|
Background |
The teams were divided
into preliminary competition qualifying groups at a draw in Zürich,
Switzerland on January 31, 1964. England, as host nation, were the
sole team assigned to qualifying group 10 and joined Brazil, as World Cup
holders, in qualifying automatically for the final tournament.
A
record 74 teams entered, and 53 took part. |
|
|
FIFA Group 10 |
|
Team |
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F
|
A
|
GD
|
Pts
|
|
England |
qualified as host nation |
|
|
 |
|
Notes |
While a record 74 teams
entered, only 53 took part.
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 playoff 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.
Following the preliminary competition, they were joined
in the finals by Bulgaria, West Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland,
Hungary, the USSR, Italy, Spain, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and
the Democratic People's Republic (DPR) of Korea. |
|
|
|
England
Football Online