It seems appropriate during the frenetic build up to the 2002 World Cup to look back at the very first such competition, and the excellent film, which depicts those events. I have to warn of a spoiler here as the result of the competition, is discussed.
The official FIFA website gives the first World Cup as 1930, but in 1909, in Italy there was held a club competition with the same name and - perhaps slightly astonishingly - England won it. The English Club was West Auckland who beat the mighty Juventus to win, and again two years later overcame an augmented collection of teams from Switzerland, Germany and Italy to repeat the triumph.
The Cup, donated by Sir Thomas Lipton (Yep, of Lipton's tea fame) was given in perpetuity' after the second tournament to West Auckland, but sadly stolen in 1994. (The Jules Rimet Trophy suffered the same fate in Brazil in 1983!) A replica now stands in the West Auckland Workmen's Club Lounge.
A Captains Tale' Stars Dennis Waterman, who was at the top of his fame in the early eighties and is a classic. The tragedy is that it is so little known and seemingly never repeated as it was an excellent story, and well told. There are echoes of `Auf Wiedersehen Pet' as we see supposedly simple Northern chaps exposed to a seemingly more sophisticated European society, and ultimately overcoming all to win. If it comes around again sometime take the chance to check it out.
