Like the first FIFA World Cup twenty years before, the first World Championship in 1950 experienced severe growing pains. The most prominent concern was teams' unwillingness to participate: South American champion Uruguay refused to make the short trip to Buenos Aires after Argentinian immigration officials refused to grant visas to members of the Uruguayan press. South American runner-up Brazil had already qualified by finishing third at the 1948 Olympics, so the two South American berths fell to third and fourth placed teams Chile and Peru. As no Asian team wanted to make the long trip to Argentina, FIBA invited European champion Egypt and Ecuador. None of the stronger European teams wanted to make the journey either, so Europe was represented by Yugoslavia (which had finished 13th in their only European Championship appearance in 1947) and Spain (which had not participated in a European Championship since 1935). All three Olympic medalists participated, although the United States did not take the tournament particularly seriously and sent a team of factory workers from a Denver, Colorado Chevrolet plant, rather than holding tryouts. France, meanwhile, returned only two players from their Olympic silver medalist team.