FIFA awarded the World Cup
1966 final tournament to England at its congress in Rome on August 22, 1960
during the Olympic Games. While a record 74 teams
entered, only 53 took part. There were mass withdrawals by the
African and Asian nations primarily because FIFA gave only one of the 16
places in the final tournament to Africa, Asia and Oceania combined,
although FIFA's insistence on allowing Israel to enter the competition
also played a part in Asian dissidence.
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. Following the preliminary competition, they were joined
in the finals by Bulgaria, West Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland,
Hungary, the U.S.S.R., Italy, Spain, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and
the Democratic People's Republic (DPR) of Korea.
Further
Information
The results and tables for the entire
World Cup 1966 preliminary competition are available both on the FIFA
website and in the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistical
Foundation Archive, which also has the goalscorers.
___________________
PY
England
Football Online