Scorers

9 goals - Ademir (Brazil)

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