The 1966 World Cup caused some bitter disagreements before a ball had been kicked competitively. Sixteen African nations boycotted the tournament in protest against a 1964 FIFA ruling that required the champion team from the African zone to play off against the winners of either the Asian or the Oceania zone in order to win a place at the finals. The Africans felt that winning their zone should have been enough in itself to merit qualification for the finals.
Despite the Africans' absence, there was another new record number of entries for the qualifying tournament, with 70 nations taking part. After all the arguments, FIFA finally ruled that ten teams from Europe would qualify, along with four from South America, one from Asia and one from North and Central America.
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. The draw for the final tournament, taking place on 6 January 1966 at the Royal Garden Hotel in London was the first ever to be televised, with England, West Germany, Brazil and Italy as seeds.
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 Champions Brazil finish in third place behind Portugal and Hungary and controversially eliminated along with Bulgaria. Brazil were defeated by Hungary and Portugal in controversial wins as the English referees from those two matches, Kenneth Dagnall and George McCabe, decided to ignore a large amount of fouls to the Brazilians often targeted at key players. Portugal appeared in the finals for the first time, and made quite an impact. They won all three of their games in the group stage, with a lot of help from their outstanding striker Eusébio, whose nine goals made him the tournament's top scorer.
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.
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. Afterwards, the German referee, Rudolf Kreitlein, said that he had sent off Rattín because he didn't like how he had looked at him (it is worth noting that the referee did not understand Spanish). Rattín at first refused to leave the field and eventually had to be escorted by several policemen. Only after 30 minutes England was able to score against an Argentinian team with 10 players. This game, even today, is called by Argentina as el robo del siglo (the robbery of the century).
At this point, all semifinalists were from Europe. The first semifinal between England and Portugal was controversial as well. Liverpool was the original venue for the first semifinal. However, due to intervention of the English officials, the venue changed to Wembley. Bobby Charlton scored both goals in England's triumph against Portugal. Portugal's goal came from a penalty kick in the 82nd minute after an intentional handball by Jack Charlton on the goal line. The other semi-finals finished 2-1: Franz Beckenbauer provided the winning goal for West Germany as they beat the USSR. Portugal went on to beat the USSR 2-1 to take third place.
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 or near the goal line. Whether the ball actually 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 is said to clearly illustrate 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 with another controversial goal. 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.
| London | Liverpool | Sheffield | Sunderland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wembley Stadium | Goodison Park | Hillsborough Stadium | Roker Park |
| London | Birmingham | Manchester | Middlesbrough |
| White City Stadium | Villa Park | Old Trafford | Ayresome Park |
Asia
Europe
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | ∞ | 5 | |
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2.00 | 4 | |
| 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0.33 | 2 | |
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0.40 | 1 |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 7.00 | 5 | |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4.00 | 5 | |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 0.80 | 2 | |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 0.11 | 0 |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 4.50 | 6 | |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 1.40 | 4 | |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0.67 | 2 | |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 0.13 | 0 |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 6.00 | 6 | |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0.50 | 3 | |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1.00 | 2 | |
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0.40 | 1 |
6 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Own goals
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