FIFA was born in 1904, so if it were to hold a small tournament to celebrate its founding, and every national team of the time were to attend, the competing teams would be, according to this website:
Europe: England (2), Austria (3), Scotland (4), Hungary (5), Bohemia (7), Belgium (8), France (9), Ireland (10), Wales (11)
South America: Argentina (1), Uruguay (6)
The numbers are Elo ratings.
Among the founding members of FIFA there were, as well, the football associations of Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
That's 16 teams in total, or four groups of four. I think the four Home Nations teams would be put in a different group each, just like the two South American teams and the three Habsburg teams, so...
Group A
Bohemia
Denmark
England
Uruguay
Group B
Argentina
Hungary
Netherlands
Scotland
Group C
Austria
Belgium
Ireland
Spain
Group D
France
Sweden
Switzerland
Wales
Or Germany and France (Edit: I am sure I read that list a couple times, how could I miss France?In hindsight, it is quite surprising that Italy is not there.
In hindsight, it is quite surprising that Italy is not there.
France is present. Germany's absence is odd too, though I have half-expected them to play as "Saxony", "Prussia", "Bavaria" under the Kaiserreich. Bohemia was unexpected too.Or Germany and France, for that matter.
Interesting how the Austro-Hungarian nations are concurring separately: I expected it from Hungary, not from Bohemia.
France is present. Germany's absence is odd too, though I have half-expected them to play as "Saxony", "Prussia", "Bavaria" under the Kaiserreich. Bohemia was unexpected too.
Henning Wehn said:Henning’s favourite joke:
Person 1 is there any football on the box tonight?
Person 2 who's playing?
Person 1 Austria-Hungary
Person 2 against who?
"See it shows comic timing, the timing on this joke means it should have been told between 1867 & 1918 when they had a dual monarchy. The funny part is that television wasn't invented until 1930."
No different from the Lichtensteins, San Marinos, Gibraltars or Faroes cluttering up international competitions.The national team of Schaumburg-Lippe would've been... huh... interesting.
No different from the Lichtensteins, San Marinos, Gibraltars or Faroes cluttering up international competitions.
And this pisses me off ... where's the RAGE! emoticon when you need it?Yeah, except Thuringia alone would've been full of Liechtensteins, unless they decided to compete as an unified team like the West Indies do in cricket; in fact, there aren't any such arrangements in the association football world, even though there are many such arrangements in other sports.
And this pisses me off ... where's the RAGE! emoticon when you need it?
There should be separate competitions for the diddies ...
My wet dream for yearsthey could be made to compete in groups whose winner would be able to advance to the next stage, in a way similar to how OFC qualification works: in each Euro qualifier there could be a preliminary group with Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and San Marino for example.
Well, The Game was less widespread than today ... so I'd go with the very end of the Century - I'd even suggest 1900 but there'd be howls of protest that this is the XXth already, so 1899 ...
From outside Europe there'd be Argentina - not sure if any other country?
From Europe you could have up to a dozen - four Home Countries alone, remember?- plus Belgium, Netherlands, maybe also France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Sweden ...
England would be favourite, so they lose to Malta or some other Iceland equivalent of the era![]()