1954 FIFA World Cup
1954 FIFA World Cup
Main page

1954 FIFA World Cup

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
1954 FIFA World Cup

The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the 5th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzerland was selected as the host country in July 1946. At the tournament, several all-time records for goalscoring were set, including the highest average number of goals scored per game. The tournament was won by West Germany, who defeated tournament favourites Hungary 3–2 in the final for their first World Cup title. Uruguay, the defending champions, were eliminated by Hungary and would lose to Austria in the third-place match.

The highest scoring match of a men’s World Cup happened in the quarter-finals of this tournament, when Austria defeated hosts Switzerland 7–5. The 12 goals of that match have never been surpassed in a men’s World Cup since — the 2019 Women's World Cup saw the USA beat Thailand 13–0.

Switzerland was awarded the tournament unopposed at a meeting in Luxembourg City on 22 July 1946, the same day Brazil was selected to host the 1950 World Cup.

The hosts (Switzerland) and the defending champions (Uruguay) qualified automatically. Of the remaining 14 places, 11 were allocated to Europe (including Egypt, Turkey, and Israel), two to the Americas, and one to Asia.

Scotland, Turkey, and South Korea made their World Cup debuts at this tournament (Turkey and Scotland had qualified for the 1950 competition but both withdrew). South Korea became the first independent Asian country to participate in a World Cup tournament. Austria appeared following a hiatus from 1934. South Korea did not appear at a World Cup finals again until 1986, while Turkey's next appearance was not until 2002. Several teams, such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia (the pre-war World Cups' runners-up) were back into the tournament after missing out the 1950 World Cup.

The teams that finished third and fourth in 1950, Sweden and Spain, both failed to qualify. Spain was eliminated by Turkey; the two countries finished level on points in their qualifying group, and then drew their neutral play-off, which led to the drawing of lots by a blindfolded Italian boy, who picked Turkey to progress.

German teams as well as Japan were allowed to qualify again, after having been banned from the 1950 FIFA World Cup. West Germany qualified against fellow Germans from the Saarland (which then was a French protectorate), while East Germany did not enter, having cancelled international football matches after the East German uprising of 1953. Japan failed to qualify, having finished below South Korea in their qualifying group. Argentina declined to participate for the third successive World Cup.

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.