With the new updates, I have decided that I will open all articles about the 1934 World Cup. I will, in addition, move some other articles from the personal archive to the site.

I will give my opinion on the II. World Cup and why I consider this tournament to be the worst ever held between top-level national teams.

WEAK LEVEL

To begin with, the tournament did not have the main forces of world football and other great teams — England, Scotland and Uruguay. AFA, moreover, sent an amateur team to the tournament.

Another great center of world football, Central Europe, were not doing well in the tournament.

Austria was a long way from its great performances, in addition to having a low individual quality of its main players. Josef Bican had a very poor World Cup, Anton Schall was far from possessing his shooting qualities, Walter Nausch was injured before the tournament started, Fritz Gschweidl was injured, Adolf Vogl was injured and their main player, Matthias Sindelar, was very far from demonstrating a football consistent with that of previous seasons.

Czechoslovakia started the tournament very badly, with irregularities and always being saved by the brilliant performances of František Plánička and Ladislav Ženíšek, mainly Plánička. They, however, improved as the tournament progressed.

Hungary lost Sárosi, considered by many to be the best centre-forward of that moment, due to, of course, Húsvéti Torna 1934. When he returned in the second round, Sárosi was far from his regular form. Gyula Lázár was injured in the match against Egypt, therefore missed the next round.

BATTLES

There were no great football seen during the tournament. The II. The World Cup showed a game of football level well below expectations, with weak performances by the teams, far from having technical quality. What happened frequently were real battles, fights between players and a rougher game. Many players were injured during the tournament.

The two matches between Italy-Spain, Italy-Austria, Austria-Hungary, especially in the second half, Italy-Czechoslovakia are true examples of violence within the four lines. The tournament was far from being a public spectacle.

REFEREEING

In general, the tournament is still known for scandals, mainly scandals carried out in the matches which Italy played. In other matches, it is worth mentioning that the refereeing was so poor that both sides complained firmly about the decisions applied. Offsides wrongly — and strangely — marked, René Mercet was struck off, penalties and expulsions wrongly applied. On the other hand, players like Luis Monti, for example, could have been sent off more than once in more than one match. Even right after the tournament final, the Swedish referee Ivan Eklind commented that he should have sent off Monti, etc.

It is exactly as Raimundo Orsi commented decades after the II. World Cup: the referees were afraid of the tournament, afraid of any retaliation if they didn't favor Italy. That's exactly what happened, Italy was largely helped. I, however, must point out that, as much as the refereeing was clearly on the Italian side, Italy was considered widely — and by the main press of other countries — as the best team of the tournament.

In conclusion, this tournament is, in my opinion, the most ridiculous tournament ever organized. And it shouldn't be taken seriously as high-level competition or anything considerable honorable to have in your story.