The reason why Uruguay's football uniform features 4 stars

The national football team of Uruguay, which will have a group match for the 2022 Qatar World Cup against South Korea on Thursday, had the first on-site training in the Al Ersal training center on Saturday. The training uniform Uruguayan players wore had four stars on the left chest.

According to FIFA, Brazil was the first team to add stars to their World Cup uniforms. Brazil achieved a milestone of getting three World Cup wins by winning the 1970 Mexico World Cup and added three stars above the national team’s emblem to mark the milestone. As the country won the 1994 U.S. World Cup and the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, the number of stars also increased to five.

It’s not only Brazil. Seven out of eight countries that have won World Cup feature stars that match their number of wins. Uruguay is an exception. The country won the World Cup twice in the first World Cup held in Uruguay in 1930, and the 1950 Brazil World Cup, but its uniform features four stars.

“The other two stars of Uruguay are to celebrate its gold medals won in the 1924 Paris Olympics and the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics,” said FIFA. “Uruguay is the only country that regards winning the Olympics before the establishment of the World Cup comparable to winning the World Cup,” it added. “There are no strict criteria regarding the number of stars to be added to the uniform.”

“We must look into history to understand the reasoning behind Uruguay’s insistence on having four stars,” said French media La Depeche. “The country aims to match Brazil’s record by earning its fifth star in the upcoming World Cup.” Uruguay was forcefully annexed by Brazil and became independent in 1828. Brazil also had four stars before the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, in which the Uruguayan football team wore the uniform with four stars for the first time.


Bae-Jung Kim wanted@donga.com