The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international footballworld championship tournament. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event twice. Teams representing 116 national football associations from all six populated continents entered the competition, with its qualification process beginning in April 1988. Twenty-two teams qualified from this process, along with host nation Italy and defending champion Argentina, for the finals tournament. The official match ball was the Adidas Etrusco Unico.
The tournament was won by West Germany, who claimed their third World Cup title by defeating reigning champions Argentina 1–0 in the final, a rematch of the previous final four years earlier. Hosts Italy beat England 2–1 to finish third after both lost their semi-finals in penalty shootouts.
The 1990 World Cup is widely regarded as one of the poorest World Cups ever.[1][2][3][4] It generated a record low goals-per-game average of just 2.21 and a then-record 16 red cards were handed out, including the first ever dismissal in a final.
Despite the low goalscoring, the 1990 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.69 billion non-unique viewers, compiled over the course of the tournament.[5] At the time it was the most watched World Cup in history in non-unique viewers, but has subsequently been bettered by the 1994 and 2002 FIFA World Cups.[6]
Following this World Cup, the back-pass rule was introduced in 1992 to discourage time-wasting and overly defensive play, and wins were awarded three points in the group stage of the 1994 World Cup to encourage more aggressive offensive tactics and discourage the strategy of playing for a draw.
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[edit]Host selection
Main article: FIFA World Cup hosts
The vote to choose the hosts of the 1990 tournament was held on 29 May 1985 in Zürich, Switzerland. Here, the FIFA Executive Committee chose Italy ahead of the only rival bid, the USSR, by 11 votes to 5.[7] This awarding made Italy only the second nation to host two World Cup tournaments, after Mexico had also achieved this with their 1986 staging. Italy had previously had the event in 1934, where they had won their first championship.
Austria, England, France, Greece, West Germany and Yugoslavia also submitted initial applications for the 31 July 1983 deadline.[8] A month later, only England and Greece remained in the hunt with Italy and the Soviet Union after the other contenders all withdrew.[9] All four bids were assessed by FIFA in late 1983, with the final decision overrunning into 1984 due to the volume of paperwork involved.[10] In early 1984, England and Greece also withdrew, leading to a two-horse race in the final vote. The Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games announced on the eve of the World Cup decision was speculated to have been a major factor behind Italy winning the vote so decisively,[11] although this was dismissed by FIFA President João Havelange.[7]
[edit]Qualification
Main article: 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification
116 teams entered the 1990 World Cup, with 114 being required to qualify (due to rejected entries and withdrawals, 103 teams eventually participated in the qualifying stages). Italy as host nation and Argentina as reigning World Cup champions were granted automatic qualification, with the remaining 22 finals places divided among the continental confederations.
Thirteen places were contested by UEFA teams (Europe), three by CONMEBOLteams (South America), two by CAF teams (Africa), two by AFC teams (Asia), and two by CONCACAF teams (North and Central America and Caribbean). The remaining place was decided by a play-off between CONMEBOL and OFC(Oceania).
Both Mexico and Chile were disqualified during the qualification process; the former for fielding an overage player in a prior youth tournament, the latter after goalkeeperRoberto Rojas faked injury from a firework thrown from the stands, which caused the match to be abandoned. Chile were also banned from the 1994 qualifiers for this offence.
Three teams qualified for the first time: Costa Rica, the Republic of Ireland and the United Arab Emirates.
Returning after long absences were Egypt, who qualified for the first time since 1934; the United States, who competed for the first time since 1950, Colombia who appeared for the first time since 1962; and Romania, who last appeared at the Finals in 1970.
Among the teams who failed to qualify were Hungary, France, Poland, and Portugal.
[edit]Venues
Twelve stadiums were selected to host the World Cup matches in twelve different cities. The Stadio San Nicola in Bari and Turin's Stadio delle Alpi were completely new venues opened for the World Cup.
The remaining ten venues all underwent extensive programmes of improvements in preparation for the tournament, forcing many of the club tenants of the stadia to move to temporary homes. Additional seating and roofs were added to most stadia, with further redevelopments seeing running tracks removed and new pitches laid. Due to structural constraints, several of the existing stadia had to be virtually rebuilt in order to implement the changes required.
Most of the works cost in excess of their original estimates, and total costs ended up being over £550 million (approximately $935 million). Rome's Stadio Olimpico which would host the final was the most expensive project overall, while Udine's Stadio Friuli, the newest of the existing stadia (opened 14 years prior), cost the least to redevelop.
| Rome | Milan | Naples | Turin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stadio Olimpico | San Siro | Stadio San Paolo | Stadio delle Alpi |
| 41°56′1.99″N 12°27′17.23″E | 45°28′40.89″N 9°7′27.14″E | 40°49′40.68″N 14°11′34.83″E | 45°06′34.42″N 7°38′28.54″E |
| Capacity: 72,698 | Capacity: 85,700 | Capacity: 74,000 | Capacity: 68,000 |
 |  |  |  |
| Bari | Verona | ||
| Stadio San Nicola | Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi | ||
| 41°5′5.05″N 16°50′24.26″E | 45°26′7.28″N 10°58′7.13″E | ||
| Capacity: 56,000 | Capacity: 42,000 | ||
 |  | ||
| Florence | Cagliari | ||
| Stadio Artemio Franchi | Stadio Sant'Elia | ||
| 43°46′50.96″N 11°16′56.13″E | 39°11′57.82″N 9°8′5.83″E | ||
| Capacity: 41,000 | Capacity: 40,000 | ||
 |  | ||
| Bologna | Udine | Palermo | Genoa |
| Stadio Renato Dall'Ara | Stadio Friuli | Stadio La Favorita | Stadio Luigi Ferraris |
| 44°29′32.33″N 11°18′34.80″E | 46°4′53.77″N 13°12′0.49″E | 38°9′9.96″N 13°20′32.19″E | 44°24′59.15″N 8°57′8.74″E |
| Capacity: 39,000 | Capacity: 38,000 | Capacity: 36,000 | Capacity: 36,000 |
 |  |  |  |
[edit]Squads
For more details on this topic, see 1990 FIFA World Cup squads.
Squads for the 1990 World Cup consisted of 22 players, as for the previous tournament in 1986. Replacement of injured players was permitted during the tournament at FIFA's discretion. Two goalkeepers – Argentina's Ángel Comizzo and England's Dave Beasant – entered their respective squads during the tournament to replace injured players (Nery Pumpido and David Seaman).
[edit]Match officials
41 match officials from 34 countries were assigned to the tournament to serve as referees and assistant referees. Officials in italics were only used as assistants during the tournament. Referees dressed only in traditional black jerseys for the final time at a World Cup (a red change shirt was used for two Group C games in which Scotland wore their navy blue shirts).
[edit]Groups
[edit]Seedings
The six seeded teams for the 1990 tournament were announced on 7 December 1989.[12] The seeds were then allocated to the six groups in order of their seeding rank (1st seed to Group A, 2nd seed to Group B, etc.).
The seeds were decided by FIFA based on the nations' performance in, primarily, the 1986 World Cup with the 1982 World Cup also considered as a secondary influence. Six of the final eight in 1986 had qualified for the 1990 tournament. Italy – who were seeded first as hosts – had not reached the final eight in 1986, and this left FIFA needing to exclude one of the three (qualified) nations who were eliminated in the 1986 quarter finals: Brazil, England or Spain.
Owing to their performance in 1982 but also to their overall World Cup record, Brazil were seeded third and not considered to drop out of the seedings. FIFA opted to seed England ahead of Spain. Spain had only been eliminated in 1986 on penalties, while England had been defeated in 90 minutes; both countries had also reached the second stage in the 1982 event, but Spain had also appeared in the 1978 event, while England had failed to qualify. FIFA President João Havelange had reportedly earlier stated that Spain would be seeded.[13]
Spain believed the seeding was contrived to ensure England would be placed in Group F, the group to be held off the Italian mainland, in a bid to contain England's hooliganism problems. Spanish coach Luis Suárez said, "We feel we've been cheated...they wanted to seed England and to send it to Cagliari at all costs. So they invented this formula".[12] FIFA countered that "the formula was based on the teams' respective showings during the previous two World Cups. England merited the sixth position. This is in no way a concession to English hooliganism".[12]
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
[edit]Final draw
On 9 December 1989 the draw was held at the Palazzetto dello sport in Rome, where the group lineups and order of matches was determined. The ceremony was hosted by Italian television presenter Pippo Baudo, with Italian actress Sophia Loren and opera singerLuciano Pavarotti conducting the draw alongside FIFA General Secretary Sepp Blatter.[14]
The draw show was FIFA's most ambitious yet with Pelé, Bobby Moore and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, as well as a performance of thetournament's official song, "Un'estate italiana" being performed by Edoardo Bennato and Gianna Nannini.[15]
The event also featured the official mascot of this World Cup, Ciao, a stick figure player with a football head and an Italian tricolor body.[16] Its name is an Italian greeting.
[edit]Tournament review
The finals tournament of the 1990 World Cup began on 8 June and concluded on 8 July. The format of the 1990 competition remained the same as in 1986: 24 qualified teams were divided into six groups of four. The top two teams and four best third place finishers from the six groups advanced to the knockout stage, which eliminated the teams until a winner emerged. In total, 52 games were played.
[edit]Negative tactics
The tournament generated a record low goals-per-game average and a then-record of 16 red cards were handed out. In the knockout stage, many teams would "play it safe" for 120 minutes and try their luck in the penalty shoot-out, rather than risk going forward. There were four penalty shootouts, a record subsequently equalled in the 2006 tournament.
Ireland and Argentina were prime examples of this trend of cautious defensive play; the Irish scored just twice in five games in drawing all their matches until their defeat to Italy in the quarter-finals. Losing finalists Argentina, meanwhile, scored only five goals in the entire tournament (a record low for a finalist that, as of 2010, still stands). Argentina also became the first (and so far only) team to advance twice on penalty shootouts, the first team to fail to score in a World Cup final, and the first to have a player sent off in a World Cup final.
Largely as a result of this trend FIFA introduced the back-pass rule in time for the 1994 tournament in order to make it harder for teams to time-waste by repeatedly passing the ball back for their goalkeepers to pick up. Three, rather than two, points would be awarded for victories at future tournaments to help further encourage attacking play.
[edit]Emergence of Cameroon
Cameroon reached the quarter-finals, where they were narrowly defeated by England. They opened the tournament with a shock victory over reigning champions Argentina, before topping the group ahead of both them and European Championship runners-up the Soviet Union. Their success was fired by the goals of Roger Milla, a 38 year old forward who came out of international retirement to join the national squad at the last moment after a personal request from Cameroonian President Paul Biya. Milla's four goals and flamboyant goal celebrations made him one of the tournament's biggest stars as well as taking Cameroon to the last eight. In reaching this stage, they had gone further than any African nation had ever managed in a World Cup before; a feat only equalled twice since (by Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010). Their success was African football's biggest yet on the world stage, and FIFA subsequently decided to offer the CAF qualifying zone an additional place for the next World Cup tournament.
[edit]All-champion final four
Despite the performances of nations such as Cameroon, Colombia and Costa Rica, the final four consisted of reigning champions Argentina, England, Italy and West Germany. All nations were previous World Cup winners, with a total of eight previous titles between them. After the1970 tournament, this is only the second time in the history of the World Cup this has occurred. The teams which finished first, second and third had also contested both the two previous World Cup Finals between themselves.
[edit]Results
See also: 1990 FIFA World Cup schedule
[edit]First round
The first round, or group stage, saw the twenty-four teams divided into six groups of four teams. Each group was a round-robin of six games, where each team played one match against each of the other teams in the same group. Teams were awarded two points for a win, one point for a draw and none for a defeat. The teams coming first and second in each group qualified for the Round of 16. The four best third-placed teams would also advance to the next stage.
If teams were level on points, they were ranked on the following criteria in order:
- Greatest total goal difference in the three group matches
- Greatest number of goals scored in the three group matches
- If teams remained level after those criteria, a mini-group would be formed from those teams, who would be ranked on:
- Most points earned in matches against other teams in the tie
- Greatest goal difference in matches against other teams in the tie
- Greatest number of goals scored in matches against other teams in the tie
- If teams remained level after all these criteria, FIFA would hold a drawing of lots
| Key to colours in group tables | |
|---|---|
| Group winners, runners-up, and best four third-placed teams advance to the Round of 16 | |
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