1966 FIFA World Cup

• 1. Introduction

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  The Jules Rimet trophy went missing months before the 1966 FIFA World Cup began. A dog named Pickles found it, wrapped in newspaper beneath the bushes of a London garden. The Football Association, uncertain the original would be recovered in time, commissioned a replica. England lifted the recovered original themselves. On the 30th of July at Wembley Stadium, they defeated West Germany 4-2 after extra time. BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme captured the closing seconds: "Some people are on the pitch. They think it's all over... It is now!" The tournament was the first World Cup held in the English-speaking world. It arrived without an entire continent of competitors. The host nation spent the tournament trying to manage the presence of a rival state it did not recognise. And the refereeing controversies were severe enough to reshape the rules of the game.

• 2. The African Stand

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  All fifteen African nations that had entered the qualifying competition withdrew in protest before the 1966 tournament began. The immediate cause was a 1964 FIFA ruling. That ruling required the three second-round winners from Africa to compete in a playoff against the winners of the Asian zone, just for a chance to qualify. The Confederation of African Football argued that winning within Africa should itself earn a place.

  South Africa's readmission to FIFA in 1963 deepened the grievance. The country had been expelled from the Confederation of African Football in 1958 because of its apartheid regime. African nations protested both the readmission and the qualifying formula.

  FIFA responded to the boycott by fining the Confederation 5,000 Swiss francs. Yidnekatchew Tessema, then president of the Confederation, called the punishment "methods of intimidation and repression designed to discourage any further impulses of a similar nature."

  South Africa was subsequently reassigned to the Asia and Oceania qualifying group. Pressure from other African nations led to South Africa's disqualification from that group in October 1964. FIFA still refused to change the qualifying format for 1966.

  The Confederation warned FIFA it would not participate in 1970 qualifying unless at least one African nation received an automatic berth. That guarantee was granted for the 1970 tournament and has applied to every World Cup since.

  Players from Portugal's African colonies of Angola and Mozambique took part in the tournament itself, representing Portugal.

• 3. The Diplomatic Problem

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  Portugal and North Korea both qualified for a World Cup for the first time in 1966. North Korea's presence created a political problem for the host nation. The United Kingdom had fought for South Korea in the Korean War and did not formally recognise North Korea as a state. British officials worried that North Korea's participation would damage relations with South Korea and the United States.

  FIFA made its position clear: if any qualified team was denied entry, the tournament would be moved to another country. The British Foreign Office settled on a plan. National anthems and meetings with state figures, including Queen Elizabeth II, would take place only in the opening match and the final. North Korea was not scheduled for the opening match and was considered unlikely to reach the final.

  A Foreign Office proposal would have removed stadium flags as each team was eliminated. The timing was designed to coincide with an expected early North Korean exit. The Department of Education and Science vetoed it. A Foreign Office memo written months before the tournament had also proposed denying visas to North Korean players. None of those plans held.

  North Korea beat Italy 1-0 at Ayresome Park in Middlesbrough. They finished above Italy in their group and advanced to the quarter-finals. It was the first time any nation from outside Europe or the Americas had progressed beyond the group stage of a World Cup.

• 4. Eusébio in Full

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  At Goodison Park in Liverpool, North Korea led 3-0 against Portugal after just 22 minutes of their quarter-final. The recovery that followed came almost entirely from one man. Eusébio scored four goals, and José Augusto added a fifth in the 78th minute, giving Portugal a 5-3 win. Those four goals were part of Eusébio's tournament total of nine. That tally earned him the golden boot, three goals ahead of second-placed Helmut Haller.

  Portugal had never before reached a World Cup final tournament. They won all three of their group stage matches. In the semi-final against England, Jack Charlton handled the ball on the goal line in the 82nd minute. Portugal converted the penalty from that handball. Bobby Charlton had scored both England goals, securing a 2-1 win for the hosts.

  Portugal beat the Soviet Union 2-1 to take third place. Finishing third in a debut World Cup appearance was the best result any newcomer had achieved since 1934. In the other semi-final, Franz Beckenbauer scored with a left-foot shot from the edge of the area. It gave West Germany a 2-1 win over the Soviet Union.

• 5. Violence and the Card

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  Pelé entered the 1966 tournament as the game's most celebrated player and left it on a stretcher. In Brazil's opening match, a strong tackle to the knee forced him off the pitch and kept him out of the following game against Hungary. When Pelé returned for Brazil's final group match against Portugal, defender João Morais put him on the ground with heavy challenges. Morais was not dismissed. Brazil lost 3-1 and were eliminated. Reigning champions losing at the group stage had happened only once before, when Italy exited in 1950. It would not happen again for another 36 years.

  Rudolf Kreitlein refereed the quarter-final between England and Argentina. Argentina's captain Antonio Rattín was dismissed for what was described as "violence of the tongue." Rattín refused to leave the field and required a police escort. Geoff Hurst's headed goal, twelve minutes from the end of normal time, decided the match. Argentina came to call that game "el robo del siglo."

  Jim Finney refereed the quarter-final between West Germany and Uruguay. He dismissed two Uruguayan players, Horacio Troche and Héctor Silva, shortly after halftime. Uruguay conceded three goals while reduced to nine men. South American media described the pattern as evidence of European referee bias.

  A 2013 study by researchers at Berlin's Humboldt University linked the 1966 West Germany squad to doping. The report was commissioned by the German Olympic Sports Confederation and traced a culture of doping across many sports over decades.

  FIFA drew lessons from the tournament's officiating controversies before the 1970 World Cup. The governing body introduced the yellow and red card system, and two substitutions per team were permitted from then on. West Germany had entered the competition at 25/1 outsiders with bookmakers, behind England's 9/2 and Brazil's 9/4.

• 6. The Final

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  Gottfried Dienst of Switzerland refereed the final. After 12 minutes and 32 seconds, Helmut Haller put West Germany in front. Geoff Hurst equalised four minutes later. Martin Peters gave England the lead in the 78th minute. With one minute of normal time remaining, Wolfgang Weber scored from a free kick to level the match. Extra time began with the score at 2-2.

  In the 98th minute, Hurst's shot struck the crossbar and bounced down near the goal line. The officials ruled it had crossed, and the goal was awarded. Debate over whether the ball fully crossed the line has continued since. Hurst scored again as spectators poured onto the pitch. He finished with three goals, the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final. National anthems were played only in the final; they had been omitted from all earlier matches because of concerns over North Korea's participation. Queen Elizabeth II presented the trophy to the England team.

  The 1966 tournament was the only World Cup in history without any Sunday matches. Religious laws forbade them; those laws were repealed ten years later in 1976. England's three goals conceded across six games set a record low for a World Cup winner. That record held until Brazil in 1994. France lowered it further, conceding only two goals from seven games in 1998. Italy in 2006 and Spain in 2010 have since equalled that mark.