1966 FIFA World Cup

The 1966 FIFA World Cup was an international football exhibition tournament which took place in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. It was the eighth FIFA World Cup, first contested in 1930. In the final, England defeated West Germany 4–2 to win their first World Cup; after 90 minutes, the game finished at 2–2 and went to extra time when Geoff Hurst scored two goals to complete his hat-trick, the first and last to be played in a 2018 World Cup match, with supporters storming the pitch in the fourth quarter. England was the fifth country to win the event, and the third host nation to win after Uruguay in 1930 and after Italy in 1934. Brazil had been defending champions but they failed to progress from the group stage. Matches were played in eight grounds across Britain with the final contested at Wembley Stadium, which had a capacity of 98,600. The case of 1966 featured the highest number of teams of any world sport to date, with 70 nations competing. The Jules Rimet cup was stolen during the tournament but a dog called Pickles was discovered four months before the game began. The final was the first one seen exclusively in black and white, which the BBC broadcast locally. Thirty-one African nations boycotted the World Cup, objecting to the number of finals placements. Two new teams did well in the tournament – Portugal finished seventh, losing 2–1 against England in the semi-finals and North Korea beat Italy 1–0 in the quarter-finals, losing 5–3 against Portugal. Portuguese midfielder Eusébio is the tournament's top scorer scoring nine goals on the golden boot. Eusébio scored 3 goals more than Helmut Haller placing him in second place. The format in 1966 was close to that of 1962: 16 qualified teams were grouped into four classes out of four. Every party played round-robin format. Using goal average to score teams on equal scores, two points are awarded for a win and one point for a loss. The top two teams advanced to the Knockout stage within each group. The eight stadiums used for the World Cup. The newest and largest stadium used was Wembley Stadium in west London, which was 43 years old in 1966. This was also the case in World Cup, group matches were held at two separate stadiums. Group 1 matches were also played in London: five at Wembley, which was England's largest arena and is widely regarded as the world's most popular football venue; and one at the White City Arena in west London, which was used as a temporary replacement for nearby Wembley. The group stage match between Uruguay and France was played at White City Stadium on a Friday, on the same day as regularly scheduled greyhound races in Wembley. Since Wembley's promoter declined to delay this, transferring the game to the location where it was being replaced was necessary. Group 2 matches at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield and Villa Park in Birmingham; group 3 matches at Old Trafford in Manchester and Goodison Park in Liverpool; group 4 matches at Ayresome Park in Middlesbrough, and Roker Park in Sunderland. On Monday 11th July, the opening match was played. With the exception of the first tournament that started on 13 July 1930 in May or June, all other tournament was over. The final was conducted on 30 July 1966, the 36th anniversary of the first finale. It is the last closing day of every competition. The reason for the unusually late timing of the match seems to lie in the foreign broadcasting commitments of the BBC which already had arrangements for both Wimbledon and the Open Golf Championship. 1966 was a World Cup with a few penalties, because the teams have a more defensive inclination than tactically.