1938 FIFA World Cup
| Coupe du Monde 1938 | |
|---|---|
Official poster
|
|
| Tournament details | |
| Host country | France |
| Dates | 4 June – 19 June (16 days) |
| Teams | 15 (from 4 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 10 (in 10 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Italy (2nd title)
|
| Runners-up |  Hungary |
| Third place |  Brazil |
| Fourth place |  Sweden |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 18 |
| Goals scored | 84 (4.67 per match) |
| Attendance | 375,700 (20,872 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Leônidas (7 goals) |
The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third staging of the World Cup, and was held in France from 4 to 19 June 1938. Italy retained the championship (and thus became the only team to have won two FIFA World Cups under the same coach, Vittorio Pozzo), beating Hungary 4–2 in the final.
France was chosen as hosts by FIFA in Berlin on August 13, 1936. France defeated Argentina and Germany in the first round of voting. The decision caused outrage in South America where it was believed that the venue would alternate between the two continents; instead, it was the second tournament in a row to be played in Europe. This was the last World Cup to be staged before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Because of anger over the decision to hold a second successive World Cup in Europe, neither Uruguay nor Argentina entered the competition, while Spain became the first country to be prevented from competing because of it being at war.
It was the first time that the hosts (France) and the title holders (Italy) qualified automatically. Title holders were given an automatic entry into the World Cup until 2006 when this was abolished.
Of the 14 remaining places, eleven were allocated to Europe, two to the Americas, and one to Asia. As a result, only three non-European nations took part: Brazil, Cuba and the Dutch East Indies. This is the smallest ever number of teams from outside the host continent to compete at a FIFA World Cup.
Austria qualified for the World Cup, but after qualification was complete, the Anschluss united Austria with Germany. Austria subsequently withdrew from the tournament, with some Austrian players joining the German squad (not including Austrian star player Matthias Sindelar, who refused to play for the unified team).Latvia was the runner-up in Austria's qualification group, but was not invited to participate; instead Austria's place remained empty, and Sweden, which would have been Austria's initial opponent, progressed directly to the second-round by default.
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