1954 FIFA World Cup
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FIFA Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft 1954 Schweiz Championnat du Monde de Football 1954 Campionato mondiale di calcio 1954 Campiunadis mundials da ballape 1954 |
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1954 FIFA World Cup official logo
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| Tournament details | |
| Host country | Switzerland |
| Dates | 16 June – 4 July (19 days) |
| Teams | 16 (from 4 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 6 (in 6 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 West Germany (1st title)
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| Runners-up |  Hungary |
| Third place |  Austria |
| Fourth place |  Uruguay |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 26 |
| Goals scored | 140 (5.38 per match) |
| Attendance | 768,607 (29,562 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Sándor Kocsis (11 goals) |
The 1954 FIFA World Cup, the fifth staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzerland was chosen as hosts in July 1946. The tournament set a number of all-time records for goal-scoring, including the highest average goals scored per game. The tournament was won by West Germany, who defeated Hungary 3–2 in the final, giving them their first title.
Switzerland was awarded the tournament unopposed on 22 July 1946, the same day that Brazil was selected for the 1950 World Cup, in Luxembourg City.
The hosts (Switzerland) and the defending champions (Uruguay) qualified automatically. Of the remaining 14 places, 11 were allocated to Europe (including Egypt, Turkey and Israel), two to the Americas, and one to Asia.
Scotland, Turkey and South Korea made their World Cup debuts at this tournament (Turkey and Scotland had qualified for the 1950 competition but both withdrew). Austria appeared for the first time since 1934. Turkey would not participate at a finals again until the 2002 competition, while South Korea's next appearance would be in 1986.
The third and fourth place teams from 1950, Sweden and Spain, both failed to qualify. In a shock result, Spain was eliminated by Turkey: after the two countries had tied a three-game series, Turkey progressed by drawing of lots.
German teams were allowed to qualify again, after having been banned from the 1950 FIFA World Cup. West Germany qualified against fellow Germans from the Saarland (which then was a French protectorate), while East Germany had not entered, cancelling international football games after the East German uprising of 1953. Argentina declined to participate for the third World Cup in succession.
The 1954 tournament used a unique format. The sixteen qualifying teams were divided into four groups of four teams each. Each group contained two seeded teams and two unseeded teams. Only four matches were scheduled for each group, each pitting a seeded team against an unseeded team. This contrasts with the usual round-robin in which every team plays every other team: six matches in each group. Another oddity was that extra time, which in most tournaments is not employed at the group stage, was played in the group games if the score was level after 90 minutes, with the result being a draw if the scores were still level after 120 minutes.
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Wikipedia