1966 FIFA WORLD CUP

The '1966 FIFA World Cup', the eighth staging of the World Cup, was held in England from July 11 to July 30. England was chosen as hosts by FIFA in August 1960 to celebrate the centenary of the codification of football in England. It was a year of triumph for the host nation, as England won the final, controversialy beating West Germany 4-2, giving them their first (and so far only) World Cup triumph, and becoming the first host to win the tournament since Italy won it in 1934.

Contents

Qualification

Summary

1966 FIFA World Cup Final

Mascot

In pop culture

Venues

Match officials

Squads

Results

First round

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Third place match

Final

Awards

Scorers

Other facts

External links

Qualification

Main articles: 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification

Summary

The 1966 World Cup had a rather unusual hero off the field, a dog called Pickles. In the build up to the tournament the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen from an exhibition display. A nation wide hunt for the icon ensued. It was later discovered wrapped in some newspaper as the dog sniffed under some bushes in London. The FA commissioned a replica cup in case the original cup was not found in time. This replica is held at the English National Football Museum, where it is on display.
The format of the 1966 competition remained the same as 1962: 16 qualified teams were divided into four groups of four. The top two teams in each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

Despite achieving record attendances for the time, 1966 was a World Cup with few goals as the teams began to play much more tactically and defensively. This was exemplified by Alf Ramsey's England as they finished top of Group 1 with only four goals to their credit, but having none scored against them. Uruguay were the other team to qualify from that group at the expense of both Mexico and France. All the group's matches were played at Wembley Stadium apart from the match between Uruguay and France which took place at White City Stadium.
In Group 2, West Germany and Argentina qualified with ease as they both finished the group with 5 points, Spain managed 2, while Switzerland left the competition after losing all three group matches.
In the northwest of England, Old Trafford and Goodison Park played host to Group 3 which saw the World Cup holders, Brazil, finish in third place behind Portugal and Hungary and controversionally eliminated along with Bulgaria. Brazil were defeated by Hungary and Portugal in controversial wins as the English referees from those two matches, Kenneth Dagnall and George McCabe, decided to ignore a large amount of serious, physical and sometimes brutal fouls to the Brazilians often targeted at key players. Due to the treatment of the Brazilians, Pele sworned not to ever play in a FIFA World Cup.
Group 4, however, provided the biggest upset when North Korea beat Italy 1-0, and finished above them, earning themselves qualification along with the USSR. Chile finished bottom of the group.
The quarter-finals provided a controversial victory for West Germany as they cruised past Uruguay 4-0. The referee was Jim Finney, from England, who sent off two players from Uruguay: Horacio Troche and Hector Silva. It appeared as though the surprise package North Korea might do the same to Portugal when after 22 minutes they were in the lead 3-0. It fell to one of the greatest stars of the tournament, Eusébio, to change that. He scored four goals in the game and with José Augusto adding a fifth in the 78th minute, one of the most incredible comebacks was complete.
Meanwhile in the other two games, Ferenc Bene's late goal for Hungary against the USSR, who were led by Lev Yashin's stellar goalkeeping, proved little more than a consolation as they crashed out 2-1, and the only goal between Argentina and England came courtesy of England's Geoff Hurst. During that controversial game (for more details see Argentina and England football rivalry), Argentina's Antonio Rattín became the first player to be sent off in a senior international football match at Wembley. The German referee, Rudolf Kreitlein, gave Rattín his marching orders for dissent and the 'look on his face', even though he understood no Spanish. Rattín at first refused to leave the field and eventually had to be escorted by several policemen.
At this point, all semifinalists were from Europe. Both semi-finals finished 2-1: Franz Beckenbauer provided the winning goal for West Germany as they beat the USSR, while Bobby Charlton scored both goals in England's triumph against Portugal. Portugal went on to beat the USSR 2-1 to take third place.

1966 FIFA World Cup Final

''For more information, see 1966 FIFA World Cup Final''

London's Wembley Stadium provided the venue for the final, and 98,000 people crammed inside to watch. After 12 minutes 32 seconds Helmut Haller had put West Germany ahead, but the score was levelled by Geoff Hurst four minutes later. Martin Peters put England in the lead in the 78th minute; England looked set to claim the title when the referee awarded a free kick to West Germany with one minute left. The ball was launched goalward and Wolfgang Weber managed to poke it across the line, with England appealing in vain for handball as the ball came through the crowded penalty area.
With the score level at 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes, the game went to extra time. In the 98th minute Hurst found himself on the score sheet again; his shot hit the crossbar, bounced down into the goalmouth just. It has been debated ever since whether it did cross the line, which would have made a crucial difference, since the score towards the end of extra time would have remained at 2-2, and West Germany would not have allowed Hurst the space to score what would have been the third goal. Whether the ball crossed the goal line or not has been a matter of discussion for decades, and the controversial call has become part of World Cup history. Recent digitally-enhanced footage clearly illustrates that Geoff Hurst's second goal did not cross the line [1]. In the last minute it was Hurst again, who dribbled easily through the German half to net his third goal, just as the gathered crowd invaded the pitch to celebrate with the team, thus cementing the victory for England. This made Geoff Hurst the only player ever to have scored three times in a World Cup final.
BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme's description of the match's closing moments has gone down in history: "Some people are on the pitch. They think it's all over." ''(Hurst scores)'' "It is now!".
England received the recovered Jules Rimet trophy from the Queen and were crowned World Cup winners for the first time.

Mascot

''World Cup Willie'', the mascot for the 1966 competition, was the first World Cup mascot, and one of the first mascots to be associated with a major sporting competition. ''World Cup Willie'' is a lion, a typical symbol of the United Kingdom, wearing a Union Flag jersey with the words "WORLD CUP".

In pop culture

The "secret" to Hurst's disputed second goal is comically referred to, in passing, in the BBC Cold War comedy ''Sleepers.''
There was a Nike advert displaying Eric Cantona quoting "'66 was a great year for English Football. Eric was born.", showing Eric Cantona's iconic status among the fans.

Venues

Seven cities hosted the tournament:

★ Birmingham, Villa Park

★ Liverpool, Goodison Park

★ London, Wembley Stadium and White City Stadium

★ Manchester, Old Trafford

★ Middlesbrough, Ayresome Park

★ Sheffield, Hillsborough Stadium

★ Sunderland, Roker Park

Match officials

;Africa

★ Ali Kandil


;Asia

★ Menachem Ashkenazi


;Europe

★ John Adair

★ Tofik Bakhramov

★ Leo Callaghan

★ Joaquim Campos

★ Ken Dagnall

★ Gottfried Dienst

★ Jim Finney

★ Karol Galba

★ Juan Gardeazábal Garay

★ Rudolf Kreitlein

★ Concetto Lo Bello

★ Bertil Löow

★ George McCabe

★ Hugh Phillips

★ Dimitar Roumentchev

★ Pierre Schwinte

★ Kurt Tschenscher

★ Konstantin Zecevic

★ István Zsolt
;South America

★ José María Codesal

★ Robert Goicoechea

★ Armando Marques

★ Arturo Yamasaki

Squads

For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see ''1966 FIFA World Cup squads''.

Results

First round

Group 1

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
	'5'	3	2	1	0	4	0
	'4'	3	1	2	0	2	1
	'2'	3	0	2	1	1	3
	'1'	3	0	1	2	2	5

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Group 2

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
	'5'	3	2	1	0	7	1
	'5'	3	2	1	0	4	1
	'2'	3	1	0	2	4	5
	'0'	3	0	0	3	1	9

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West Germany were placed first due to superior goal average.

Group 3

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
	'6'	3	3	0	0	9	2
	'4'	3	2	0	1	7	5
	'2'	3	1	0	2	4	6
	'0'	3	0	0	3	1	8

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Group 4

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
	'6'	3	3	0	0	6	1
	'4'	3	1	1	1	2	4
	'2'	3	1	0	2	2	2
	'1'	3	0	1	2	2	5

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Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third place match

Final

Awards

1966 World Cup Winners
England 'England' 'First title'

Scorers

'9 goals'

★ Eusébio


'6 goals'

★ Helmut Haller


'4 goals'

★ Geoff Hurst

★ Franz Beckenbauer

★ Ferenc Bene

★ Valeriy Porkujan


'3 goals'

★ Luis Artime

★ Bobby Charlton

★ Roger Hunt

★ José Augusto

★ José Torres

★ Eduard Malofeyev
'2 goals'

★ Rubén Marcos

★ Uwe Seeler

★ Kálmán Mészöly

★ Pak Seung-Zin

★ Igor Chislenko


'1 goal'

★ Ermindo Onega

★ Garrincha

★ Pelé

★ Rildo

★ Tostão

★ Georgi Asparuhov

★ Martin Peters

★ Héctor De Bourgoing

★ Gérard Hausser

★ Lothar Emmerich

★ Sigfried Held

★ Wolfgang Weber

★ János Farkas

★ Paolo Barison

★ Sandro Mazzola

★ Enrique Borja

★ Lee Dong-Woon

★ Pak Doo-Ik

★ Yang Sung-Kook

★ António Simões

★ Anatoliy Banishevskiy

★ Amancio

★ Josep Fusté

★ Pirri

★ Manuel Sanchís

★ René-Pierre Quentin

★ Julio César Cortés

★ Pedro Rocha


'Own goals'

★ Ivan Davidov (for Hungary)

★ Ivan Vutsov (for Portugal)
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Other facts

★ The World Cup victory by England was success was ranked third of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in 2002 by Channel 4.

★ Today, this World Cup is recognized as being an important event in the evolution of international football as a player originally from Africa (Portugal's Eusébio) finished as top goalscorer, a team from Asia (North Korea) scored one of the biggest upsets of all time, and the victory of an Anglophone nation gaining the sport larger-than-average notice in the United States and Australia.

★ This World Cup was claimed to be the origin of the fierce rivalry between the English team and Argentina, and between England and Germany, due to the two controversial matches.

External links

★ 1966 FIFA World Cup on FIFA.com

★ Details at RSSSF

★ History of the World Cup-1966

★ Planet World Cup - England 1966