Why did England not play in the football World Cup until 1950?
The simple answer is that the British football associations had an unhappy relationship with FIFA (the international body) at the time of the earlier tournaments. They had relinquished their membership in 1919 in protest at the possibility of being forced to play against countries with whom they had recently been at war, and after rejoining shortly afterwards resigned again later in the 1920s in protest about a FIFA decision to allow “broken-time” payments to supposedly amateur players. Still, the Uruguayan FA specifically invited England to the first World Cup in 1930, but they declined. The British associations rejoined FIFA in 1946 and were offered two places in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, the qualifiers to come from the Home Championships involving England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England won, but second-placed Scotland had decided beforehand that they would only go if they won the group, and stayed behind. England might have wished they had stayed at home too – the
