FIFA World Cup hosts second of these, the 1938 FIFA World Cup, in France was controversial, as the South American countries had been led to understand that the World Cup would rotate between the two continents. Both Argentina and Uruguay thus boycotted the tournament. The first tournament following World War II, held in Brazil in 1950, had three teams withdraw for either financial problems or disagreements with the organization. To avoid any future boycotts or controversy, FIFA began a pattern of alternation between the Americas and Europe, which continued until the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Asia. The system evolved so that the host
England at the FIFA World Cup elite group of referees who has been called up for three consecutive World Cups (1950–1958). <noinclude> England at the FIFA World Cup The England national football team has competed at the FIFA World Cup since 1950. The FIFA World Cup is the premier competitive international football tournament, first played in 1930, whose finals stage has been held every four years since, except 1942 and 1946, due to the Second World War. The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the "World Cup Finals"). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three