With 99 days remaining until the kick-off of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Chronicle Sport will be publishing, daily, some historical facts relative to the world’s most popular lucrative sporting event.

Today, we take you back to the 1938 World Cup which was the third hosting of the event, where the Cuba National Football Team became the first Caribbean team to participate in the FIFA World Cup.

Cuba’s qualification came about as a result of the decision to hold this the third World Cup tournament in France.

Poorly received in the Americas who felt the tournament should have returned to their side of the globe after the second one was held in Italy, all nations in South America except Brazil withdrew, and all CONCACAF nations except Cuba withdrew, thus the two qualified by default.

The tournament was held as a straight knock-out tournament of 16 nations and once the tournament got on the way, the Cuban team defeated Romania in a replay 2–1 after drawing against them 3–3.

They (Cuba) were then eliminated in the quarter-finals by Sweden, 8–0. Cuba has not returned to the World Cup since. They have however finished second in the Caribbean Cup in 1996, 1999 and 2005 and won the 2012 Caribbean Cup.

Haiti (1974 West Germany), Jamaica (1998 France) and Trinidad and Tobago (2010 Germany) are the other Caribbean sides to feature at the World Cup.