Football at the 1924 Summer Olympics

At the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris, Uruguay dominated the Football (soccer) tournament winning the Gold.

Background

The Uruguayans had comfortably won the South American Championship by maximum points in the December of the previous year to qualify for the tournament as their continent's sole participants; defeating bitter rivals Argentina 2-0 in the final game in which Pedro Petrone scoring half way through the first half. Both finalists from the previous Games would be present; Belgium being afforded a by into the first round, and the Czechs drawn against Turkey in the Preliminary Round.

In Association Football (1960), Bernard Joy writing about the 1912 Games said that the authorities in Sweden "had debated for a long time whether to include football ... because its popularity was not yet world wide". Twelve years later, in Paris, football had become so important to the Games that a 1/3 of the income generated came from football. In Paris Uruguay would be joined by as many as 18 European teams; the Americans, Turks and Egyptians making up the numbers.

Given the lack of knowledge of the American participants, the Italians and the Hungarians had been considered favourites but both had suffered a difficult season. Italy, having remained unbeaten since 1922 now found themselves beaten 4-0 by the Austrians (who would be absent from the Games) and 7-1 by Hungary with six weeks to go before the Games [1]. Other than dropping Giampiero Combi, Vittorio Pozzo would not make major changes; Italy would not prevail [2]. Rather than players Yugoslavia, having just sacked their manager Dr Veljko Ugrinic (following a wiping by the Austrians) would find his replacement Todor Sekulic just as hapless.

The Hungarians had just come off a good run of results in the previous year, but had been beaten, convincingly, by the Swiss in the days leading up to the Games; Max Abegglen, who had only been playing international football for two years, scoring his 7th international goal that day for the Swiss [3]. He and they would become quite feature of the Games. The Swiss, ironically, very nearly missed the Games due to a lack of finances. The team's train ticket was valid for only 10 days and their money had run out. An appeal by a newspaper, Sport, brought in the needed funds [4].

Entering for the second time Egypt would cause a shocking defeat in their opening game; their true worth exposed not only by the drubbing that eventually signalled their exit but by the comprehensive defeats they experienced on a short European tour after the Games [5]. Warm-up matches lay far into the future.

Tournament

The Games competition was assisted by a Preliminary Round which featured the silver medallists from the 1920 Games, Spain. Since that time they had only lost by a single goal to away to Belgium and had drawn 0-0 with the Italians in March 1924 [6]. There was hardly anything between the two sides when they did met at the Colombes Stadium this time; Pedro Vallana's own goal handing victory to Italy.

Otherwise there were wildly lopsided results in the opening round. Hungary put five past Poland, the Swiss sent poor Lithuania on their way, 9-0, and the Uruguayans sailed past Yugoslavia by seven clear goals. France and Holland were similarly dominant in the next round but that was put into perspective when Uruguay beat France 5-1 to claim a semi-final place.

The Gold Medal

In the second semi-final between Uruguay and the Netherlands the game was decided on the decision of Vallat, the French referee, to award a penalty to the South Americans in the second half. Hector Scarone converted the kick, but the Dutch complained bitterly about the decision, enough to force FIFA to intervene in the choice of referee for the Gold medal match; the Uruguayans complained about the appointment of Johannes Mutters prior to the game; the argument being that a Dutchman may decide against them.

Accordingly, the organisers drew from a hat filled with 'possibles', and the Frenchman Marcel Slawick was pulled out and oversaw proceedings in which two goals in the second period put paid to Swiss aspirations, Uruguay eventually prevailing 3-0. Interest in the final was immense; 60,000 watched and 10,000 were locked out.

Trivia

• Sweden, surprisingly, won Bronze. Their 8-1 defeat of the reigning champions, Belgium, in the opening round is still considered the biggest upset in World football by criteria laid down by ELO. [7]
• Some of the games took place at the Vélodrome de Vincennes.
• The lap of honour (or previously called "Olympic turn"), the celebration ritual that any proclaimed champion team do when winning a tournament, was invented by Uruguay team after winning this Olympic title, to salute the attendance by running all around the athletics field.
• Uruguay's Pedro Petrone was two days shy of his 19th birthday when he accepted his gold medal; still the youngest football gold-medallist in the history of the Games.

Men's tournament event

Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
Uruguay José Leandro Andrade Pedro Arispe Pedro Casella Pedro Cea Luis Chiappara Pedro Etchegoyen Alfredo Ghierra Andrés Mazali José Nasazzi José Naya Pedro Petrone Ángel Romano Zoilo Saldombide Héctor Scarone Pascual Somma Humberto Tomassina Antonio Urdinarán Santos Urdinarán Fermín Uriarte José Vidal Alfredo J. Zibechi Pedro Zignone	Switzerland Max Abegglen Félix Bédouret Charles Bouvier Walter Dietrich Karl Ehrenbolger Paul Fässler Gustav Gottenkieny Jean Haag Marcel Katz Edmond Kramer Adolphe Mengotti August Oberhauser Robert Pache Aron Pollitz Hans Pulver Rudolf Ramseyer Adolphe Reymond Louis Richard Teo Schär Paul Schmiedlin Paul Sturzenegger Walter Weiler	Sweden Axel Alfredsson Charles Brommesson Gustaf Carlson Albin Dahl Sven Friberg Karl Gustafsson Fritjof Hillén Konrad Hirsch Gunnar Holmberg Per Kaufeldt Tore Keller Rudolf Kock Sigfrid Lindberg Vigor Lindberg Sven Lindqvist Evert Lundqvist Sten Mellgren Gunnar Olsson Sven Rydell Harry Sundberg Thorsten Svensson Robert Zander

External links

• Photo from match between Spain and Italy
• RSSSF Archive