FIFA World Cup 1974

The tenth FIFA World Cup was held in West Germany from June 13 to July 7 in 1974. West Germany had been chosen in July 1966 as hosts by FIFA. The tournament marked the first time that the current trophy, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, created by the Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, was awarded. The previous trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, was won for the third time by Brazil in 1970 and awarded permanently to the Brazilians. The host nation won the title beating the Netherlands in the final, 2-1. The victory was the second for West Germany, who had won in 1954.

Qualification

In this tournament 98 countries took part in the qualifying stage, and as usual there were some high-profile failures on the road to the finals. England were among them, having lost out to Poland in their qualifying group. France, Spain and Hungary also failed to reach the finals. First-time qualifiers included East Germany, Haiti, Australia and Zaire, the first team from sub-Saharan Africa to reach the World Cup finals.

Summary

First Round

Attendances were rather low. The tournament was held mostly in bad weather, and the stadia had few protected places.

Carlos Caszely of Chile became the first player to be sent off with a red card in a World Cup match, during their match against West Germany. Red cards were formally introduced in World Cup play in 1970, but no players were sent off in that tournament. The format of the competition changed from 1970: 16 teams qualified, divided into four groups of four. The top two teams in each group advanced to the second round, where they split into two groups of four. The winners of each group played each other in the final, and the second place finishers in the third place match.

Group 2 was a particularly close group. The group was decided by how many goals could Brazil, Yugoslavia and Scotland score to defeat Zaire.  Group 1 contained both East Germany and the host West Germany , and they both progressed at the expense of Chile and Australia.

Second Group Round

The two second-round groups both produced matches that were, in effect, semi-finals. In Group A, the Netherlands and Brazil met after each had taken maximum points from their previous two matches. In Group B, the same was true of West Germany and Poland – so the winners of these two games would contest the final.

The Final

West Germany with their Total Football system had dazzled the competition. West Germany, European Champions of 1972, also won the 1974 World Cup. This is the only case of the reigning European champions winning the World Cup, although France have also held both trophies at the same time by winning the 1998 World Cup followed by Euro 2000.

Mascot

The official mascots of this World Cup were Tip and Tap, two boys wearing outfit similar to West Germany’s, with the letters WM (Weltmeisterschaft, World Cup) and number 74.

Venues

• Munich – Olympiastadion Capacity: 69,250
• West Berlin – Olympiastadion Capacity: 74,228
• Düsseldorf – Rheinstadion Capacity: 55,900
• Frankfurt – Waldstadion Capacity: 52,300
• Gelsenkirchen – Parkstadion Capacity: 45,067
• Hamburg – Volksparkstadion  Capacity: 57,274
• Dortmund – Westfalenstadion Capacity: 67,000
• Hanover – Niedersachsenstadion Capacity: 49,000
• Stuttgart – Neckarstadion Capacity: 58,000