1980 Meker World Cup

The **1980 Meker World Cup** was the second edition of the Meker World Cup, hosted in France and going from July 1st to July 19th, 1980. The winner of this edition was Japan.

## Before the cup

### Host selection

The second edition of the cup was the first where the FIMA commitee joined together with its participant nations to elect a country to be the host of the competition. Five countries submitted applications to join: Argentina, France, Hungary, Japan and Scotland. The selection was decided on two phases of polls, the first one with all the countries submitted, the final one with the two most voted nations of the first phase.

#### First phase

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

 **4** |  Hungary
 **5** |  Argentina

#### Second phase

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

### Classifiers

With the success of the first edition of the event, FIMA expanded the number of participating countries from 10 to 12, including a new slot for EUMF and other for the intercontinental play off.

The number of participating countries of the event this time around were 74, 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 December 6th, 1979 and ended on February 2nd, 1980. Featuring 28 of the 30 nations then affiliated to EUMF, aside from England, all 28 nations were put on two-way duels where the winners would pass to the second phase, where they were split in two groups of seven, and the two best performing teams in each group would be classified to the world cup. Those winners were England, Netherlands, Norway, and West Germany.

The games of the second phase were hosted in four cities in France (Paris, Nice, Lyon and Bordeaux)

#### First phase

The score displayed is the combination of the scores of both games.

#### Second phase

The second phase featured all winners of the games of the first phase.

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

Games begun on January 4th, 1980 and ended in February 2nd, 1980. Featuring all 10 nations then affiliated to MCNCAC, split in two groups of five, with two winners being classified for the second phase, where they would go on a match, the winner would be classified to the cup, the loser gets classified to the play off. Said winner was the United States and Mexico moved on to the play off.

The games were all hosted in three cities in the United States (Seattle, Portland and Boise)

 **3** |  Jamaica
 **4** |  Belize
 **5** |  Cuba

#### SAMC (South American Meker Commitee)

The south american qualifiers begun on January 2th, 1980 and ended in January 24th, 1980. All 8 SAMC affiliated nations participated in a double group format, where the winners would be qualified to the second phase, where they would do a match between each other, the winner gets classified to the world cup, the loser moves on to the intercontinental play off. Said winner was Colombia and the runner up was Uruguay.

The games were hosted in three cities in Argentina (Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Rosario).

##### First Phase

 **3** |  Argentina
 **4** |  Bolivia

#### MMASC (Main Meker Asian Comitee)

The qualifiers begun on December 24th, 1979 and ended on January 29th, 1980. all 16 MMASC affiliated nations participated, divided in four groups of four, where the winner of each group would be qualified to a second phase, a bracket system where the winner of the final game 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 two lebanese cities (Beirut and Sidon) and one syrian city. (Aleppo)

#### AMF (African Meker Federation)

The qualifiers begun on January 4th, 1980 and ended on January 29th, 1980. All 8 AMF affiliated nations participated, divided in two groups of four, 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 moroccan cities (Casablanca and Rabat)

 **3** |  Kenya
 **4** |  Zaire

#### MOMC (Main Oceanic Meker Commitee)

The oceanic qualifiers begun on January 11th, 1980 and ended on January 13th, 1980. 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 16th to February 18th, 1980, 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 Mexico and Australia.

  Philippines

### Classified Nations

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

#### Urn filling

Two groups of five teams were selected on April 25th, 1980 in Leeds. Still with no Meker World Ranking, there was only the Meker Main Stars ranking (MMS), that included the following nations: England, France, Italy, West Germany, United States and Japan. Since all these nations classified to the world cup, and with the presence of one more urn, they had to agree in a division, of which four teams would make Urn 1 and which 2 would make Urn 2, eventually, it was agreed on April 19th, that the two teams on Urn 2 would be United States and Japan.

After raffling the remaining slots, this is how the urns were filled:

 Urn 2
 Urn 3

#### Group formation

One country of each urn would make into each group. These were the groups formed:

  Japan
  Colombia

### Host Stadiums

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

* Île-de-France Stadium, Paris
* Patriarche Stadium, Lyon
* Nouvelle Fleur Stadium, Paris
* Mechér Provence Stadium, Marseille
* Aquitaine du Sud Stadium, Bordeaux

## History

The opening match was France and Japan on July 1st, 1980 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 1981 Meker World Cup.

### Ranking

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### Conclusion

**1980 MEKER WORLD CUP -**  France

* **Winner:**  Japan **(1st title)**
* Runner Up:  Norway
* Third place:  Italy
* Fourth place:  West Germany
* Highest score (difference):  Italy 5 - 0  Egypt
* Best scoring team:  Italy (16 marks)