The 13 participants in the inaugural tournament were Argentina, Chile, France, Mexico, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Bolivia, Romania, Peru, USA, Paraguay, Belgium and of course the hosts Uruguay.

Romania, France, Belgium and Brazil all took passage on the ocean liner the SS Conte Verde. This luxury vessel also brought match officials, Jules Rimet (FIFA president) and the trophy ‘Victory’ which was later renamed the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1946 in dedication to the FIFA president.

The Yugoslavian team could not bring any Croatians due to their boycotting of the national team and lacking funding they decided to round up Serbian amateurs from two rival clubs in Belgrade, BSK and SK Jugoslavija (dissolved in 1945) along with 3 Serbians who played for French clubs.

Due to the delays in putting their squad together the Yugoslavian team were unable to book passage on the SS Conte Verde and had to instead make their way on a mail steamship named Florida which departed from Marseille.

Egypt should have joined in on this trip on the Florida but heavy delays in their commute caused by a storm had them miss out on the tournament altogether.

The USA and Mexico buddied up to set sail on the SS Munargo from New York. USA coach and ex-Celtic player Robert Millar said that the ship had no open-air deck to train on or bathroom facilities good enough for the teams.