Editing FIFA World Cup (section)

=== Previous international competitions ===
The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in [[Glasgow]] in 1872 between [[Scotland national football team|Scotland]] and [[England national football team|England]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.englandfootballonline.com/Seas1872-00/1872-73/M0001Sco1872.html |title=England National Football Team Match No. 1 |publisher=England Football Online |access-date=19 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030314074901/http://www.englandfootballonline.com/Seas1872-00/1872-73/M0001Sco1872.html |archive-date=14 March 2003 |url-status=live}}</ref> The first international tournament for nations, the inaugural [[British Home Championship]], took place in 1884 and included games between England, Scotland, [[Wales national football team|Wales]], and [[Ireland national football team (1882–1950)|Ireland]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://int.soccerway.com/news/2007/November/22/british-pm-backs-return-of-home-nations-championship |title=British PM backs return of Home Nations championship |publisher=Agence France-Presse |access-date=16 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150619053845/http://int.soccerway.com/news/2007/November/22/british-pm-backs-return-of-home-nations-championship/ |archive-date=19 June 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> As football grew in popularity in other parts of the world at the start of the 20th century, it was held as a [[demonstration sport]] with no medals awarded at the [[Football at the 1900 Summer Olympics|1900]] and [[Football at the 1904 Summer Olympics|1904 Summer Olympics]]; however, the [[International Olympic Committee]] has retroactively upgraded their status to official events, as well as the [[Football at the 1906 Summer Olympics|1906 Intercalated Games]].<ref>{{cite web |first1=Søren |last1=Elbech |first2=Karel |last2=Stokkermans |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tableso/ol1906f.html |title=Intermediate Games of the IV. Olympiad |website=[[RSSSF]] |date=26 June 2008 |access-date=3 February 2023 |archive-date=11 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220711203917/https://www.rsssf.org/tableso/ol1906f.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

After [[FIFA]] was founded in 1904, it tried to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were very early days for international football, and the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/fifa/fifa-takes-shape.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130329051342/http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/fifa/fifa-takes-shape.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 March 2013 |title=History of FIFA – FIFA takes shape |work=FIFA.com |publisher=Fédération Internationale de Football Association |access-date=12 July 2014}}</ref>

[[File:London 1908 English Amateur Football National Team.jpg|thumb|Team of Great Britain that won the Olympic tournament in 1908]]
At the [[Football at the 1908 Summer Olympics|1908 Summer Olympics]] in [[London]], football became an official Olympic sport. Planned by [[the Football Association]] (the FA), England's football governing body, the event was for [[amateurism|amateur]] players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. Great Britain (represented by the [[England national amateur football team]]) won the [[gold medal]]s. They repeated the feat at the [[Football at the 1912 Summer Olympics|1912 Summer Olympics]] in [[Stockholm]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Butler |first=Bryon |author-link=Bryon Butler |title=The Official History of The Football Association |publisher=Queen Anne Press |location=[[London]] |year=1991 |isbn=0-356-19145-1 |page=54}}</ref>

With the Olympic event continuing to be a contest between amateur teams only, [[Thomas Lipton|Sir Thomas Lipton]] organised the [[Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy]] tournament in [[Turin]] in 1909. The Lipton tournament was a championship between individual clubs (not national teams) from different nations, each of which represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as ''The First World Cup'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.shrewsbury.gov.uk/Public/news/thomaslipton.htm |title='The First World Cup'. The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy |publisher=[[Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council]] |date=10 October 2003 |access-date=11 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031129221811/http://www.shrewsbury.gov.uk/Public/news/thomaslipton.htm |archive-date=29 November 2003}}</ref> and featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional team. Lipton invited [[West Auckland Town F.C.|West Auckland]], an amateur side from [[County Durham]], to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title.<ref>{{cite news |title=West Auckland's World Cup Rematch |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/tees/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8173000/8173881.stm|access-date=1 October 2020 |agency=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002204445/http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/tees/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8173000/8173881.stm |archive-date=2 October 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Prior to the Lipton competition, from 1876 to 1904, games that were considered to be the "[[Football World Championship|football world championship]]" were meetings between leading English and Scottish clubs, such as the [[1895 World Championship (football)|1895 game]] between [[Sunderland A.F.C.]] and the [[Heart of Midlothian F.C.]], which Sunderland won.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2020/apr/25/even-when-sunderland-ruled-the-globe-club-world-cups-were-controversial |title=Sunderland's Victorian all-stars blazed trail for money's rule of football |work=The Guardian |author=Jonathan Wilson |date=25 April 2020|access-date=9 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425193627/https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2020/apr/25/even-when-sunderland-ruled-the-globe-club-world-cups-were-controversial|archive-date=25 April 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the [[Football at the Summer Olympics|Olympic tournament]] as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for managing the event.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/fifa/more-associations-follow.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130329051320/http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/fifa/more-associations-follow.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 March 2013 |title=History of FIFA – More associations follow |work=FIFA.com |publisher=Fédération Internationale de Football Association |access-date=12 July 2014}}</ref> This paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition for nations, at the [[Football at the 1920 Summer Olympics|1920 Summer Olympics]], contested by [[Egypt national football team|Egypt]] and 13 European teams, and won by [[Belgium national football team|Belgium]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Reyes |first=Macario |date=18 October 1999 |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tableso/ol1920f-det.html |title=VII. Olympiad Antwerp 1920 Football Tournament |publisher=rec.sport.soccer Statistics Foundation |access-date=10 June 2006 |archive-date=22 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922145329/https://www.rsssf.org/tableso/ol1920f-det.html |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Uruguay national football team|Uruguay]] won the next two Olympic football tournaments in [[Football at the 1924 Summer Olympics|1924]] and [[Football at the 1928 Summer Olympics|1928]]. Those were also the first two [[Open (sport)|open]] world championships, as 1924 was the start of FIFA's professional era, and is the reason why [[Four stars above Uruguay's football crest|Uruguay is allowed to wear 4 stars]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Olympic Football Tournament Paris 1924 |url=https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/mens/mensolympic/paris1924/match-center|access-date=1 October 2020 |agency=FIFA|archive-date=17 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717042750/https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/mens/mensolympic/paris1924/match-center|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fourfourtwo.premiumtv.co.uk/page/BigRead/0,,11442~1034860,00.html |title=Uruguay 1930|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715011817/http://www.fourfourtwo.premiumtv.co.uk/page/BigRead/0%2C%2C11442~1034860%2C00.html|archive-date=15 July 2007 |magazine=Four Four Two|url-status=dead}}</ref>