The 1934 World Cup was marred by being a high-profile instance of a sporting event being used for overt political gain.

[4][3] Although some historians and sports journalists have made accusations of corruption and meddling by Mussolini to influence the competition to the benefit of Italy,[5][3] Italy has always claimed that it deserved victory in the competition and the successful national team, considered one of the best in the country's history, emerged victorious also in the Olympic football tournament of 1936 hosted by Germany and in the 1938 World Cup hosted by France.

[7] After a lengthy decision-making process in which FIFA's executive committee met eight times,[8] Italy was chosen as the host nation at a meeting in Stockholm on 9 October 1932.

[16] This included 9 of the 12 European teams (Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Austria, and Switzerland) as well as Egypt.

The number of supporters travelling from other countries was higher than at any previous football tournament, including 7,000 from the Netherlands and 10,000 each from Austria and Switzerland.

The eight seeded teams – Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary – were kept apart in the first round.

[18] Hosts and favourites Italy won handsomely, defeating the USA 7–1; The New York Times correspondent wrote that "only the fine goal-tending of Julius Hjulian of Chicago kept the score as low as it was".

[19] Internal disputes meant Argentina's squad for the tournament did not contain a single member of the team which had reached the final in 1930.

[22] For the only time in World Cup history, the last eight consisted entirely of European teams – Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

In the quarter-finals, the first replayed match in World Cup history took place, when Italy and Spain drew 1–1 after extra time.

The Italians managed to score before the final whistle and then added another goal in extra time to be crowned World Cup winners.

[5][3][25][6] Nonetheless, Italy also won the following edition of the World Cup (held in France) as well as the Olympic football tournament in 1936.