Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

was one of the tournaments at the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the IX Olympiad (), was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from 28 July to 12 August 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The city of Amsterdam had previously bid for ...

. It was won by

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, and was the last Olympic football tournament before the inception of the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

, which was held for the first time in 1930. This edition, along with the preceding 1924 edition, were the only tournaments in history outside of the World Cup that count as Senior World Titles equivalent to the World Cup.

Venues

Background

Until 1928, the Olympic football tournament had represented the World Championship of football (the 1920 (14), 1924 (22) and 1928 tournaments (17) all had greater participation than that of the first World Cup in 1930). This presented a significant problem for the governing body,

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, since the tournament, though organised and run by FIFA, was an event subject to the ethical foundation that underpinned the Olympic movement. At the time, all Olympic competitors had to maintain an amateur status, whereas professionalism was dominant in football. 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 17 February 1928, the four "home" associations of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, 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".

Henri Delaunay Henri Delaunay (15 June 1883 – 9 November 1955) was a French football administrator. Biography After playing for the Paris team Étoile des Deux Lacs, Delaunay became a referee. He retired following an incident during a match between ...

, president of the

French Football Federation The French Football Federation ( FFF and 3F; or Triple F; , ) is the governing body of football in France. It was formed in 1919 and is based in the capital, Paris. The FFF is a founding member of FIFA and is responsible for overseeing all aspec ...

felt that FIFA needed to organise an international tournament outside of the Olympics. 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". The day before the tournament began, on 26 May 1928 the FIFA congress in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

presided over by

Jules Rimet Jules Rimet (; 14 October 1873 – 16 October 1956) was a French football administrator who was the 3rd President of FIFA, serving from 1921 to 1954. He is FIFA's longest-serving president, in office for 33 years. He also served as the pres ...

, 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

By 1926, three years had passed since the British Associations had asked

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 Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. 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)) Uruguay were considered to be the strongest side with the Argentinians shading the advantage between the two. Upon returning home in 1924 Uruguay had ceded to a request to play a disbelieving Argentina in a two staged contest; Argentinian fans hurling missiles at Jose Leandro Andrade to the extent that he had with adopt a position deep in-field. The Argentinians won. Uruguay, the defending Olympic champions, once again sent a side made up, predominantly, by the personnel of their two biggest clubs: Nacional and, to a lesser degree,

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (), more commonly referred to as Peñarol, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in Uruguayan football. The nam ...

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. The Italians had been defeated only twice in three years. The Italian coach, Augusto Rangone, had been 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.

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

had been defeated once since the last Olympic Games. After the first game, however, they lost their experienced captain Pedro Vallana.

Final tournament

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 1924 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad () and officially branded as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The opening ceremony was held on 5 July, but some competitions had al ...

. The game was controlled by Jean Langenus, a performance which was recognised. Meanwhile, the Argentinians had little difficulty against the United States winning 11–2. Elsewhere Germany were defeated by the Uruguayans 4–1. In another quarter-final the Italians encountered Spain. In the first game they reached a tie with the Spanish fighting back from a half time deficit to force a replay. In the replay three days later the Azzurri scored four without response before the break. Rangone kept faith in a largely unchanged team. Spain, on the other hand, had gambled by making five changes to Italy's two. Portugal, after wins over Chile (4–2) and Kingdom of SCS (2–1) lost to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

2–1. The African side advanced to a semi-final tie against

Bracket

Preliminary round

First round

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Quarter-finals

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Semifinals

This meant that in the semi-final Italy played Uruguay. The Italians selected Giampiero Combi in goal, Angelo Schiavio, in attack. Both would be crowned World champions at the

1934 FIFA World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the 2nd edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, senior men's national teams. It took place in Kin ...

. 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, Héctor Scarone scoring for the Celestes.

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Bronze medal match

Gold medal match

In the final the Uruguayans played Argentina who had trounced Egypt (clearly out of their depth against more sophisticated opposition, they conceded 6 goals to Argentina and 11 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 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 and the tie went to a replay. Uruguay's Scarone converted the winner in the second half of that game.

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Rematch

Consolation round

First round

The consolation tournament was ratified by FIFA but, as it was not organized by the Amsterdam Olympic organization, Olympic historians do not consider these matches to be part of the

. ----

Consolation final

* ''Note: The Netherlands wins after drawing of lots but the Cup was awarded to Chile''

Medalists

Goalscorers

;11 goals * Domingo Tarasconi (Argentina) ;6 goals * Manuel Ferreira (Argentina) * Adolfo Baloncieri (Italy) ;4 goals * Roberto Cherro (Argentina) * Raymond Braine (Belgium) * Ali Mohamed Riad (Egypt) * El-Tetsh (Egypt) * Richard Hofmann (Germany) * Elvio Banchero (Italy) * Virgilio Levratto (Italy) *

Mario Magnozzi Mario Magnozzi (; 20 March 1902 – 25 June 1971) was an Italian Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics with the Italy national football team, Italy natio ...

(Italy) * Angelo Schiavio (Italy) * José Maria Yermo (Spain) * Pedro Petrone (Uruguay) ;3 goals *

Raimundo Orsi Raimundo Bibiani "Mumo" Orsi (2 December 1901 – 6 April 1986) was an Italian Argentine footballer who played as a winger or as a forward. At the international level, he represented both Argentina and Italy, winning the 1927 Copa América a ...

(Argentina) * Jacques Moeschal (Belgium) * Guillermo Subiabre (Chile) * Vítor Silva (Portugal) * Héctor Scarone (Uruguay) ;2 goals * Juste Brouzes (France) * Leonardus Ghering (Netherlands) * Felix Smeets (Netherlands) * Pepe Soares (Portugal) *

Luis Regueiro Luis Regueiro Pagola ( 1 July 1908 – 6 December 1995), sometimes nicknamed ''Corso'', was a football (soccer), footballer, and an Olympian from the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country in the north of Spain who played as a Forward ...

(Spain) ;1 goal * Luis Monti (Argentina) * Florimond Vanhalme (Belgium) * Louis Versyp (Belgium) * Oscar Alfaro (Chile) * Alejandro Carbonell (Chile) * Manuel Bravo Paredes (Chile) * Guillermo Saavedra (Chile) * Moussa Hassan El-Ezam (Egypt) * Ali El-Hassany (Egypt) * Ismail El-Sayed Hooda (Egypt) * Gamil El-Zobeir (Egypt) * Robert Dauphin (France) * Josef Hornauer (Germany) * Fulvio Bernardini (Italy) * Enrico Rivolta (Italy) * Gino Rossetti (Italy) * Guillaume Schutz (Luxembourg) * Robert Theissen (Luxembourg) * Jean-Pierre Weisgerber (Luxembourg) * Juan Carreño (Mexico) * Ernesto Sota (Mexico) * Wim Tap (Netherlands) * Valdemar Mota (Portugal) * Augusto Silva (Portugal) * Martín Marculeta (Spain) * Ángel Mariscal (Spain) * Domingo Zaldúa (Spain) * Bekir Refet (Turkey) * Henry Carroll (United States) * Rudy Kuntner (United States) * Antonio Campolo (Uruguay) * Héctor Castro (Uruguay) * Pedro Cea (Uruguay) * Roberto Figueroa (Uruguay) * Santos Urdinarán (Uruguay) * Mirko Bonačić (Kingdom of SCS)

References

External links

Olympic Football Tournament Amsterdam 1928
FIFA.com

Football Tournament Amsterdam 1928
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1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

Events at the 1928 Summer Olympics

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...