Background
Up to 1928 the Olympic football tournament had represented the World Championship of football; (and understandably so: the 1920 (14), 1924 (22) and 1928 tournaments (17) all had greater participation than that of the first World Cup in 1930). Yet this presented a significant problem for the governing body, FIFA, since the tournament, though organised and run by FIFA, was an event subject to the ethical foundation that underpinned the Olympic movement.
That all Olympic competitors had to maintain an amateur status had, for a length of time, been a constraint that football was unable to uphold. 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. On February 17, 1928 the four 'home' associations of the United Kingdom, meeting in Sheffield voted unanimously to withdraw from FIFA in opposition to the manner in which the governing body was seeking to dictate on such matters and, as was noted 'that (the four Associations) be free to conduct their affairs in the way their long experience has shown them to be desirable'.
For Henri Delaunay, President of the French Football Federation the writing was on the wall; FIFA must wait no longer to put into practice an international tournament, freed from ideological shackles. In 1926 he stated, at the FIFA Conference: 'Today international football can no longer be held within the confines of the Olympics; and many countries where professionalism is now recognised and organised cannot any longer be represented there by their best players'. (Glanville. Brian, p. 15, The Story of the World Cup, Faber and Faber, London. 2005). The day before the tournament began, on May 26, 1928 (Portugal played Chile; Belgium played Luxembourg in the opening games) the FIFA congress in Amsterdam presided over by Jules Rimet, voted that a new FIFA World Cup tournament be organised in 1930 and be open to all member nations. Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Uruguay would all lodge applications to host the event.
Read more about this topic: Football At The 1928 Summer Olympics
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