1974 FIFA World Cup

The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. 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, had been won for the third time by Brazil in 1970 and awarded permanently to the Brazilians.

West Germany won the title, beating the Netherlands 2–1 in the final at the Olympiastadion in Munich. This was the second victory for West Germany, who had also won in 1954. The teams of Australia, East Germany, Haiti and Zaire made their first appearances at the final stage, with the latter two also making their only appearance, and East Germany making their only appearance before Germany was reunified in 1990. Brazil, the defending champions, were eliminated in the second round, and lost the third-place match to Poland.

Poland's Grzegorz Lato led the tournament in scoring seven goals. Müller's goal in the final was the 14th in his career of two World Cups, beating Just Fontaine's record of 13, in his single World Cup in 1958. Müller's record was only surpassed 32 years later, in 2006 by Ronaldo's 15 from three World Cups and then eight years after, in 2014 by German striker Miroslav Klose's 16 goals from four World Cups.

Günter Netzer, who came on as a substitute for West Germany during the defeat by the East Germans, was playing for Real Madrid at the time; this was the first time that a World Cup winner had played for a club outside his home country.

This is the most recent of four World Cup tournaments to date with no matches needing extra time. The others are the 1930, 1950, and 1962 tournaments.

West Germany was chosen as the host nation by FIFA in London, England on 6 July 1966. Hosting rights for the 1978 and 1982 tournaments were awarded at the same time. West Germany agreed to a deal with Spain by which Spain would support West Germany for the 1974 tournament, and in return West Germany would allow Spain to bid for the 1982 World Cup unopposed.

Speaking in 2008, Brazilian former FIFA president João Havelange said to Folha de Sao Paulo that this competition, along with the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England, was fixed so that the host country would win; "In the three matches that the Brazilian national team played in 1966, of the three referees and six linesmen, seven were British and two were Germans. Brazil went out, Pelé 'exited' through injury [following some rough defensive play], and England and Germany entered into the final, just as the Englishman Sir Stanley Rous, who was the President of FIFA at the time, had wanted. In Germany in 1974 the same thing happened. During the Brazil-Netherlands match, the referee was German, we lost 2–0 and Germany won the title. We were the best in the world, and had the same team that had won the World Cup in 1962 in Chile and 1970 in Mexico, but it was planned for the host countries to win".

Ninety-eight countries took part in the qualifying tournament.