Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire - Année 1990 - Volume 26 - Numéro 1 - Pages 5-10The first world cups or the beginnings of modern sport, Georges Vigarello. World cup history teaches us how deeply soccer belongs to our social development. As it is responsive to mythical investment, it easily provides support to imaginary dynamics as well as to national fanaticism. Its history, moreover, shows the formation of the link between sport and the transformation of the economie landscape, between the presence of more and more supporters at games and the growth of mass tourism. It shows above all the development of a consumption item in which practice and profit become rapidly indissociable. 6 pages Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.