1970 FIFA World Cup

• 1. Introduction

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  The 1970 FIFA World Cup arrived in Mexico with a question no one could fully answer: could a team play football so beautifully, in such hostile heat and altitude, that people would still be talking about them half a century later? Brazil answered it. Their 4-1 victory over Italy in the final on the 21st of June, 1970, was not just a win. It was a statement. A team led by Carlos Alberto and featuring Pelé, Gérson, Jairzinho, Rivellino, and Tostão won all six of their matches in the finals. They had also won every single qualifying fixture. No team since has matched that record of perfection in a World Cup campaign.

  This was the ninth edition of the World Cup, and it was unlike anything that had come before. For the first time, the tournament left Europe and South America behind. Mexico became the first host nation in North America. The altitude above 2,600 metres in some venues, the midday heat, the local conditions -- all of it conspired to make the competition a test of preparation as much as ability. Yet the tournament that emerged was one of the most attacking in the competition's history. The goals flowed. The television cameras rolled -- for the first time broadcasting matches live around the world, and in some cases in colour.

  What drove Brazil to their third world title? How did a dispute over seeding pots become a matter of political negotiation? And why does a semi-final between Italy and West Germany still carry a plaque outside the Estadio Azteca?

• 2. Mexico as Host

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  On the 8th of October 1964, delegates at a FIFA congress in Tokyo voted to award the 1970 World Cup to Mexico. The only other nation to submit a bid was Argentina, which would later host the tournament in 1978. Mexico's selection made history twice over: it was the first World Cup outside South America and Europe, and the first held in North America.

  The five stadiums selected for the tournament were spread across five cities. Four of them had been built during the 1960s as Mexico prepared to host both the World Cup and the 1968 Summer Olympics. The four smaller venues cost around 11 million US dollars to build. The final stadium -- the Azteca in Mexico City -- cost 20 million US dollars on its own. Its capacity of 107,247 made it the largest of the five grounds and the most heavily used, hosting ten matches including the final.

  Altitude was a preoccupation for every team. Toluca, at an elevation exceeding 2,660 metres above sea level, was the highest venue. Guadalajara was the lowest at 1,500 metres. Temperatures across all five locations regularly exceeded 32 degrees Celsius, and the weather was hot and rainy. To meet these conditions, most teams arrived in Mexico well before their opening fixtures -- a marked contrast to the previous tournament held in England, where acclimatisation was not a concern. Some teams had an additional advantage: they had already played at altitude during the football competition of the 1968 Summer Olympics.

  Matches in the group stage kicked off at noon -- not for the comfort of players sweating in the midday sun, but for the benefit of European television schedules. That detail captures something essential about 1970: the tournament was being watched by more people than ever before, and those viewers shaped how the event was staged.

• 3. Qualification and New Arrivals

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  A total of 75 nations entered qualification for the 1970 World Cup, the most in the competition's history to that point. Mexico, as host, and England, as reigning champions, were granted automatic places. The draw for qualifying was held on the 1st of February 1968, with matches beginning that May and concluding in December 1969.

  Three nations appeared at a World Cup finals for the very first time: El Salvador, Israel, and Morocco. Their paths to Mexico were anything but routine. El Salvador qualified only after beating Honduras in a play-off match -- and that match was the immediate catalyst for a four-day armed conflict in July 1969, later known as the Football War. North Korea, who had reached the quarter-finals of the previous tournament, were disqualified for refusing on political grounds to play a qualifying match in Israel.

  Morocco's presence carried its own weight of history. An African team had not appeared at a World Cup since Egypt in 1934. In 1966, all 15 African nations that entered qualification boycotted the process in protest after FIFA combined African, Asian, and Oceanic qualifying into a single group with only one place available. FIFA declined to change the format despite repeated requests. The 1970 edition finally guaranteed a place for an African team through its own continental zone -- making Morocco not just the first African qualifier in 36 years, but the first to earn that place through the CAF region alone.

  The tournament was also notable for being, to date, the only time Israel qualified for a FIFA World Cup finals. And it was the only time Argentina failed to qualify outright -- they had declined to participate in 1938, 1950, and 1954, but 1970 marked the first time they entered and did not make it through.

• 4. The Draw and Its Politics

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  The final draw took place on the 10th of January 1970 at the Maria Isabel Hotel in Mexico City, which served as FIFA headquarters during the competition. Teams had expected seedings, as had been the case at the two previous tournaments. FIFA's Organising Committee announced only on the day of the draw itself that seedings would not be used -- because no agreement could be reached on the criteria.

  Instead, the 16 qualified teams were sorted into four pots based on geographical groupings. But those groupings were not purely geographical. For pots 1, 3, and 4, the committee also considered team strength and, explicitly, political factors. The draw was designed to ensure that Israel and Morocco would not be placed in the same group. Morocco had threatened to withdraw from the tournament if they were -- just as they had withdrawn from the Olympic football tournament two years earlier in similar circumstances. The committee's solution was to engineer the pots so the two nations could not meet before the quarter-finals at the earliest.

  The daughter of Guillermo Cañedo -- who was both president of the Mexican Football Federation and head of the FIFA Organising Committee -- drew the teams from four silver cups. She was ten years old. Group locations had been fixed in advance: Group 1 in Mexico City, Group 3 in Guadalajara, and so on. The defending champions England were placed in Guadalajara alongside Brazil -- an outcome that came from the unseeded draw, not from seeding design. England's manager Alf Ramsey and much of the English press had been perceived by locals as hostile and xenophobic toward Mexico's hosting of the tournament, which meant the English team played in a largely unfriendly atmosphere throughout the competition.

• 5. Moments That Defined the Groups

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  Anatoliy Puzach of the Soviet Union became the first substitute used in World Cup history when he entered the pitch during the opening match -- Mexico against the Soviet Union -- under a new FIFA rule that permitted substitutions for the first time. The match itself ended goalless, prompting predictions from some quarters that the heat and altitude would turn the whole tournament slow. Those predictions did not survive the next ten days.

  Group 3 held the match most people still associate with the entire tournament. England captain Bobby Moore had arrived at the competition after being arrested in Colombia for allegedly stealing a bracelet from a jewellery shop -- charges that were later dropped. When Brazil and England met, with both having already won their opening games, the contest was one of the most anticipated in the group stage. Pelé struck a shot from close range that England goalkeeper Gordon Banks saved with a reflex dive -- a stop Pelé himself described as the greatest save of his career. A second-half goal from Jairzinho won the match for Brazil despite England creating several clear chances to equalise.

  In Group 4, West Germany had two successive comebacks. Morocco took the lead against them before losing 2-1. Then Bulgaria put them two goals behind before Gerd Müller scored a hat-trick to complete a 5-2 win. Müller then scored another hat-trick against Peru to win the group -- the only two hat-tricks in the entire tournament. His tournament total would reach 10 goals.

  Bribery rumours surfaced before Uruguay's final group match against Sweden -- rumours FIFA later dismissed. As a precaution, FIFA replaced the originally scheduled referee hours before kick-off. Uruguay advanced with a 1-0 win. Italy joined them having avoided defeat against Israel.

• 6. Knockout Drama

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  Mexico and the Soviet Union had finished the group stage level on both points and goal difference. On the 12th of June, a draw of lots -- rather than any football criterion -- was used to separate them. The Soviet Union were given first place, directing them to face Uruguay at the Azteca while Mexico played Italy in smaller Toluca. Mexican officials appealed to FIFA to move their match to the capital to avoid traffic disruption. FIFA refused. Italy won 4-1.

  England's exit came against West Germany in León. The reigning champions led 2-0, but Gordon Banks -- the goalkeeper who had stopped Pelé in the group stage -- was absent with food poisoning. His replacement, Peter Bonetti, was beaten by a low shot from Franz Beckenbauer to make it 2-1. An Uwe Seeler header equalised with eight minutes remaining. England's Geoff Hurst then had a goal ruled out for offside. In extra time, Gerd Müller scored to give West Germany their first-ever competitive victory over England.

  The Italy-West Germany semi-final at the Azteca became known as the Game of the Century. Italy led from the eighth minute through Roberto Boninsegna. West Germany equalised in injury time when sweeper Karl-Heinz Schnellinger scored what turned out to be his only international goal. Extra time brought five more goals as the lead changed hands repeatedly until Gianni Rivera put Italy 4-3 ahead. A plaque outside the Azteca still commemorates that match. In the other semi-final, Brazil came from behind to beat Uruguay 3-1, with two goals in the final 15 minutes settling a match that had been even until that point.

• 7. The Final and Brazil's Legacy

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  Pelé opened the scoring in the final in the 18th minute, heading in a cross from Rivellino. Roberto Boninsegna equalised for Italy after a series of defensive errors by Brazil. The match stayed level until the 65th minute, when a powerful shot from Gérson restored Brazil's lead. Jairzinho and Carlos Alberto added further goals to complete a 4-1 win.

  The victory gave Brazil their third World Cup title and, under the rules of the Jules Rimet Trophy, the right to keep it permanently. A new trophy was introduced for the 1974 tournament. Jairzinho scored in every single match at the finals -- a feat that has not been equalled since. Coach Mário Zagallo became the first person to win the World Cup as both a player and a manager; he had won as a player in 1958 and 1962.

  This was the first World Cup in which referees could issue yellow and red cards -- a system that is now standard at every level of football worldwide. Yet no player was sent off. Not one expulsion in the entire tournament. The Telstar ball, made by Adidas and introduced at the 1968 European Football Championship as the Telstar Erlast, made its World Cup debut. Its design of 12 black pentagonal and 20 white hexagonal panels -- 32 in total -- was chosen partly to aid visibility on black-and-white television sets, which remained common in many countries despite some colour broadcasts.

  Panini published its first-ever FIFA World Cup sticker album to coincide with the 1970 tournament, beginning what became a worldwide collecting tradition. In 2017, a complete 1970 Panini album signed by Pelé sold for 10,450 pounds.