Follow up: Ahmed Ezzat
The International Football Association (FIFA) announced that the opening match of the World Cup “Qatar 2022” will be between the Dutch mills team and the Senegalese Teranga lions, which means that the owner of the land, “the Qatar national team” facing his counterpart Ecuador, will not be a party to facing the opening of the World Cup for the first time. Since the 2006 World Cup.
The opening match was always the party of the organizing country, but the confrontation of Senegal and the Netherlands in the first matches of the 2022 World Cup came to stop the series of contests of the host country for the opening, which has continued since 2006, but was the host country a party to the opening match since the launch of the first edition of the World Cup?
The answer: No, because the idea of the host playing the opening match began in 2006 only, as Germany played Costa Rica (4-2) at the opening of the 2006 World Cup, then South Africa played with Mexico (1-1) the opening match of the 2010 World Cup, and then Brazil played With Croatia (3-1) the opening match of the 2014 World Cup, and Russia played Saudi Arabia (5-0) the first match in the World Cup when it hosted it in 2018.
As for what was happening previously in the World Cup between 1974 and 2002, it was that the defending champion was a party to the opening, and following canceling the automatic qualification for the champion of the competition for the next edition, it was natural to cancel the rule of participation of the defending champion in the opening match.
When the first edition of the World Cup was launched in 1930, which was hosted by Uruguay, two matches were played at the same time on the opening day. Uruguay did not include the host country, as France played with Mexico (4-1), and the USA played with Belgium (3-0).
In the World Cup “Italy 1934”, eight matches were played on the first day, including a meeting of the host country Italy with the United States of America (7-1), while the “France 1938” championship started with a match that brought together the teams of Switzerland and Germany (1-1), meaning that it did not witness The presence of France as the host country or Italy, the holder of the title.
The “Brazil 1950” version began with a match for the host country, Brazil with Mexico (4-0), while 4 matches were played at the start of the “Switzerland 1954” version, one of which included the defending champion Uruguay with Czechoslovakia (2-0), and in the World Cup “Sweden 1958” the country fought Hosts Sweden, the opening meeting with Mexico (3-0).
In the 1962 Chilean Championship, 4 matches were played in the opening, one of which was played by the host country Chile with Switzerland (3-1), including a match for the defending champion, Brazil, with Mexico (2-0).
As for the “England 1966” championship, it started with the opening match of the host England with Uruguay (0-0), as well as the “Mexico 1970” championship, which started with a meeting of the host Mexico with the Soviet Union (0-0).
The World Cup “West Germany 1974” began with a confrontation with the defending champion, Brazil, with Yugoslavia (0-0), and the “Argentina 1978” championship began with a meeting that brought together the defending champion Germany with Poland (0-0).
In the “Spain 1982” championship, the defending champion Argentina met with Mexico and lost 0-1, and in the “Mexico 1986” World Cup, the defending champion Italy met with Bulgaria (1-1) in the opening match.
In the World Cup “Italy 1990”, the defending Argentina team met with Cameroon and lost 0-1, while in the World Cup “America 1994”, the defending champion Germany met with Bolivia (1-0).
In the World Cup “France 1998”, two matches were held on the opening day, the first of which was the confrontation of the defending champion Brazil with Scotland (2-1), and in the World Cup “Korea and Japan 2002”, the defending France team met with Senegal and suffered a shocking loss 0-1.
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