1938 FIFA World Cup

• 1. Introduction

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  The 1938 FIFA World Cup brought football's global championship to France, opening on the 4th of June 1938. Eleven of the sixteen competing nations were European. One of them, Austria, never played a single game. By the 19th of June, when the tournament ended, Italy had claimed the trophy. One nation that had qualified would never set foot on the pitch. A star player refused to wear the jersey of his country's occupier. The tournament ended with a final score, but the story of that summer carried on for years.

• 2. A Continent's Protest

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  FIFA chose France as host nation on the 13th of August 1936, in a congress held in Berlin. France won the vote in the first round, ahead of both Argentina and Germany. The choice of a European venue for the second consecutive tournament brought real anger across South America. Many football associations had expected the competition to alternate between continents. Uruguay and Argentina refused to participate. The United States and Mexico entered qualifying but withdrew before the finals. Spain could not take part: the Spanish Civil War was still being fought, leaving the country with no functioning team to send.

  Argentina's situation became particularly complicated. The federation submitted a late application, which FIFA accepted. Argentina then withdrew definitively, citing a breakdown between the national federation and the local clubs. For the first time in the tournament's history, both France as host and Italy as defending champion qualified automatically. That arrangement for title holders would remain in place until 2002.

  Only one of the eight seeded nations had a reason for its absence that went beyond football disputes. Austria's story would unfold very differently from Argentina's.

• 3. The Anschluss and Its Fallout

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  Matthias Sindelar was Austria's star player. On the 15th of March 1938, Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria, known as the Anschluss, dissolved the Austrian national team. Sindelar refused to play for the combined squad. He was not included in the German lineup.

  Sweden had been drawn to face Austria in the first round. Austria's withdrawal meant Sweden progressed directly into the quarter-finals without playing. No substitute was found, and Austria's bracket position was left empty.

  The German squad that eventually took the field carried players of Austrian nationality within its ranks. How that arrangement held under pressure was about to become clear.

• 4. Germany Falls, Brazil Brawls

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  Five of the seven first-round matches required extra time to produce a result. Two still ended level and went to a replay. Germany's match against Switzerland proved the most startling of the opening round. Germany led 1-0 in the initial game, then went 2-0 up in the replay. Switzerland came back to win 4-2.

  Germany's defeat unfolded before a crowd in Paris described as hostile and bottle-throwing. Coach Sepp Herberger attributed the loss to a defeatist attitude among the five Austrian players he had brought into his squad. One German journalist remarked afterward that "Germans and Austrians prefer to play against each other even when they're in the same team." Until Germany's group-stage exit in 2018, this remained the only time their national team failed to advance past the first round.

  In Bordeaux, Brazil's match against Czechoslovakia became notorious for its violence. By the end of the first game, Czechoslovakia's Oldrich Nejedly and Frantisek Planicka had each suffered broken bones. A replay was required. Brazil won the second game 2-1. It was the last time any World Cup match was decided by a replay.

  Cuba advanced past Romania through a replay of their own. The Caribbean nation, appearing at a World Cup for the first time, reached the quarter-finals. Dutch East Indies, the territory now known as Indonesia, also entered France as a first-time participant. They became the first Asian nation ever to compete at a FIFA World Cup.

  Switzerland's victory over Germany came with a long-lasting footnote. It was the last time Switzerland advanced past the first knockout stage of a major tournament for decades. That next result came in a penalty shoot-out against France, in the round of 16 of UEFA Euro 2020.

• 5. The Final

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  Hungary defeated Sweden 5-1 in one semi-final. Brazil faced Italy in the other, without their top scorer Leonidas, who was injured. Italy won 2-1. Brazil recovered to beat Sweden 4-2 in the third-place match.

  Before the final, a rumour spread that Benito Mussolini had sent the Italian squad a threatening telegram. Its alleged words were "Vincere o morire", translated as "Win or die." Pietro Rava, a player on that squad, was asked about the claim in a 2001 interview. "No, no, no, that's not true," he said. Rava confirmed that Mussolini had sent a telegram, but said it carried only a message of goodwill.

  The final took place at the Stade Olympique de Colombes in Paris. Vittorio Pozzo's Italian side scored first. Hungary equalized within two minutes. Italy scored again shortly after and led 3-1 at half-time. Hungary never recovered. The final score was 4-2, and Italy became the first nation to successfully defend the World Cup title.

  Pozzo had also led Italy to the title in 1934. His back-to-back victories made Italy and Pozzo the only combination of national team and manager to win the World Cup more than once together.

• 6. Sixteen Years Under a Bed

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  Italy held the World Cup from 1934 to 1950, a record span of sixteen years. That stretch was not the product of continued dominance; it was the consequence of catastrophe. The 1942 and 1946 tournaments were both cancelled because of the Second World War. Italy remained champions by default until the competition resumed in 1950.

  Ottorino Barassi, an Italian and vice-president of FIFA, took personal responsibility for keeping the trophy safe during those years. He hid it in a shoe-box under his bed for the duration of the war, protecting it from occupying troops.

  Leonidas of Brazil finished as the tournament's top scorer with seven goals. In all, 84 goals were scored by 42 different players, with two own goals among them. Gyorgy Sarosi, Gyula Zsengeller, and Silvio Piola each finished on five goals, the next-highest tallies in the competition.

  Cuba and Dutch East Indies never returned to a World Cup after 1938. As of 2026, France 1938 remained their only appearance at the finals.