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
1930 FIFA World Cup 30 August 2010 at the age of 100 – eighty years after the tournament. Lucien Laurent, the scorer of the first ever World Cup Goal was the last surviving Member of the France Squad and was invited in 1998 Final seeing France lifting its first ever World Cup win also as the only France member. He died in 2005 at the age of 97. 1930 FIFA World Cup The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in Uruguay from 13 to 30 July 1930. FIFA,