00:03Politics and sport are forever intertwined, but perhaps rarely to the level seen in the
00:09early years of the World Cup. At a time when football was making its mark as the world's
00:15biggest international sport, the spectre of war was hanging over Europe in the 1930s.
00:23The heated political situation at the time also fanned the flames, and the game, played
00:28in the North London Merck, became a battle.
00:32This match between England and Italy in 1934 was typical of the tensions of the time and
00:38became known as the Battle of Highbury.
00:43Just as the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin are remembered for Adolf Hitler's blatant politicising,
00:50the 1934 World Cup in Italy is cast in a similar shadow for the interference by Italian dictator
00:56Benito Mussolini.
01:00Worse than that, it's accepted by historians and even FIFA that Mussolini organised for
01:06some matches to be fixed to ensure Italy would reach the cup final at home.
01:13Italian writer Marco Impiglia addressed a FIFA symposium in 2013.
01:20Mussolini arranged some matches to be fixed with the referee, so Italy succeeded in arriving
01:28to play the final.
01:31Czechoslovakia scored the first goal in the final through Antonin Puc, but Italy levelled
01:36through Raimundo Orsi in the 81st minute, and Angelo Schiavio snared the match winner in
01:42the 95th.
01:44When left-wing Puc scored the first goal of the match, Mussolini was very upset in the
01:53grandstand because he was afraid that all his force had been useless to get the main target.
02:00Even the official UEFA website threw doubt on the tournament's integrity.
02:07The Italian dictator's passion for football may also have had something to do with a number
02:12of questionable refereeing decisions which seemed to go in the home side's favour.
02:21Despite the cloud over the win, there can be no doubt that Italy was the dominant football
02:26nation of the 1930s.
02:28Four years later in France, an even stronger Azzurri team made it back-to-back World Cups,
02:34and in between those victories, Italy took the gold medal in the 1936 Olympic Games.
02:43All three big victories were masterminded by coach Vittorio Pozzo.
02:51Only the first legend of Italian football, Giuseppe Meazza, and his fellow attacking midfielder,
02:57Giovanni Ferrari, played in both World Cup finals, while three other members of the 38 side
03:03were also in the 1936 Olympic team.
03:10Defenders Pietro Rava and Alfredo Foni and midfielder Ugo Locatelli were introduced to the national team
03:19by Pozzo for the Olympics.
03:21They not only played in the 1938 World Cup final, but all three made the all-star team of the
03:28tournament.
03:31Unlike 1934, there were no suggestions that Italy did not deserve their back-to-back World Cup triumphs,
03:38and no one would have been happier than Mussolini.
03:42The 1938 World Cup would be the last for 12 years.
03:47On return, sport and politics were still intertwined and always will be.
03:53But as long as 200-plus nations can battle in peace,
03:57the World Cup will always be football's greatest stage.
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