The First World Cup Final Uses Two Different Balls

One final. Two footballs.

The first World Cup had reached its final at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, with host nation Uruguay facing neighbouring Argentina.

There was, however, a problem before kickoff.

The teams could not agree on the match ball.

This was 1930, decades before World Cups came with standardized official balls supplied under global commercial contracts. Argentina and Uruguay had each been using balls they preferred, and when the two rivals reached the final, both wanted their own.

Neither side was inclined to surrender the point.

FIFA's accounts say the dispute required intervention. The solution was admirably simple and somewhat extraordinary: each team would get its ball for one half of the World Cup final.

Argentina's ball was used first.

Argentina went into halftime leading 2–1.

Then the football changed.

Uruguay's preferred ball was used for the second half, and the hosts scored three unanswered goals. Uruguay won 4–2 and became the first world champions.

It is tempting to credit the change of ball with changing the match. The scoreline certainly provides excellent material for that interpretation, but it does not prove causation. What can be said safely is stranger enough: the two halves of the first World Cup final really were played with different footballs because the finalists could not agree on one.

Modern World Cups build enormous branding campaigns around a single official match ball.

The first one settled the question by changing balls at halftime.