Uruguay has won two World Cup titles but there are four stars on its uniform. Here’s why

Uruguay is one of the most celebrated soccer nations on the planet.

Much of its notoriety does come from its heyday as despite boasting a major world title in recent memory, the South American nation won the first FIFA World Cup in 1930, and then again in 1950 in Brazil.

Earlier this summer, Uruguay was a win away from qualifying for the Copa America but lost in the semifinals to Colombia. Besides the World Cup, the Copa America is the second-largest tournament in South America, one Uruguay can lay claim to winning 15 times, with its last victory in 2011.

However, winning domestic championships doesn’t add stars above the crest on your country’s uniform — winning major world titles does.

Uruguay has only won two FIFA World Cups. So why are there four stars above its uniform?

Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

FIFA’s hand to play

Before capturing World Cup glory in 1930, Uruguay celebrated wins in the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games. Those games, a 3-0 win over Switzerland in 1924 and a match that assuredly kickstarted a rivalry following a 2-1 defeat of fellow South American nation, Argentina in 1928, were actually FIFA sanctioned — not officially recognized yet by the International Olympic Committee.

See, the IOC let FIFA who already had its act together when it came to soccer, take the lead on organizing an operating the soccer portion of the Summer Games, a job bestowed upon FIFA until soccer’s largest governing body decided it wanted to formulate its own tournament.

Enter the 13-nation FIFA World Cup in 1930.

Still, because FIFA largely can lay claim to organizing Olympic soccer, it recognizes any nation that won in those events as FIFA-sanctioned wins.

So for Uruguay, two wins in the Summer Games, and two wins in the World Cup.

Four stars.

Photo by Stephen Nadler/ISI Photos/Getty Images

Controversy abounds

However, it’s reported that FIFA wanted to renege on honoring Uruguay’s four stars in advance of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. It’s said that the organization reached out to Puma, Uruguay’s official apparel supplier and told them to remove two of the stars on their kits.

Naturally, Puma reached out to the Uruguayan federation, who were appalled at FIFA’s decision to one, not want to readily honor the wins of the 1924 and 1928 Summer Games but also not inform the federation of its decision, first.

“FIFA has always recognized, even publicly, that Uruguay has four World Cups because in 1924 and 1928 it [the Olympic football tournament] was organised by FIFA and it’s in 1930 when they decided to do the championships independently,” AUF vice president Gaston Tealdi said according to a 2022 ESPN report.

In the end…

Despite FIFA’s, umm, suggestions, Uruguay proudly took the field in its matches in Qatar with four stars emblazoned across its Puma uniforms, perhaps becoming the best user case for this hilarious meme…

In that tournament however, La Celeste or “The Sky Blue” crashed out of Group H — marking the first time they failed to reach the knockout stages of a World Cup since 2022. following a combination of a 2-0 loss to Portugal, and being on the latter end in goal differential, being able to boast four stars across its chest, the same as it always had assuredly felt like a little victory.