Thomas Balvay Thomas Balvay Thomas Balvay (2 February 1888 – 15 July 1945) was a football referee in the 1920s and 1930s and one of four European referees who participated in the first FIFA World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay. He was the only match official from France at the tournament. He had been an international referee since 1922 and twice refereed the Coupe de France (in 1926 and 1928). He travelled to Uruguay on the SS "Conte Verde", which also took Jules Rimet and the French, Belgian, Romanian and Brazilian teams to the first World Cup; picking up the teams en
FIFA World Cup Trophy have been melted down and sold. Only one piece of the Jules Rimet Trophy has been found, the original base which FIFA had kept in a basement of the federation's Zürich headquarters prior to 2015. The Confederation commissioned a replica of their own, made by Eastman Kodak, using of gold. This replica was presented to Brazilian military president João Figueiredo in 1984. The trophy was the subject of a 2014 documentary "Mysteries of the Rimet Trophy" shown as part of ESPN's series during the 2014 World Cup. A replacement trophy was commissioned by FIFA for the 1974 World Cup. Fifty-three