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 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.
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. Pickles met
an untimely end the following year when he was accidentally strangled by his own
leash. 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 so be eliminated along with Bulgaria. Brazil was defeated by Hungary and Portugal.
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 surprisingly easy 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
July 30th 1966, English
football's finest hour. Bobby Moore lifts the Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley as
England are crowned World Champions.London's Wembley Stadium provided the venue
for the final, and 97,000 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 onto the goal line then back into the field of play and was controversially deemed to have crossed the line by the linesman and referee. 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. 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 Jack jersey with the words "WORLD CUP". It is notable that the
symbols are theoretically wrong, as the tournament took place exclusively in England,
not the whole of the United Kingdom.
Here are some more sites, there are books and articles on the subjects in many internet places, or internet book shops, bookstores, at the bottom, are lists of which were the worst regimes of the past few centuries.
An Index with links to almost all our sites.
The World's most powerful countries in 2007
The World's Most powerful countries in periods across Human History, like 1900, or 1800
What were the nicest regimes ever
What regimes were the worst in the 20thC,
The History Lounge, - Where you can peruse historical related articles at your own pleasure.
What were the largest empires ever, find out here
A site on the Belgian Congo, and how the king of that land killed 10s of millions of Congolese
Why the French Revolution was good
The most evil regimes of the 19th century
A Site telling the story of the fall of Rome, and how it affected Britain
The Best regimes ever in terms of achievers
Worst 17th Century regimes ever
A site stating what have been the world's largest empires ever
What would happen in a war between these sides
What were the most evil regimes ever
A list stating what were the worst 1990s regimes
What were the worst 16th Century regimes ever
What were the worst 15th Century regimes ever
What were the worst 2000s regimes
A site stating the 10 largest majority English speaking lands, as their main tongue in the world
A site on space, and the records to do with this subject
My Worst regimes of the 20th century essay