The World Cup of Soccer has a unique and fascinating history. The first games of the World Cup of Soccer tournament were held on July-,’30 at Pocitos Stadium and Estadio Gran Parque Central in Montevideo, Uruguay. France won the first round of the Cup over Mexico by four to one, and the USA won over Belgium by three to one. Lucien Laurent of France was the first player to score a goal in Cup history. Eighteen matches were held in total, with seventy goals scored.

The World Cup was the dream of Jules Rimet, president at the time of the Fdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). His belief was that “soccer could reinforce the ideals of a permanent and real peace.” His vision was to establish an event that included professional and amateur athletes from around the globe. The Cup was named the Jules Rimet Cup in’46. The World Cup is played every four years, except during World War II, in’42 and’46.

Uruguay was chosen as the host country because’30 marked the centennial of that country’s constitution. Uruguay had also won two Olympic gold medals in football, and was the current world champions. The national football association offered to refund the costs of any team participating. Despite that offer, most European teams declined due to the distance and expense.

The first teams participating were from France, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Romania from Europe; Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru from South America; and Mexico and the United States from North America. Unlike subsequent series, there was no qualifying round for the first World Cup. There were two rounds for that first tournament, with teams broken into four groups based on geographic regions. Brazil, USA, Argentina and Uruguay were seeded. Yugoslavia, USA, Uruguay and Argentina made the semi-finals. The tournament in’30 was the only ones that did not include any games between the semi-finals and finals. The third-place playoff was not established until’34.

The World Cup Final of that first series was played between Uruguay and Argentina on the 30th of July’30. These two had faced off before at the’28 Olympics. Uruguay beat the Argentineans four to two. The game was held at the Estadio Centenario, which was built for the tournament. The attendance was 93,000. Total attendance for the series was 434,500. Ten boats had been scheduled to carry Argentine fans from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, but they were insufficient. Between 10 -15,000 spectators made the journey from Argentina; the port was so overwhelmed that many were unable to debark until after kick-off. The stadium was full hours before the game began. The World Cup continues to be the most widely viewed sporting event in the world.

Top players from the first Cup series were Ferreyra, Monti, Stbile from Argentina, Thpot from France, and Andrade, Cea, Nasazzi and Scarone from Uruguay. Guillermo Stbile was top scorer, with eight goals. The Uruguay team, founded in’00, has since participated in ten World Cup championships, and won the Cup twice.

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Demand almost always outstrips supply for those looking to buy Manchester United football tickets because the team has a huge following and tickets are limited in number. That means for many supporters, the chance of obtaining a ticket to a single Manchester United game is never easy, so a season ticket to Old Trafford might be seen as the ultimate score.

However, on closer examination, despite the obvious advantages season ticket holders have of being guaranteed a seat for games at Old Trafford, and priority for the Red Devil’s away games, some aspects of owning a season ticket to Manchester United games might be less than ideal. Such as:

One example of this is the Manchester United policy called the Automatic Ticket Scheme. This policy ensures that every season ticket holder is guaranteed a ticket for all Champions League and FA cup home games. At first glance this might appear to be a good thing, but further examination shows that the season ticket holder is charged for each of these tickets even if he has no intention of attending any of the games. In the each of the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 seasons, there were 10 of these extra games – and with a single game ticket starting at almost 50 pounds, this is a huge extra cost on top of the already very significant price paid for the season ticket.

Another negative issue that can arise for a new season ticket holder is that if the seat he is assigned is in an area of the stadium that he thinks is less than ideal, there is nothing he can do to change it, short of being able to prove exceptional medical hardship. For this reason, there are those who choose not to renew their tickets at the end of the season, preferring to take their chances in the search for single tickets that may be in a more preferred situation – much as the Stretford End stands.

Those Manchester United fans who buy a season ticket thinking they can sell the tickets to games they don’t intend to attend might find that that is not as easy to do these days as it was once. Manchester United does have an official ticket exchange where season ticket holders can list their unwanted tickets for sale at face-value, but tickets cannot be listed there until the club announces that the game in question has been sold out. This means that there is no guarantee that the tickets put up for sale get sold, so the prospective seller not only loses the ticket he is unable to use, he is out the substantial listing and handling fee it cost him to post the seat for sale.

Once cannot deny that the price of a season’s 19 single tickets is more expensive than a season ticket, when the other costs – approximately 500 extra pounds for the Cup games; the possibility of getting a seat in an undesirable part of Old Trafford; and the lack of guarantee of being able to sell any unwanted game tickets are added up, investing in season Manchester United tickets might not be worth it to even the most fanatical fans.

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