Football was one of the attractions of the second edition of the modern Olympic Games, disputed in 1900 at Paris. Football was one amidst a slew of new events of dubious Olympic status at these games, and didn't even distribute any medals. At the opening match, an English amateur team, Upton Park F.C., beat a French combination (representing the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques) by 4x0, and three days later, the hosts beat a team comprised of students of the University of Leuven by 6x2. And, to the surprise of the organizers, both matches attracted a few thousand fans. That sort of attendance success impressed the French and their Burgundian neighbours, who decided to create a institution to organize tournaments among European teams. However, it was necessary to obtain the adhesion of the English, who, along with the Scottish, virtually dominated football at the time. their national federation, the FA, existed since 1863 and they both also set the rules of the game through the International Board, which had been constituted in 1886, but the English rejected the idea, not seeing any advantages on forming a continental federation.
In spite of that, FIFA was founded in 21 May 1904. Representatives from France, Burgundy, Denmark, Scotland, Castille, Sweden, Provence and the Swabian Football Association (Schwäbischer Fußballverband), met at Paris and elected the French journalist Robert Guérin as the entity's first chairman. One of the first issues to be tackled was membership - while some thought of using the same scheme as the Olympics, which normally counted only sovereign states, the presence of the Swabians complicated things, as in spite of Swabia being nominally part of Imperial territory, the SFV had been one of the three regional federations (along with the Austrian and Pomeranian federations) that refused to join the RFB (Reichs Fußball-Bund) upon its founding in 1900. After some debate, it was decided to allow the Swabians to join, which opened a precedent for membership of non-sovereign national teams that would eventually be refined later.
Soon after, the RFB, along with Hungary and the Austrian federation, joined and in the following year, to general joy, England joined, followed by its "home teams", Wales and Ireland, and from 1912, FIFA was tasked with organizing the Olympic football tournament. The English had no difficulties in winning the gold medal in 1908 and 1912, but that winning streak came to an end in 1916, when they were beaten by Burgundy in the first round. But the tournament would continue surprising, as Uruguay, which had been the only American team to travel to Frankfurt, showed there was quality football to be had in the New World, taking out the hosts in the semifinals and winning the gold medal in the final against Bohemia with a agile and skilled style.
By then, it was becoming clear that the Olympic tournament was becoming the premier international football tournament, and that presented a significant problem for FIFA, since the tournament, though organised and run by FIFA, was an event subject to the ethical foundation that underpinned the Olympic movement. At the time, all Olympic competitors had to maintain an amateur status, but it was obvious that many of these "amateurs" weren't that amateur anymore - football was already attracting crowds willing to pay to see their teams in action, and to form competitive teams, it was necessary to count with better players, with financial compensation being a major incentive. Increasingly, FIFA had sought to appease those nations that required concessions in order that players could participate in the Olympics. This required there to be an acceptance that irregular payment could be made to players by national associations: the so-called 'broken time payments' by which loss of pay and expenses would be met.
Meanwhile, the Olympic definitions about participating nations meant that a number of FIFA members, such as the Spanish nations, Austria and Swabia, couldn't participate in the Olympic tournament. Amidst all that, the idea of a separate football tournament open for amateurs and professionals began gaining strength, and would only grow stronger after the election of Jules Rimet as chairman in 1919.
With 22 entrants, the 1920 Olympic football tournament was the best attended up to that point, but there were three notable absentees: England and Denmark, the 1908 and 1912 finalists, both eliminated in the first round in 1916, and Scotland, the 1916 bronze medalist. The Britons were unhappy about the amateur definitions as formulated by the FIFA (which essentially left the decision on who was to be considered an amateur or not to each member federation; indeed, it was an open secret that at least six countries that had signed up, Bohemia, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Uruguay, de facto fielded (semi-)professional players), and Denmark declined to enter a football team for financial reasons. By then, interest on the tournament had grown in the Americas, with Brazil, Argentina and Mexico joining the dispute, and Egypt became the first African team to participate in the tournament. In the field, the gold medal went to South America again as Argentina beat Spain, which had beaten Uruguay in the semifinals, by 3x1 in the final.
The controversy over the definition of amateurism and broken-time payments had been a source of dispute between the British associations and FIFA for the last few years, and by February, the four associations withdrew from FIFA altogether. The day before the opening match of the tournament, FIFA held its congress at Antwerp, which was also hosting the Olympiads, and voted on setting up its own open tournament, to be held in four-year intervals and beginning in 1922, with the measure passing by 23 votes in favor to 3 against and 1 abstention, and soon after, Argentina, Uruguay, Burgundy and France all lodged applications to host the upcoming event.
----
Hello and welcome to my first timeline. I was partially inspired by @NTF aka Seb 's timeline as to the idea of creating a football TL. As you might have noticed, the actual POD for this one is before the 19th century. That's because it's set in another TL that I was sketching up whose POD is in the Middle Ages. While I have a good idea of how it proceeds and how the world looks like in the present day, I've realized that my writing is unequal to the ambition of that larger TL, so, i decided to instead make a timeline of how international football, and especially the World Cup, would look like in such a world, and maybe, in the process, give some snippets of what went on.
For reference in how the world looks like geographically, see the map here.
In spite of that, FIFA was founded in 21 May 1904. Representatives from France, Burgundy, Denmark, Scotland, Castille, Sweden, Provence and the Swabian Football Association (Schwäbischer Fußballverband), met at Paris and elected the French journalist Robert Guérin as the entity's first chairman. One of the first issues to be tackled was membership - while some thought of using the same scheme as the Olympics, which normally counted only sovereign states, the presence of the Swabians complicated things, as in spite of Swabia being nominally part of Imperial territory, the SFV had been one of the three regional federations (along with the Austrian and Pomeranian federations) that refused to join the RFB (Reichs Fußball-Bund) upon its founding in 1900. After some debate, it was decided to allow the Swabians to join, which opened a precedent for membership of non-sovereign national teams that would eventually be refined later.
Soon after, the RFB, along with Hungary and the Austrian federation, joined and in the following year, to general joy, England joined, followed by its "home teams", Wales and Ireland, and from 1912, FIFA was tasked with organizing the Olympic football tournament. The English had no difficulties in winning the gold medal in 1908 and 1912, but that winning streak came to an end in 1916, when they were beaten by Burgundy in the first round. But the tournament would continue surprising, as Uruguay, which had been the only American team to travel to Frankfurt, showed there was quality football to be had in the New World, taking out the hosts in the semifinals and winning the gold medal in the final against Bohemia with a agile and skilled style.
By then, it was becoming clear that the Olympic tournament was becoming the premier international football tournament, and that presented a significant problem for FIFA, since the tournament, though organised and run by FIFA, was an event subject to the ethical foundation that underpinned the Olympic movement. At the time, all Olympic competitors had to maintain an amateur status, but it was obvious that many of these "amateurs" weren't that amateur anymore - football was already attracting crowds willing to pay to see their teams in action, and to form competitive teams, it was necessary to count with better players, with financial compensation being a major incentive. Increasingly, FIFA had sought to appease those nations that required concessions in order that players could participate in the Olympics. This required there to be an acceptance that irregular payment could be made to players by national associations: the so-called 'broken time payments' by which loss of pay and expenses would be met.
Meanwhile, the Olympic definitions about participating nations meant that a number of FIFA members, such as the Spanish nations, Austria and Swabia, couldn't participate in the Olympic tournament. Amidst all that, the idea of a separate football tournament open for amateurs and professionals began gaining strength, and would only grow stronger after the election of Jules Rimet as chairman in 1919.
With 22 entrants, the 1920 Olympic football tournament was the best attended up to that point, but there were three notable absentees: England and Denmark, the 1908 and 1912 finalists, both eliminated in the first round in 1916, and Scotland, the 1916 bronze medalist. The Britons were unhappy about the amateur definitions as formulated by the FIFA (which essentially left the decision on who was to be considered an amateur or not to each member federation; indeed, it was an open secret that at least six countries that had signed up, Bohemia, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Uruguay, de facto fielded (semi-)professional players), and Denmark declined to enter a football team for financial reasons. By then, interest on the tournament had grown in the Americas, with Brazil, Argentina and Mexico joining the dispute, and Egypt became the first African team to participate in the tournament. In the field, the gold medal went to South America again as Argentina beat Spain, which had beaten Uruguay in the semifinals, by 3x1 in the final.
The controversy over the definition of amateurism and broken-time payments had been a source of dispute between the British associations and FIFA for the last few years, and by February, the four associations withdrew from FIFA altogether. The day before the opening match of the tournament, FIFA held its congress at Antwerp, which was also hosting the Olympiads, and voted on setting up its own open tournament, to be held in four-year intervals and beginning in 1922, with the measure passing by 23 votes in favor to 3 against and 1 abstention, and soon after, Argentina, Uruguay, Burgundy and France all lodged applications to host the upcoming event.
----
Hello and welcome to my first timeline. I was partially inspired by @NTF aka Seb 's timeline as to the idea of creating a football TL. As you might have noticed, the actual POD for this one is before the 19th century. That's because it's set in another TL that I was sketching up whose POD is in the Middle Ages. While I have a good idea of how it proceeds and how the world looks like in the present day, I've realized that my writing is unequal to the ambition of that larger TL, so, i decided to instead make a timeline of how international football, and especially the World Cup, would look like in such a world, and maybe, in the process, give some snippets of what went on.
For reference in how the world looks like geographically, see the map here.
Last edited: