Fascism and Football: How Italy won the 1934 and 1938 World Cup

The Italian National Football Team line up before a game during the 1934 FIFA World Cup, Italy

Professional footballers at the time claimed that they were brainwashed into thinking a certain way, a more desired way if you like. They could not hold their own personal political ideologies or inclinations- the Mussolini way was the right way.

The second World Cup was hosted by Italy. Italy had applied to host the inaugural edition of the competition in 1930 but the privilege was instead given to Uruguay. Hurting Mussolini’s ego, he withdrew his nation from the tournament. Defending champions Uruguay returned the favour when the 1934 finals were being hosted by Italy. Argentina too, had sent a weakened squad because they were afraid of Italians pilfering members of their team who had Italian heritage- this had already happened to the likes of Luisito Monti, Raimundo Orsi and Enrico Guaita who were poached because of the policy known as ‘oriundi’.

There were basically three rules that qualified who was effectively a foreign national to play as an oriundo – they had to be playing in the national league of their new country, they had to be able to determine their family history in their new country for three generations and they couldn’t play against the country that they had initially represented. The likes of Guaita and Orsi, among others, were instrumental in Italy’s success in the tournament and hence this policy drew wide criticism. However, the Azzuri coach Vincent Pozzo countered it by saying ‘“if they can die for Italy, they can play for Italy”, referring to Italian conscription laws at the time. It is interesting to note that the oriundi still exists – Mauro Camoranesi won the 2006 World Cup for Italy, and in fact was born in Buenos Aires to an Italian father. However, players can no longer effectively be “signed” by international teams, as they frequently were during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and the rules pertaining to such an event are now relaxed. This is mainly due to Italy’s shocking performance at the 1966 World Cup as henceforth, all foreign players were banned from Italian football until 1980, after which these rules which point the rules started becoming lenient.

Hosting the 1934 World Cup was Mussolini’s big chance- he had the perfect opportunity to show off his nation’s mettle through the organization of the event as well as Italy’s performance on the field. He did exactly that. While Italy’s performance off the pitch- the organization of the competition- was something that he could control in advance and therefore was assured that it would be classy, the Azzuri’s on-field results were not in his hand. But Mussolini made sure he had the ultimate say, in his nation’s results as well. Referees were bribed, corruption was rampant and very evident.

Italy won their first match. USA was beaten 7-1, a scoreline that surprised everyone. The quarter final was played between Spain and the Italy and a resilient Spain made the corrupted referees’ jobs very difficult and forced the hosts to a replay. Il Duce of course ensured that Italy win this match with the help of his pawn, Rene Mercet- the referee officiating the match- to progress further.