An Earlier World Cup of Football

May 21, 1904 (Paris, France)
FIFA has been born after the eleven FA presidents from Europe and South America have agreed in a international association where all of the major international competition will now be based. All of the leaders in FIFA have also decided on their first president to lead the world in football for the near future.

Another major decision that did happen in the first ever meeting was a FIFA World Cup for all of the FIFA nations. In a unambitious decision, there will be a World Cup for the nations to start in two years time in Paris, France.

The associations that went to Paris were:
England
Scotland
Ireland
Wales
Uruguay
Argentina
Austria
Hungary
Bohemia
Belgium
France

(Author Note: I wanted to keep it short to introduce the concept of an Alt Football timeline with part of it being the same)

Before FIFA creation

Before FIFA was created, the eleven nations that competed in the friendly matches. The first ever international match was between England and Scotland in which a 0-0 draw. The second match between the two ended in a 4-2 victory for team England to be the first winner. These two nations played against each other until 1876 where Wales would debut with a 4-0 victory for Scotland.

Ireland would then later join the international scene, but the opener was a match to be forgotten easy with a 13-0 drubbing. After a couple more drubbings (8-0 to Scotland, 7-0 to England), the Irish team almost remove their national team from the 1883-84 British Home Championship. In a unanimous decision Ireland would not compete in the first three British Home Championships (1) with Scotland taking all three.

Ireland would compete in the 1886-87 championship with success by defeating Wales 4-1. There was now hope for the British Home Championship with all of the teams at one point or another being in the chance for the title. But Scotland and England dominated the first 20 years with each taking home 8 titles including two shared. That was until 1902-03 in which Ireland would surprise the rest of Britain by sharing the victory with Scotland and England in which Wales missed their chance.

On the 20th July 1902, history was then made, when the first football match was contested in South America between Uruguay and Argentina. The result coming in a 6-0 demoliation for Argentina. Uruguay would take revenge though with a 3-2 win at Buenos Aires on the 13th September 1903. Austria and Hungary would also have their first match in 1902 with a 5-0 win coming for team Austria.

Bohemia was the ninth team to play international football when they lost 2-1 to Hungary at Budapest. Then twenty days before FIFA was born, Belgium and France competed for the Evence Coppee Trophy with a late goal from Gaston Cypres finishing the match with a 3-3 draw.

(1) Ireland did compete in the first three British Home Championships in OTL with a wooden spoon from all three.

1904 - FIFA is born

After FIFA was created on May 21 1904 there was a couple more friendlies to round out the year. Plus with preparation on the charge for the 1906 FIFA World Cup friendlies were the way to go.

Austria and Hungary battle each other at both of there home grounds in Budapest and Wien with both nations taking home a win at their home grounds. The Netherlands also had their opening match in international football when they took on Belgium on the 1st December at Brussels. The two teams battled each other and a late score from Eddy de Neve made the Netherlands win their first match 2-1. The British Home Championship was a much tighter affair with only a maximum of four goals being the difference. In the end, it was team England that would take home the championship after a 3-1 win over second place Ireland.

2-6-1904: Hungary 3-0 Austria (Budapest)
9-10-1904: Austria 5-4 Hungary (Wien)
1-12-1904: Belgium 1-2 Netherlands (Brussels)

British Home Championship: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales

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Domestic Champions
England: The Wednesday
Scotland: Hearts
Ireland: Linfield
Belgium: Union Saint-Gilloise
Netherlands: CVV Velocitas
Hungary: Budapest TC

Relgation/Promotion
England: (Relegated: Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion), (Promotion: Manchester United, Preston North End)

Cup Champions
England: The Wednesday defeated Derby Country 2-1
Scotland: Celtic defeated St. Mirren 3-0

1905 - Did someone say nerves begin now

The British Home Championship was looking like a England title after a 1-0 win over Scotland. The nerves on the final match between Ireland and Wales. After the opening half it was nil all and stay that way until Walter Watkins scored the opener for Wales. Then on the 76th minute, Billy Meredith turn evil by scoring a own goal to put Ireland level. That would be the final result with England taking home the championship by a point.

After the BHC, those teams took a break before next year where the main goal will be the 1906 FIFA World Cup. Hungary and Austria battled in Budapest in which a 0-0 result. Austria would also another match against the Swiss and they struggled with the final result being a 2-0 win for the Swiss.

Belgium and the Dutch had two more matches for the Coupe Van den Abeele Cup with Netherlands taking both matches by 4 and 5 goals respectily in a match that was enteranment to say the least for the Netherlands. Two more teams have joined with the first North America match with Trinidad and Tobago winning 4-1 over British Guiana.

8-2-1905: France 1-0 Switzerland (Friendly)
25-2-1905: England 2-1 Ireland (BHC)
6-3-1905: Wales 3-0 Scotland (BHC)
18-3-1905: Scotland 2-3 Ireland (BHC)
27-3-1905: England 2-2 Wales (BHC)
1-4-1905: England 1-0 Scotland (BHC)
8-4-1905: Ireland 1-1 Wales (BHC)
9-4-1905: Hungary 0-0 Austria (Friendly)
24-4-1905: Austria 0-2 Switzerland (Friendly)
30-4-1905: Belgium 0-5 Netherlands (HKD-1)
14-5-1905: Netherlands 4-0 Belgium (RNB-1)
21-7-1905: British Guiana 1-4 Trinidad and Tobago (Friendly)

British Home Championship: England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland

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Domestic Champions
England: Aston Villa
Scotland: Rangers (Winning 3-0 in the Championship Play-Off over Celtic)
Ireland: Linfield
Belgium: Union Saint-Gilloise
Netherlands: Koninklijke HFC
Hungary: FTC
Switzerland: Grasshopper Club Zürich

Relgation/Promotion
England: (Relegated: Nottingham Forest and Manchester United), (Promotion: Bristol City, Bolton Wanderers)

Cup Champions
England: Aston Villa 3-1 The Wednesday
Scotland: Rangers 1-0 Third Lanark

March 1906 - Friendlies before the World Cup

With the first World Cup being held in four months, friendlies was an important step for the World Cup. But there was drama when Bohemia was dropped from FIFA after tensions from the people hitting into strive mode with Bohemia in war between two.

The British Home Championship had switched into a one game a week system (2), which started on the 11th February. Three time champions, England got off to the worst possible start after a 4-1 result for Ireland to open the account in the BHC. England couldn't believe what they were in for, with a 1-1 draw against Wales before a 2-1 defeat to Scotland ending their worst BHC (3).

England error was Scotland and Wales gain, with both taking home at least a win. The top 2 teams battled in Edinburgh with Wales taking the win 2-0 over Scotland, but would still share the title with Scotland after the 2-0 win over Ireland. The happiness in the Welsh before the FIFA World Cup in April.

Argentina and Uruguay traveled to Europe for the World Cup from South America and both of them created history by taking on Switzerland in a tri-tournament in Geneva. Argentina and Uruguay both dominated Switzerland in their respective matches. Argentina then took on Uruguay with a 1-0 win to Argentina.

On the 24th March 1906, the FIFA World Cup groups was announced to the public with the most interesting affair being Group 1 where Scotland, Uruguay and Switzerland will take on each other in the most interesting group. The host nation of France will be in Group 3 where Ireland and Austria will hopefully make another struggle.

1906 FIFA World Cup
Group 1: Scotland, Uruguay, Switzerland
Group 2: Wales, Argentina, Belgium
Group 3: Ireland, Austria, France
Group 4: England, Hungary, Netherlands

Group Stage
7-4-1906 (G3): France vs. Austria
9-4-1906 (G1): Uruguay vs. Switzerland
11-4-1906 (G2): Argentina vs. Belgium
13-4-1906 (G4): Hungary vs. Netherlands
17-4-1906 (G4): Netherlands vs. England
19-4-1906 (G3): Ireland vs. France
21-4-1906 (G2): Belgium vs. Wales
23-4-1906 (G1): Switzerland vs. Scotland
27-4-1906 (G1): Scotland vs. Uruguay
29-4-1906 (G2): Wales vs. Argentina
1-5-1906 (G3): Austria vs. Ireland
3-5-1906 (G4): England vs. Hungary

Knockout Stage
7-5-1906 (SF): WG1 vs. WG4
9-5-1906 (SF): WG2 vs. WG3
13-5-1906 (F): WSF1 vs. WSF2

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11-2-1906: Ireland 4-1 England (BHC: Belfast)
18-2-1906: Scotland 0-2 Wales (BHC: Edinburgh)
25-2-1906: Ireland 0-2 Scotland (BHC: Dublin)
27-2-1906: Switzerland 0-4 Argentina (STT: Geneva)
4-3-1906: Wales 1-1 England (BHC: Cardiff)
6-3-1906: Switzerland 0-3 Uruguay (STT: Geneva)
11-3-1906: Wales 3-3 Ireland (BHC: Wrexham)
13-3-1906: Argentina 1-0 Uruguay (STT: Geneva)
18-3-1906: Scotland 2-1 England (BHC: Glasgow)

Swiss Tri-Tournament: Argentina, Uruguay, Switzerland
British Home Championship: Scotland-Wales, Ireland, England

(2) - The British Home Championship still had a two week break between match-days instead of a one week break in this timeline.
(3) - England shared the title with Scotland in OTL, with both of them scoring four points.

1906 FIFA World Cup

The first FIFA World Cup in Paris, France was a spectacle to say the least. Firstly this competition was the first, where there was more than four nations. Secondly, the stadium in which it was used (Stade du Mati) had only just opened, 10 days before the first match of the World Cup.

Twelve nations went to Paris in hope of taking home the first FIFA World Cup title. But in the end, the final ended in a Uruguay drubbing of Austria. The final result being a 4-0 win for the South American team.

Group 1
Group 1 got underway with a rematch of the Swiss Tri-Tournament between Uruguay and Switzerland. Everyone thought that it would head to Uruguay, but in the first twenty minutes Switzerland scored the opening goal from the captian Eduard Garonne. Once they got to the 47th minute of play, Switzerland just collapsed with Uruguay scoring three in twenty minutes to record a 3-1 win for Uruguay.

Knowing what Switzerland needed to do, they took on Scotland knowing that a win would do, but like the Uruguay match, they couldn't get anything in the wet with a hat trick from George Livingstone ending the Swiss hope of the title. In the deciding match, Uruguay took home the win with Juan Gibson Brown scoring the winning goal for Uruguay to go through to the semi finals.

9-4-1906: Uruguay 3-1 Switzerland
23-4-1906: Switzerland 0-3 Scotland
27-4-1906: Scotland 0-1 Uruguay

Group 2
While Uruguay was taking their spot in the Semis in Group 1, Argentina were dominating in Group 2 by miles. Argentina had no problems defeating Belgium and Wales to qualife through to the knockout stage after scoring 5-0 wins.

In the other match to finish Group 2 was between Belgium and Wales. This match was intersting to say the least. The main men for both teams were absent with Robert De Veen injuried and Arthur W Green for Wales. Also the rain started to affect the ball, it wasn't like that for all of the game with the final 10 minutes being dry. The result coming from Edwin Hughes to take home the win.

11-4-1906: Argentina 5-0 Belgium
21-4-1906: Belgium 0-1 Wales
29-4-1906: Wales 0-5 Argentina

Group 3
This group was the toughest to predict with three almost equal teams battling for the one spot in the group. The opening match lived to its expection with neither team scoring the goal to open their account. But the host nation would then be elimated from competition after the Irish form started to open with barly anything coming from the French side. In someway it was a relieve that the French only conceded a goal from Robert Milne to end their hopes of taking home the title.

The final group game was between Austria and Ireland. This match would be the qualifer for the Semis. But no one could predict what was going to happen for this match and the upset to come. Ireland once again got the opening goal from Harold Sloan to put the Irish ahead in the match. But then Adolf Muller who was on debut scored two goals to put the Austrians. Ireland weren't giving up their hope and the result stayed until the 87th minute where Val Harris leveled things up. But somehow Eduard Engel scored the goal that would seal Austria spot in the semi finals.

7-4-1906: France 0-0 Austria
19-4-1906: Ireland 1-0 France
1-5-1906: Austria 3-2 Ireland

Group 4
The final group was Group 4 with the favourites of England taking on Hungary and the Netherlands. The opening match of this Group 4 looked like a mismatch but the Netherlands didn't think so with a lucky win by chance. Bela Sebestyen was the person to give the win for the Netherlands. The English then took home the win over the Netherlands after Arthur Brown and Albert Gosnell scored the goals to take the win for England.

In the final group stage match, the battle between England and Hungary was one to be intersted in, with the hope of a semi final spot. This was one of the best games of the tournament with everything that an exicting game is what to be. The game was open play with both teams passing to there best. But on the 88th minute, Jeno Karoly scored the winner to levelled the group stage with all of the teams scoring two points. Engaland though would qualify through to the semi finals after winning on goal average.

13-4-1906: Hungary 0-1 Netherlands
17-4-1906: Netherlands 0-2 England
3-5-1906: England 0-1 Hungary

Semi Finals
After the four day break, the four semi finalits battled for the two spots on the 13th May. The first Semi Final was between Uruguay and England in what looked like a full stadium. The two teams were neck and neck until the 26th minute with Aniceto Camacho scoring the first goal with the goalkeeper of England missing the ball by 20 meters. 1-0 to Uruguay.

If that was the ending, everyone would of known. But for the english they knew it wasn't espically when time was on the clock for them. Uruguay weren't giving the lead away as they defended the goal from England. The goal was kept on guarded with England not finding a goal to level the match up. England couldn't get pass with the final result being a 1-0 win to Uruguay and they would be the first team to go through.

The second semifinal was between favourites Argentina and Austria. This match looked like it was to be a blowout by the strengh of Argentina. Not that the Austrians were going to give up. The first half, wasn't anything upto the other semifinal in term of play. The teams tried to look for a breakthrough but nothing could come. The crowd was starting to get restless with the first half complete.

But the second half was something, which was better than the first. On the 51st minute, J Rodman got the ball and played from his midfield into a shot of goal to give Argentina the lead. This was looking the result, but not the Austrians. They tried to get the goal and they did on the 69th minute to level the score and maybe have some hope in it yet.

Then a mircale for the Austrians, when the Argentine goalkeeper went down from a injury in his lower back. Gootlob E Weiss tried to play on, but the struggle was seen in his face. The Austrians, knowing what was happening, went on the charge and succed. Sepp Stansfield celeberated with Austria making it through to the first FIFA World Cup final where they would take on Uruguay.

7-5-1906: Uruguay 1-0 England
9-5-1906: Argentina 1-2 Austria

Final
The two teams were ready for the final match of the first World Cup and so was the crowd. But some thought that this could be a blowout in favour of Uruguay and not much support for Austria. In fact, not many thought Austria would make the World Cup final with the group of death and then the semi final against Argentina. Uruguay haven't had their own way with a tough encouter with Scotland and England to get here.

The match begun, and straight away you could see who was better suited for the job. Austria couldn't get anywhere near the ball with Uruguay controlling the ball. They looked like they were dominating and on the 15th minute, Luis Carbone scored the opening goal to put Uruguay 1-0 up in the match. Seven minutes later, Carlos Cespedes scored his first for the match to double the lead for Uruguay.

This was slowly becoming a smashing, looking like it was getting worst than better. This was mainly because Carlos Cespedes was on fire, with yet another goal to surley give the win to Uruguay. Then on the 76th minute, Enrique Sardeson put the cherry on top to give Uruguay a 4-0 win and with that the first trophy to head to South America until the next one in four years time at a undecided location.

13-5-1906: Uruguay 4-0 Austria

(Author Note: This one was a short one because their weren't many matches after the world cup)

After the FIFA World Cup in which Uruguay taking the title, the international football scene took a break for five months before all of the teams having a friendly.

The Rotterdam Nieuwsblad Beker Cup was a win for Belgium for their first ever win against the Netherlands. Other than that, friendlies were few and far between with only two matches in which Hungary and Switzerland both took home victories for that nation.

2-11-1906: Netherlands 2-3 Belgium (RNB-2: Rotterdam)
4-11-1906: Hungary 3-1 Austria (Friendly: Budapest)
8-11-1906: Switzerland 1-0 France (Friendly: Basel)

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Domestic Champions
England: The Wednesday (2nd in this TL)
Scotland: Celtic (1st in this TL)
Ireland: Belfast Celtic (1st in this TL)
Belgium: Union Saint-Gilloise (3rd in this TL)
Netherlands: HVV Den Haag (1st in this TL)
Hungary: n/a [4]
Switzerland: FC Bern (1st in this TL)

Relgation/Promotion
England: (Relegated: Middlesbrough and Bury), (Promotion: West Bromwich Albion and Woolwich Arsenal)

Cup Champions
England: Woolwich Arsenal 1-0 Biringham
Scotland: Hearts 1-0 Third Lanark

[4] Following on OTL, where Hungary transfered from a September-October schedule, into a November-February schedule. This is why there is no champion for the 1906 season.

1907 - The year that Manchester United went bust

1907 was one of the shocking truths behind this year. It didn't sound like it, but Manchester United was declared bankrupt [5] after the final 5 matches they couldn't play at all with wages. Not that it affected the rest of Europe in the year of 1907.

The main focus for this year, was once again the BHC with England bouncing back from last year to take home the championship. Ireland wasn't in a happy mood when they had to play two matches in a row in seven days. The rest of the British Football Assoications knew what they needed to do, with Ireland being removed from the BHC for this year and next.

With the missing match for Scotland, The Netherlands invited Scotland over to The Hague where Scotland won the match 2-1. The Netherlands also play against Belgium on both competitions with both teams taking home a win in the battle. Hungary and Austria also took on each other in two matches with the 1906 FIFA World Cup Runners Up, Austria taking the win in Vienna and a draw in Budapest.

16-2-1907: England 1-0 Ireland (BHC: Liverpool)
23-2-1907: Ireland 0-3 Wales (BHC: Belfast)
2-3-1907: Wales 1-0 Scotland (BHC: Wrexham)
9-3-1907: Scotland v Ireland (BHC: Glasgow) (Match cancelled)
11-3-1907: Netherlands 1-2 Scotland (Friendly: The Hague)
16-3-1907: England 2-1 Wales (BHC: London)
23-3-1907: England 2-0 Scotland (BHC: Newcastle)
14-4-1907: Belgium 3-1 Netherlands (HKD-2: Antwerp)
5-5-1907: Austria 3-1 Hungary (Friendly: Vienna)
9-5-1907: Netherlands 2-0 Belgium (RNB-3: Haarlem)
15-7-1907: Argentina 2-1 Uruguay (Friendly: Buenos Aires)
3-11-1907: Hungary 2-2 Austria (Friendly: Budapest)

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Domestic Champions
Belgium: Union Saint-Gilloise (4th in this TL)
England: Newcastle United (1st in this TL)
Ireland: Linfield (3rd in this TL)
Hungary: MTK Hungária FC (1st in this TL)
Netherlands: Koninklijke HFC (2nd in this TL)
Scotland: Celtic (2nd in this TL)
Switzerland: FC Basel (1st in this TL)

Relgation/Promotion
England: (Relgated: Derby Country, Notts Country), (Promotion: Nottingham Forest, Barnsley)

Cup Champions
England: West Bromwich Albion 2-0 Everton
Scotland: Celtic 1-0 Renton

[5] If you follow football, then you would know that Manchester United is one of the big clubs in OTL. So I thought, I might make the team bankrupt with the inspiration coming from this timeline.