The Quidditch World Cup

The 422nd Quidditch World Cup was held in 1994, with the final being played in mid-August. England hosted the tournament for the first time in over 30 years, and the final was played on a Monday evening (probably 16th August) in a magnificent golden stadium, which had been constructed on a deserted moor specifically for the purpose.

The World Cup is something of a wizarding institution, and a history of the tournament and details of the 1994 competition are given here.

History of the World Cup

The first World Cup was held in 1473, with the final being between Flanders and Transylvania. This is remembered for being the dirtiest game of Quidditch ever played, with a large number of new fouls invented during the match, including Transfiguring a Chaser into a polecat and attacking the opposing team with 100 vampire bats. It seems that all of these off-the-ball shenanigans have lead to the focus on the result of this match being lost, because whilst the violence of the encounter is all too keenly recalled, the final score - and hence the identity of the first-ever World Cup winners - is unknown.

The World Cup is now held every four years, and popular myth has it that this has been the case since the beginning. This cannot be true though, as there wouldn't have been anywhere near 422 tournaments by 1994 if there was a 4-year gap between each one, and the competition would not have been held in 1994 either - it would have been due in 1993. Hence it is very likely that the Cup was contested every year in the early days, before moving to the 4-yearly format in the mid-1800s.

The World Cup has always extended an invitation to take part to every Quidditch-playing nation, although it wasn't until the 17th century that any non-European teams actually took part. This is probably due to the distances involved and the greater difficulty of travelling in those days. Nowadays teams from every continent compete, and the winners can truly claim to be the best Quidditch team in the world. The 1990 World Cup final was a truly epic game, taking 5 days to complete, although it is not known what teams were involved.

1994 World Cup Qualifying

The final of the 1994 World Cup was contested between Bulgaria and Ireland, but both teams had to go through a number of matches to make it that far. The following details are known about the qualifying matches:

Early rounds:
Transylvania 390 England 10
Luxembourg vs Scotland - easy victory for Luxembourg
Uganda vs Wales - victory for Uganda

Semi-finals:
Ireland vs Peru - easy victory for Ireland

The 1994 World Cup Final

The 1994 final was played in a specially-constructed stadium on what was, according to Arthur Weasley, a "nice deserted moor". It was a massive event, with around 100,000 wizarding folk in attendance, and so security and access arrangements were very carefully planned. In particular, the need to keep the event away from prying Muggle eyes was paramount. The whole construction project required a task-force of 500 people working for an entire year to complete it.

The stadium was located next to a wood, which was used as an Apparating point for those travelling by these means. As many wizards are too young to have Apparition licences, or simply prefer to travel by other methods, 200 Porkeys were also set up in Britain alone (and presumably an awful lot more worldwide). These transported travellers to the other side of the wood, next to a pair of Muggle campsites which were being used to accommodate visitors overnight. Such arrangements were necessary due to the fact that the match could in theory last for several days, and nobody knew how long it was going to go on for.

The campsites were run by the Roberts and Payne families, all of whom were Muggles, and so precautions were taken to prevent them realising anything unusual was afoot. Wizards were asked to dress as Muggles and not to use magic in public, but these instructions were not strictly adhered to - wizards aren't very good at dressing as Muggles at the best of times, and the excitement of the occasion led to a certain amount of disregard for security all round. As a result, it was necessary for Ministry officials to repeatedly modify Mr Roberts' memory, leaving him confused at times.

As the match approached, salesmen with World Cup-related merchandise sprang up everywhere and the mood of excitement mounted. Finally, in the late afternoon a gong sounded from the stadium on the far side of the woods. This was the signal for everyone to make their way to the match.

A lantern-lit path through the trees led the way to the arena, a walk of around a mile - 20 minutes at a leisurely pace. The path emerged in the shadow of the stadium itself, which was exceptionally impressive: it was big enough to fit 10 cathedrals inside, it seated 100,000 people, and its huge golden walls towered up into the sky.

There were several entrances, beyond which stairs, richly-carpeted in purple, led up to the stands. Exits at each level led to different areas of the seating, with the prime seats in the Top Box right at the very summit. This was placed halfway along the pitch, at the mid-point between the two sets of goal hoops, and opposite a giant blackboard showing a number of advertisements for wizarding products. The air seemed to shimmer with the golden glow from the walls.

It took around half an hour for all the spectators to take their seats. There were velvet-covered match programmes to read, and the game was preceded by displays from the mascots of each team.

The Bulgarian team had Veela as their mascots, who entertained everybody (but the young men in particular) with their brand of sensual dancing. The Irish team had Leprechauns, who scattered their fake gold over the crowd.

The teams then took to the pitch, along with the referee Hassan Mostafa, the enormously moustached Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch. The match was quickly under way.

Ireland were the favourites, being generally regarded as the best team in the globe, despite Bulgaria boasting the world's best Seeker in Viktor Krum. Full details of the teams are:

Bulgaria
Robes: Scarlet.
Seeker: Viktor Krum
Keeper: Zograf
Beaters: Volkov, Vulchanov
Chasers: Levski, Dimitrov, Ivanova

Ireland
Robes: Green
Seeker: Aidan Lynch
Keeper: Barry Ryan
Beaters: Quigley, Connolly
Chasers: Mullet, Troy, Moran

Ireland quickly raced into a 30 - 0 lead, and although Bulgaria pulled back to 30 - 10, it wasn't too long until the score had moved on to 170 - 10. Krum was having a good game, using the Wronski Feint to cause his opposite number to crash into the ground, but his team-mates were getting little change out of the Irish. In the end Krum took a Bludger to the face just as Aidan Lynch spotted the Snitch. Lynch had a vital head start, but Krum isn't regarded as the best in the world for nothing, and despite his injury he snatched it from under his opponents nose, sending him hurtling into the ground once again for good measure.

Krum had no choice but to catch the Snitch, however, with Lynch a skilled Seeker who would surely have taken it if Krum had not. Therefore the scores were evened up somewhat, but the capture meant the end of the game and victory for Ireland by 170 points to 160.

Following the game, the teams were presented to the English and Bulgarian Ministers of Magic, and the winners were presented with the World Cup - a vast golden trophy that would be theirs for the next four years.

With the festivities over, the stadium finally emptied and the spectators all returned to their tents beyond the wood.