FRANCE 98 – England 1966

The first major event to be covered by television, and an enormous popular success, the World Cup took on another dimension in 1966. On the pitch the host nation England ran out the winner, leaving its opponents feeling hard done by.

 With fifteen African nations declaring forfeit even before a single match had kicked off, the 1966 World Cup qualifiers didn’t get off to the best of starts. The Africans’ protest was the result of a new FIFA rule stipulating that the winner of the Africa zone must then beat the winner of either the Asia or Oceania zone in order to reach the 1966 finals. The Africans believed that winning their zone should have been enough to go straight through to the finals. This 1964 ruling was eventually overturned 4 years later in Africa’s favour. Mean-while, with seventy teams taking part in the qualifiers – a new record – FIFA decided that ten teams should qualify from Europe, four from South America, and one from North and Central America.

Notable first-time qualifiers were the Portuguese, who reached the finals despite being drawn in the same group as Czechoslovakia, a finalist four years earlier. The English, in front of their own crowd and the cameras of the BBC, were, needless to say, among the tournament favourites. Playing proficiently and without conceding a goal, they won through to the quarter-finals, draw-ing (0-0) against Uruguay, winning (2-0) against Mexico and again (2-0) against France. But the big news of the first round was the elimination of the title-holder, Brazil. After beating Bulgaria, Pele and his team-mates went down to Hungary and then the surprise team, Portugal. And once again Pele was a victim of over-physical play on the part of defenders. Injured against Bulgaria, he missed the Hungary game before again being carried off against Portugal!

Dubious champions
Among those qualifying for the second round were the North Koreans, who surprised everybody by knocking out the Italians and then taking a three-nil lead over the Portuguese in the tournament’s most dazzling match. Portugal fought back and eventually triumphed (5-3), with Eusebio supplying four of the goals. The rest of the tournament, however, failed to maintain this momentum. The English, who had the distinct advantage of playing all their games at Wembley, eventually won the title, beating Germany (4-2) after extra-time in the Final. What spoiled this World Cup for many, however, was that England, while inspired by Bobby Charlton in midfield, was awarded a highly dubious winning goal by referee Gottfried Dienst. Thus ended the first World Cup of the television era.