1966 World Cup
| World Cup 1966 | |
|---|---|
1966 FIFA World Cup official logo
|
|
| Tournament details | |
| Host country | England |
| Dates | 11–30 July (20 days) |
| Teams | 16 (from 4 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 8 (in 7 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 England (1st title)
|
| Runners-up |  West Germany |
| Third place |  Portugal |
| Fourth place |  Soviet Union |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 32 |
| Goals scored | 89 (2.78 per match) |
| Attendance | 1,563,135 (48,848 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Eusébio (9 goals) |
| Best young player |
Franz Beckenbauer
|
The 1966 FIFA World Cup, the eighth staging of the World Cup, was held in England from 11 to 30 July. England beat West Germany 4–2 in the final, winning the Jules Rimet Trophy. With this victory, England won their first FIFA World Cup title and became the third World Cup host to win the tournament after Uruguay in 1930 and Italy in 1934.
The 1966 Final, held at Wembley Stadium, was the last to be broadcast in black and white. The tournament held a FIFA record for the largest average attendance, for 28 years, until it was surpassed by the United States in 1994.
England was chosen as host of the 1966 World Cup in Rome, Italy on 22 August 1960, over rival bids from West Germany and Spain.
Despite the Africans' absence, there was another new record number of entries for the qualifying tournament, with 70 nations taking part. After all the arguments, FIFA finally ruled that ten teams from Europe would qualify, along with four from South America, one from Asia and one from North and Central America.
Portugal and North Korea qualified for the first time. Portugal would not qualify again until 1986, while North Korea's next appearance was at the 2010 tournament. This was also Switzerland's last World Cup finals until 1994. Notable absentees from this tournament included 1962 semi-finalists Yugoslavia and 1962 finalists Czechoslovakia.
Sixteen African nations boycotted the tournament in protest at a 1964 FIFA ruling that required the three second-round winners from the African zone to enter a play-off round against the winners of the Asian zone in order to win a place at the finals. The Africans felt that winning their zone was enough in itself to merit qualification for the finals. They also protested against the readmission of South Africa to FIFA in 1963, despite its expulsion from CAF due to the apartheid regime. South Africa was subsequently assigned to Asia and Oceania qualifying group, before being suspended again under pressure from other African nations in October 1964. Despite this, all African teams decided anyway to pull out of World Cup until at least one African team had a place assured in the World Cup, something which was put in place for the 1970 FIFA World Cup and all subsequent World Cup finals.
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