How Italy won the 1934 World Cup: A solid defence, the class of Giuseppe Meazza and help from the officials

“Italy had wanted to host World Cup 1930, and refused to participate when it was instead awarded to Uruguay. So when Italy were granted the right to host World Cup 1934, Uruguay pulled the same trick and didn’t travel to Europe. Leaving aside the politics of it all, in a way you can’t blame them. This 16-team tournament was contested as a straight knockout competition, meaning Brazil and Argentina made extraordinarily long journeys by sea, only to play a single game in Italy. Uruguay’s victory four years earlier was heavily dependent upon home advantage, but Italy took that home advantage to a completely different level. They replicated Uruguay’s intense training camp in the period leading up to the tournament, but more significantly, this World Cup was blatantly used by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as propaganda tool, and coach Vittorio Pozzo later claimed that ‘Il Duce’ had personally asked him to select only Fascist Party members for Italy’s squad, although the players claimed they were only really interested in football and had little choice but to ‘support’ the nationalistic cause. …”
NY Times/The Athletic – Michael Cox

The Italian team performing a fascist salute at the 1934 World Cup