Hamburg : After the first World Cup in Uruguay had been held with reasonable success in 1930, there was more interest for the second edition four years later in Italy.

The most obvious reason was that as the finals were to be held on the continent, European countries knew that they need not travel for weeks and pay for costly transport, as they had to four years previously.

With 31 countries having entered the competition, the world controlling body, FIFA, had to organise a qualifying tournament for the first time to whittle the number down to the 16 teams that would be participating at the finals.

Even though it was the host, Italy had to qualify, but did so quite easily. After beating Greece 4-0 in Milan, the visitors declined to play the return leg and as compensation for Greek fans who lost out, Italy bought a house for the Greek football association, said to be valued around $400,000.

The interest from South American countries was — at best — lukewarm, with Peru, Chile, Brazil and Argentina entering. Chile and Peru withdrew before the start of the qualifiers and Brazil and Argentina made it through to the finals as the continent's only representatives.

Uruguay's protest

Still feeling peeved that only four European countries had bothered to make the trip to its World Cup, the holder of the trophy, Uruguay, decided not to defend the title. Even though it gave a lack of finances as the official reason, few believed that it was anything else but an attempt to pay the Europeans back.

Also conspicuous by its absence was England, which continued to think that the World Cup was not worthy of its entry.

When the finals began, 12 European countries were joined by the two South American teams, as well as the United States (which had knocked out Mexico, the only time it has ever managed to do that in the World Cup qualifying campaign) and Egypt (which beat Palestine).

Unluckily for the non-European teams, FIFA had decided to stage the competition purely as a knockout tournament and after travelling thousands of kilometres to be there, all four were homeward bound much faster than they would have liked, having been knocked out in the first round. In the first round, the host, coached by Vittorio Pozzo, had no problems overcoming USA which it beat 7-1, with Angelo Schiavio scoring a hat-trick.

In the quarterfinals, the Italians faced a gallant Spanish side, which had ousted Brazil in the first round. The first game could not separate the two teams, but Italy won the replay 1-0 in a match in which Swiss referee Rene Mercet is said to have openly favoured the host.

In the semifinals, Italy ousted the so-called Austrian `Dream Team' to qualify for a final against Czechoslovakia, which beat Germany.

In the championship match, Italy had more trouble than expected and only another Schiavio goal in extra time gave the host a 2-1 victory and brought an end to a tournament for which even it had to qualify.

The fact that for the first, and to date only time, the host had to qualify for the finals and the holder refused to defend its title is not the only reason why the World Cup in 1934 has a special place in history.

Playing for Italy in the final was one Luis Monti, who was born in Buenos Aires, won four league championships with Huracan and San Lorenzo before moving to Juventus and adding another four league titles to his credits.

What has earned the centre-half a special place in the record books is that his appearance for Italy in the final was the second time that he played in a World Cup final, having been on the losing Argentinean side four years earlier.

Monti is the only player to have played for two different countries in a World Cup final. — DPA

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