1981 Meker World Cup

The **1981 Meker World Cup** was the third edition of the Meker World Cup, hosted in West Germany and going from June 30th to July 24th, 1981. The winner of this edition was West Germany, the first nation to win as a host.

## Before the cup

### Host selection

The selection proccess was happened on the same day as the 1980 edition. But the five countries that submitted to host this time were Australia, Norway, Poland and West Germany

#### First phase

The first phase poll happened on October 4th, 1979 in Leeds, England. All then 74 affiliated countries representants participated of the event.

 **4** |  Poland

#### Second phase

The second phase poll happened on the following day, also in Leeds, again with all 74 representants present.

### Classifiers

For the third edition, the number of participants was expanded again, from 12 to 16, with one new slot being given to the African, Asian, North American and South American comittees.

The number of participating countries of the event this time around were 90, all FIMA associated countries at the time. The classifiers were divided by continental comitees, and the respective winners would be classified to the first world cup, except for France, that was already classified as the host of the competition, and Italy, winner of the 1979 Meker World Cup.

#### EUMF (European Meker Federation)

Games begun on November 30th, 1980 and ended on February 4th, 1981. Featuring 32 of the 33 nations then affiliated to EUMF, where they were split in eight groups of four, and the best performing teams in each group would be ranked together, with the five best performing winners being classified to the world cup. Those winners were Austria, Belgium, England, Italy and Norway.

The games of the second phase were hosted in four cities in West Germany (Bonn, Cologne, Munich and Frankfurt)

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

Games begun on January 2nd, 1981 and ended in February 2nd, 1981. Featuring all 12 nations then affiliated to MCNCAC, split in two groups of six, with two winners being classified to the world cup, with the runner ups going on a match, where the winner would move on to the intercontinental play off. Said winners were Canada and Mexico, and the United States moved on to the play off.

The games were all hosted in three cities in Mexico (Mexico City, Aguascalientes and Guadalajara)

#### SAMC (South American Meker Commitee)

The south american qualifiers begun on January 2th, 1980 and ended in January 24th, 1980. All 10 SAMC affiliated nations participated, split in two groups of six, with two winners being classified to the world cup, with the runner ups going on a match, where the winner would move on to the intercontinental play off. Said winners were Chile and Colombia, and Uruguay moved on to the play off.

The games were hosted in three cities in Brazil (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre).

##### First Phase

 **4** |  Paraguay
 **5** |  Peru

#### MMASC (Main Meker Asian Comitee)

The qualifiers begun on December 15th, 1980 and ended on January 28th, 1981. 18 of the 19 MMASC affiliated nations participated, divided in three groups of six, where the winner of each group would be qualified to a second phase, a groupe where the best peforming team would be classified to the world cup and the runner up to the intercontinental play off. Said winner was Japan and the runner up was the Philippines.

The games were hosted in one indonesian city (Jakarta), Singapore and one malaysian city (Kuala Lumpur)

#### AMF (African Meker Federation)

The qualifiers begun on December 29th, 1980 and ended on January 28th, 1981. All 14 AMF affiliated nations participated, divided in two groups of six, where each winner would be qualified to the world cup. And they were Nigeria and Morocco.

All games were hosted in three south african cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban)

#### MOMC (Main Oceanic Meker Commitee)

The oceanic qualifiers begun on January 11th, 1981 and ended on January 13th, 1981. 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 15th to February 17th, 1981, in it, all four participating nations individual matches against one another, with the winners of both games being qualified to the world cup. Said winners were Uruguay and Australia.

### Classified Nations

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

### Urn filling

After the end of the Meker Main Stars in late 1980, the MWK (Meker World Ranking) was created, in order to sort the best current meker teams based on their recent campaigns, updated every month. The filling of the urns was decided based on the positions of each team in the ranking, with the four best placed teams in the first urn, with the following teams being placed on the subsequent three urns based on the same criteria, except for the host, that would always be in the first urn and Group A. And this is how the urns were filled, based on the chart of April 1981:

  Italy (1)
  England (2)
  Japan (4)

### Group Formation

The groups were formed in Leeds, England on May 4th, 1981, with the following results:

  Canada
  Chile
  Morocco

### Host Stadiums

Six stadiums were selected to host the games, All of which were already made before the competition. These were them:

* Laim Stadium, Munich
* Ottensen Stadium, Hamburg
* World Peace Stadium, Hannover
* Frankfurt Mekel Stadium, Frankfurt
* Hans Daniels Stadium, Bonn
* West Star Stadium, Cologne

## History

The opening match was West Germany and Canada on June 30th, 1981 in London. The two best performing teams of each group would be classified for the quarter finals.

### Final Stage

The two best teams of each group moved to the quarter finals in a bracket system. Eliminating one by one until only the winner remains.

## Aftermath

Japan got its first title, which guaranteed its participation in the 1982 Meker World Cup.

### Conclusion

**1981 MEKER WORLD CUP -**  West Germany

* **Winner:**  West Germany **(1st title)**
* Runner Up:  Italy
* Third place:  Canada
* Fourth place:  Belgium
* Highest score (difference):  Canada 4 - 0  Morocco
* Best scoring team:  West Germany (19 marks)