Football at the 1928 Summer Olympics

Football at the 1928 Summer Olympics tournament, won with difficulty by Uruguay from their bitter rivals Argentina, would be the precursor to the first FIFA World Cup held in 1930 in Uruguay.

Medalists

Background

The 1928 Olympic football tournament was, perhaps, the single most important football tournament in the history of the game, the significance of which should never be underestimated. 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'. [http://www.fifa.com/en/development/technical/index/0,1250,7758,00.html?articleid=7758]

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.

Participation

*Main|Football at the 1928 Summer Olympics - Men's team squads

Rome (1926) was the setting for one of those, now ignored meetings of the football chiefs that would have far-reaching implications. Three years had passed since the British Associations had asked FIFA to accept their definition of what an amateur player was; FIFA had refused. The Rome Convention was called to try to coax the British and Danes back into the fold; it proved only to distance them.

Switzerland, a nation that favoured broken time payments suggested: "It is not allowed to pay compensation for broken time, except in some well-circumscribed cases, to be fixed by each National Association". This challenge to the centralised authority of FIFA was disputed by the Football Association. In 1927 FIFA asked the Olympic committee to accept the concept of broken time payments as an overriding condition for the competing members. The British Associations consequently withdrew from the Olympiad and a few months later withdrew from FIFA ("Association Football" (1960))

It is quite clear that not only had professionalism advanced throughout the world; but so too were national sides benefiting from a situation whereby groups of the best players could be selected "en masse", paid for their representation and still participate in the Olympics. It was a concept of great distaste to the British. There was little question as to who were the favourites going into the tournament. Uruguay were rightly considered to be the strongest side with the Argentinians shading the advantage between the two. The shock of their previous victory had been felt at home and abroad. Upon returning home in 1924 they had ceded to a request to play a disbelieving Argentina in what transpired to be a bruising two staged contest; Argentinian fans hurling missiles at Jose Leandro Andrade to the extent that he had with adopt a position deep in-field. Scornfully, the Argentinians won [http://www.fourfourtwo.premiumtv.co.uk/page/BigRead/0,,11442~1034860,00.html] .

However, Uruguay, the defending Olympic champions, once again sent a formidable side made up, predominantly, by the personnel of their two biggest clubs: Peñarol and Nacional. This time Argentina would be holding onto their coat-tails.

The Europeans

The competition was more competitive than the 1924 edition. Ten European nations (17 in all) had made the journey to the Netherlands for the competition, but few had any real pretentions to the title; the Italians had, however, come into impressive form defeated only twice in three years. The Italian coach, Augusto Rangone, had been fortunate; a beneficiary of the national federation's decision in 1923 to permit subsidies to cover player's lost wages. For two years his forward line had remained comparatively the same: Adolfo Baloncieri, Virgilio Levratto; even the loss of the Argentinian-Italian Julio Libonatti before the tournament was made good by the inclusion of Angelo Schiavio. Their semi-final with Uruguay should rightly rank as one of the key matches in football history.

Spain were, potentially, much to be feared. Defeated once since the last Olympic Games tournament their traditional tournament nerves would handicap them here, a key note that would strike throughout the coming years. The unavoidable loss of their experienced captain Pedro Vallana after their first game, though, would cost them dearly.

The Tournament

Perhaps the first round draw favoured the South Americans. Uruguay immediately dispatched the hosts, the Netherlands, 2-0 in front of 40,000 people with none of the controversy that had surrounded their previous encounter at the 1924 Summer Olympics. The game was calmly controlled by Jean Langenus, a performance which was recognised. Meanwhile the Argentinians had little difficulty against the United States winning 11-2.

Elsewhere Germany had performed strongly but in the quarter-final Germany were put to the sword by the Uruguayans who beat them 4-1. In another quarter-final the Italians 'enjoyed' another of their close encounters with Spain. In the first game they reached a curious tie with the Spanish fighting back from a half time deficit to force a replay. In the replay three days later the Azzurri simply over-ran their opponents scoring 4 without response before the break. Virgilio Levratto's brace confirmed their superiority; once again Rangone kept faith in a largely unchanged team. Spain, on the other hand, had gambled by making five changes to Italy's two. Clearly less was more.

Portugal, after convincing wins over Chile (4-2) and, the wildly inconsistent Yugoslavia (2-1) [http://rsssf.com/tablesj/joeg-intres20.html] lost, dysmally, to Egypt 2-1; the African side repeating their customary Olympic shock to advance to a semi-final tie against Argentina. Egypt's 3-0 defeat of Hungary in 1924 would continue to sustain them well into the 1930s; a reason, if one were needed, for their entry into the 1934 FIFA World Cup.

Preliminary round

footballbox
date = May 27, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|POR
score = 4–2
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32316/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|CHI
goals1 = Vitor Silva goal|38
Pepe goal|40 goal|50
Valdemar Mota goal|63
goals2 = Saavedra goal|14
Carbonell goal|30
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Youssuf Mohamed (EGY)
Attendance: 2.309

First round

footballbox
date = May 27, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|BEL
score = 5–3
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32315/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|LUX
goals1 = R. Braine goal|9 goal|72
Versijp goal|20
Moeschal goal|23 goal|67
goals2 = Schutz goal|31
Weisgerber goal|42
Theissen goal|44
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Lorenzo Martinez (ARG)
Attendance: 5.834----footballbox
date = May 28, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|GER
score = 4–0
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32317/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|SUI
goals1 = Hofmann goal|17 goal|75 goal|85
Hornauer goal|42
goals2 =
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Willem Eymers (NED)
Attendance: 16.158----footballbox
date = May 28, 1928
13:00
team1 = fb-rt|EGY|1922
score = 7–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32318/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|TUR
goals1 = El-Hassany goal|20|p.k.
Riad goal|27
Mokhtar goal|46 goal|50 goal|63
El-Sayed Hooda goal|53
El-Zobeir goal|86
goals2 = Refet goal|71
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Marcel Slawik (FRA)
Attendance: 2.744----footballbox
date = May 29, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|ITA|old
score = 4–3
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32319/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|FRA
goals1 = Rosetti goal|19
Levratto goal|39
Banchero goal|43
Baloncieri goal|60
goals2 = Brouzes goal|15 goal|17
Dauphin goal|61
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Henri Christophe (BEL)
Attendance: 2.509----footballbox
date = May 29, 1928
13:00
team1 = fb-rt|POR
score = 2–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32320/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|YUG|kingdom
goals1 = Vitor Silva goal|25
Augusto Silva goal|90
goals2 = Bonačić goal|40
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Alfred Birlem (GER)
Attendance: 1.226----footballbox
date = May 30, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|ESP|1785
score = 7–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32321/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|MEX|1917
goals1 = Regueiro goal|13 goal|27
Yermo goal|43 goal|63 goal|85
Calcotas goal|66
Mariscal goal|70
goals2 = Carreño goal|76
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Gabor Boronkay (HUN)
Attendance: 2.344----footballbox
date = May 30, 1928
13:00
team1 = fb-rt|NED
score = 0–2
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32322/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|URU
goals1 =
goals2 = Scarone goal|20
Urdinarán goal|86
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Jan Langenus (BEL)
Attendance: 27.730----footballbox
date = May 30, 1928
14:00
team1 = fb-rt|ARG|alt
score = 11–2
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32323/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|USA
goals1 = Ferreira goal|9 goal|29
Tarasconi goal|24 goal|63 goal|66 goal|89
Orsi goal|41 goal|73
Cherro goal|47 goal|49 goal|57
goals2 = Kuntner goal|55
Caroll goal|75
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Paul Ruoff (SUI)
Attendance: 3.848

Quarter-finals

footballbox
date = June 1, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|ITA|old
score = 1–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32324/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|ESP|1785
goals1 = Baloncieri goal|63
goals2 = Zaldua goal|11
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Domingo Lombardi (URU)
Attendance: 3.388

footballbox
date = June 4, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|ITA|old
score = 7–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32328/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|ESP|1785
goals1 = Magnozzi goal|14
Schiavo goal|15
Baloncieri goal|18
Bernardini goal|40
Rivolta goal|72
Levratto goal|76 goal|77
goals2 = Yermo goal|47
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: H. S. Boekman (NED)
Attendance: 4.770----footballbox
date = June 2, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|ARG|alt
score = 6–3
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32325/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|BEL
goals1 = Tarasconi goal|1 goal|10 goal|75 goal|89
Ferreira goal|4
Orsi goal|81
goals2 = R. Braine goal|24
Vanhalme goal|28
Moeschal goal|53
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Gamma Malcher (ITA)
Attendance: 16.399----footballbox
date = June 3, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|EGY|1922
score = 2–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32326/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|POR
goals1 = Mokhtar goal|15
Riad goal|48
goals2 = Vitor Silva goal|76
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Giovanni Mauro (ITA)
Attendance: 3.448----footballbox
date = June 3, 1928
13:00
team1 = fb-rt|URU
score = 4–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32327/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|GER
goals1 = Petrone goal|35 goal|39 goal|84
Castro goal|63
goals2 = Hofmann goal|81
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Youssuf Mohamed (EGY)
Attendance: 25.131

emi-finals

This meant that in the semi-final Italy played Uruguay. In retrospect this proved to be an intriguing match-up; a game that presaged what may have happened if the Uruguayans had sought to defend their World title in the 1934 FIFA World Cup. The Italians selected Giampiero Combi in goal, Angelo Schiavio, in attack. Both would be crowned World champions at the 1934 FIFA World Cup. In this game the Uruguayans stormed to a convincing lead by the break; Levratto's goal in the second half flattered the Italians because Uruguay ran out comfortable winners by the odd goal in 5; José Pedro Cea, Hector Scarone scoring for the Celestes.

footballbox
date = June 6, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|ARG|alt
score = 6–0
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32331/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|EGY|1922
goals1 = Cherro goal|10
Ferreira goal|32 goal|82
Tarasconi goal|37 goal|54 goal|61
goals2 =
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Pedro Escartín (ESP)
Attendance: 7.887----footballbox
date = June 7, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|URU
score = 3–2
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32332/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|ITA|old
goals1 = Cea goal|17
Campolo goal|28
Scarone goal|31
goals2 = Baloncieri goal|9
Levratto goal|60
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Willem Eymers (NED)
Attendance: 15.230

Bronze medal match

footballbox
date = June 10, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|ITA|old
score = 11–3
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32334/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|EGY|1922
goals1 = Schiavo goal|6 goal|42 goal|58
Baloncieri goal|14 goal|52
Banchero goal|19 goal|39 goal|44
Magnozzi goal|72 goal|80 goal|88
goals2 = Riad goal|12 goal|16
El-Ezam goal|60
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Jan Langenus (BEL)
Attendance: 6.378

Gold medal match

In the final the Uruguayans played Argentina who had trounced Egypt who would now fold like a house of cards; clearly out of their depth against more sophisticated opposition, conceding 6 goals to Argentina and as many as eleven to Italy in the Bronze medal match.

The final itself was a close - run affair. Both nations had been undefeated in competitive matches against other nations but had traded losses to each other since the last Olympic competition. The interest, understandably, was immense. The Dutch had received 250,000 requests for tickets from all over Europe.

Once again, there was little in it; the first game finished 1-1. The tie went to a replay. Uruguay's Scarone converted the winner in the second half of that game. It seemed only fair and fitting that on May 18, 1929, the Barcelona congress voted that Uruguay be the first nation to host a World Cup.

footballbox
date = June 10, 1928
13:00
team1 = fb-rt|URU
score = 1–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32335/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|ARG|alt
goals1 = Petrone goal|23
goals2 = Ferreira goal|50
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Johannes Mutters (NED)
Attendance: 28.253----footballbox
date = June 13, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|URU
score = 2–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32336/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|ARG|alt
goals1 = Figueroa goal|17
Scarone goal|73
goals2 = Monti goal|28
stadium = Amsterdam
Referee: Johannes Mutters (NED)
Attendance: 28.113

Consolation first round

footballbox
date = June 5, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|NED
score = 3–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32329/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|BEL
goals1 = Ghering goal|4
Smeets goal|6
Tap goal|63
goals2 = P. Braine goal|85
stadium = Rotterdam
Referee: Gamma Malcher (ITA)
Attendance: 20.000----footballbox
date = June 5, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|CHI
score = 3–1
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32330/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|MEX|1917
goals1 = Subiabre goal|24 goal|48 goal|89
goals2 = Sota goal|15
stadium = Arnhem
Referee: Johannes Mutters (NED)
Attendance: 5.000

Consolation final

footballbox
date = June 8, 1928
12:00
team1 = fb-rt|NED
score = 2–2
report = [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/matches/match=32333/report.html Report]
team2 = fb|CHI
goals1 = Ghering goal|59
Smeets goal|66
goals2 = Bravo goal|55
Alfaro goal|89
stadium = Rotterdam
Referee: G. Comorera (ESP)
Attendance: 18.000

Bracket

Round16
30 May - Amsterdam| fb|URU |2| fb|NED |0
28 May - Amsterdam| fb|GER|Weimar |4| fb|SUI |0
29 May - Amsterdam| fb|ITA|old |4| fb|FRA |3
30 May - Amsterdam| fb|ESP|1785 |7| fb|MEX|1917 |1
28 May - Amsterdam| fb|EGY|1922 |7| fb|TUR |1
29 May - Amsterdam| fb|POR |2| fb|YUG|kingdom |1
27 May - Amsterdam| fb|BEL |5| fb|LUX |3
30 May - Amsterdam| fb|ARG|alt |11| fb|USA|1912 |2
3 June - Amsterdam| fb|URU |4| fb|GER|Weimar |1
1 and 4 June - Amsterdam| fb|ITA|old (Rematch)|1 (7)| fb|ESP|1785 |1 (1)
3 June - Amsterdam| fb|EGY|1922 |2| fb|POR|1
2 June - Amsterdam| fb|ARG|alt |6| fb|BEL|3
7 June - Amsterdam| fb|URU |3| fb|ITA|old|2
6 June - Amsterdam| fb|ARG|alt |6| fb|EGY|1922 |0
10 and 13 June - Amsterdam| fb|URU (Rematch)|1 (2)| fb|ARG|alt |1 (1)
10 June - Amsterdam| fb|ITA|old |11| fb|EGY|1922 |3
widescore=yes

References

* [http://www.rsssf.com/tableso/ol1928f.html RSSSF Archive]
* [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=512/edition=197029/overview.html FIFA Archive]