Currently, the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup are quite easy to understand. Punters can always make online betting with 1xbet.com/en on these matches and win great rewards. Normally, most qualifiers have group stages where the teams with the most points qualify for the major tournaments.
In case teams are tied in points, other criteria is use to break the tie, such as:
However, back in the 1954 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, things were very different. Currently with 1xBet you can also make online betting on the qualifiers of the FIFA World Cup too.
A tie that didn’t want to be broken
The qualifiers for the 1954 FIFA World Cup had 13 groups in total from all over the world. Let’s focus on group 6, which had only 2 teams, which were Spain and Turkey. The top team among those 2 would secure a place in the tournament. There is betting football available with 1xBet, where the Turkish and Spanish national sides can also be wagered.
The first match was played in Madrid on the 6th of January 1954, with the home team winning the match 4-1. The return match was played in Istanbul on the 14th of March, with Turkey winning 1-0. Here you might think “Spain scored more goals, so they would be above Turkey in the group table”. Well, no. The football betting available with 1xBet can also be used to wager on who is likely to score a goal too.
Back then, if the teams were tied in points, it was necessary to play another match in a neutral venue. For this reason, on the 17th of March, Spain and Turkey played each other again in Rome, Italy. The final result was 2-2. Oh, and Penalty shoot-outs hadn’t been invented back then, so, how on Earth would this tie be broken?
UEFA representatives at the stadium became creative in order to break this tie. By the way, at http://1xbet.com/en/line/cricket you can wager on cricket matches besides football encounters too.
One of the workers of the Stadio Olimpico in Roma was watching the match with his son, Luigi Franco Gemma. Once the match ended, the UEFA officials asked the child if he would be interested in choosing the team that qualified for the 1954 FIFA World Cup.
The method was simple. He was blindfolded and was asked to place his hand in a hat that had 2 pieces of paper. One of them said “Spain” and the other said “Turkey”, and by the way, the 1xBet site has all matches of those teams too.
Gemma needed to blindly choose one of them. The country whose name was written would be the one to participate in the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Eventually, Luigi Franco Gemma chose the “Turkey” paper. And that’s how the Turkish team participated in the competition held in Switzerland.