1979 Meker World Cup

The 1979 Meker World Cup was the first edition of the Meker World Cup, hosted in England and going from July 1st to July 17th, 1979. The winner of this edition was Italy.

## Before the cup

### Host Selection

The concept of a Meker World Cup started being considered in 1975, and due to the fast nature of the game, lasting about 50 minutes per match, and low budget and preparation required, the then newly formed FIMA comitee decided to make the world cup every year, with the first edition being held in 1979 hosted in the country where the sport was created, England. No other countries submitted entries to host the event that year.

### Classifiers

Since the it was the first edition and the culture of the sport was still just spreading out, the FIMA comitee decided to avoid making the event too big, and opted for the first edition of the event to have only 10 participating countries, 5 from EUMF (Europe), 1 from (North America, Central America & Caribbean), 1 from SAMC (South America), 1 from MMASC (Asia) and 1 from AMF (Africa). With one play off spot being divided between MCNCAC, SAMC, MMASC and MOMC (Oceania).

Since the FIMA comitee was still officializing affiliations with many nations at the time, only the 53 already officialized mekal teams were invited to participate of the classifiers, all of which, except Bhutan, accepted to participate. The classifiers were divided by continental comitees, and the respective winners would be classified to the first world cup, except for England, that was already classified as the host of the competition.

#### EUMF (European Meker Federation)

Games begun on December 17th, 1978 and ended in February 1st, 1979. Featuring 24 of the 25 nations then affiliated to EUMF, split in four groups of six, the winner of each group would be classified to the world cup. Those winners were West Germany, Italy, Norway and Yugoslavia.

The games were hosted in four cities in england (London, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester) and one in Scotland (Glasgow).

#### MCNCAC (Meker Comitee of North, Central America & Caribbean)

Games begun on January 10th, 1979 and ended in February 3rd, 1979. Featuring all 7 nations then affiliated to MCNCAC, split in two groups in its first phase, with the winners of each group being qualified for a second phase together with the United States, the only MCNCAC member that also was a part of the MMS (Meker Main Stars) ranking, where the winner of the second phase would be qualified for the world cup, and the runner up to the intercontinental play-off. Said winner was Canada and the runner up was the United States.

The games were hosted in three cities in the United States (Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Atlanta).

#### SAMC (South American Meker Commitee)

The south american qualifiers begun on January 6th, 1979 and ended in January 20th, 1979. All 5 SAMC affiliated nations participated in a single group format, where the winner would be qualified to the world cup and the runner up would be qualified to the intercontinental play off. Said winner was Colombia and the runner up was Argentina.

The games were hosted in three cities in Brazil (São Paulo, Curitiba and Belo Horizonte).

 **5** |  Bolivia

#### MMASC (Main Meker Asian Comitee)

The qualifiers begun on December 28th, 1978 and ended on January 30th, 1979. 12 of the 13 MMASC affiliated nations participated, divided in four groups of three, where the winner of each group would be qualified to a second phase, where the winner would be classified to the world cup and the runner up to the intercontinental play off. Said winner was Philippines and the runner up was Japan.

The games were hosted in three japanese cities (Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya) and one city in South Korea (Seoul)

##### Second Phase

 **4** |  Malaysia

#### AMF (African Meker Federation)

The qualifiers begun on January 7th, 1979 and ended on January 28th, 1979. All 6 AMF affiliated nations participated, divided in two groups of three, where each winner would then play against each other, where the winner of said game would be classified to the world cup. And it was Egypt.

All games were hosted in two nigerian cities (Lagos and Ibadan)

#### MOMC (Main Oceanic Meker Commitee)

The oceanic qualifiers begun on January 12th, 1979 and ended on January 15th, 1979. Only 2 nations were part of MOMC at the time, so both of them played games between each other to get a spot in the intercontinental play off of the world cup. The winner was Australia.

#### Intercontinental Play Off

The intercontinental play off was held in England from February 17th to February 20th, 1979, in it, all four participating nations played in a bracket format, with the winner of both games being qualified to the world cup. Said winner was the United States.

### Classified Nations

At the end, the following ten nations were classified for the event:

### Group selection

#### Urn filling

Two groups of five teams were selected on April 21st, 1979 in Leeds. At the time, there was no meker world ranking, instead, there was only the Meker Main Stars ranking (MMS), that included the following nations: England, France, Italy, West Germany, United States and Japan. France and Japan failed to classify to the world cup, but they still participated of a reunion on April 15th, 1979, debating which team would be the 5th in the first urn, together with the four other MMS members, they agreed on Philippines since it was the nation that eliminated Japan from the cup.

 Urn 2

#### Group formation

Groups A and B were formed interchangingly, with three teams from Urn 1 and two from Urn 2 in group A and vice versa for group B. These were the groups formed:

  Colombia
  Philippines
  Norway
  West Germany

### Host Stadiums

Five stadiums were selected to host the games, four already existing ones and one built especially for the games (Brightfield National, in London). These were the stadiums:

* Brightfield National Stadium, London
* McConnor Stadium, Manchester
* Liverpool Meker Stadium, Liverpool
* Centerfield Stadium, Leeds
* Battersea Stadium, London

## History

The opening match was England and Colombia on July 1st, 1979 in London. The two best performing teams of each group would be classified for the semifinals, with two duels that would lead to the final, as well as a third place match.

### Final Stage

The final stage consisted of the two best teams of each group in a bracket system, the winner of each group versus the runner up of the other, then, the winner of each match would go to the final, to settle the winner of the cup, and the losers would go to a match to decide the third placer.

## Aftermath

Italy became the first winner of the cup, which guaranteed its participation in the 1980 Meker World Cup.

### Ranking

 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
 10

### Norway's surprising campaign

Despite being classified, Norway was being treated as an underdog, for its lack of history and lower investment in its national team, which led many to believe the team would be eliminated from the cup in its first phase, in favor of West Germany, but, after defeating West Germany in the first phase, the team guaranteed a spot in the semifinal, and, even if it lost to Italy, it still gained the third place after defeating the United States, an event that surprised many specialists and even the norwegian comitee as well. Leading to many people stop seeing Norway as a lesser team in the competition and the Norwegian government investing a lot more funds in its national team, leading to the team becoming one of the most important and successful nations in the competition nowadays.

### Conclusion

**1979 MEKER WORLD CUP -  England**

* **Winner:**  Italy **(1st title)**
* Runner Up:  England
* Third place:  Norway
* Fourth place:  United States
* Highest score (difference):  Italy 6 - 0  Egypt
* Best scoring team:  Italy (22 marks)