Simon Cooper

Very expensive.

The European teams, plus Rime, have to cross the ocean on a steamship paid by the Uruguayans.

The Uruguayans have to put up all the players.

The Uruguayans say, we'll build stadiums.

They're still building the stadiums when the World Cup kicks off.

I think one of them is only really completed sometime after the World Cup.

And so it's immensely costly.

And the principle of the World Cup has always remained the host pays.

Now, why was this so important?

There was no money in football then, so FIFA was a penniless organization.

And then you'll remember something quite significant happening economically in the autumn of 1929, which is the great crash.

Yes.

The stock market crash.

Now, the treasurer of FIFA was this Dutch stockbroker, Carl Hirschmann.

And he was holding what few funds FIFA had.

And his colleagues thought Hirschmann's obviously putting it in a bank account, obviously.

It turned out he was investing it all in the stock market.

So with the crash in 1929, Hirshman goes bankrupt and then admits that all FIFA's funds have also been lost.

So when they do this first World Cup, FIFA has 47 pence.

So Uruguay has to fund the whole thing, and it's still the way every host country has to pay for the whole thing.