1986 FIFA World Cup


The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had been originally chosen to host the competition by FIFA but, largely due to economic reasons, was not able to do so, and resigned in November 1982. Mexico was selected as the new host in May 1983, and became the first country to host the World Cup more than once, after previously hosting the 1970 edition.
The World Cup was won by Argentina. Argentina was captained by the 25-year-old Diego Maradona, who played a large part in his team's success by scoring his "Hand of God" goal, as well as another voted the "Goal of the Century", in the same quarter-final against England. These were two of the five goals that Maradona scored during the tournament, and he also created another five for his teammates. Argentina beat West Germany 3–2 in the final at Mexico City's Estadio Azteca. Argentina would not win the World Cup again until 2022, 36 years later. Total attendance was 2,394,031, an average per match of 46,039. Canada, Denmark and Iraq made their first appearances at the final stage.
The format of the competition changed from 1982. The final pair of matches in each group started at the same time and the second round was played on a knockout basis rather than groups. The 24 teams qualified were divided into six groups of four. The top two teams and the four best third-place finishers from the six groups advanced to the knockout round of 16 teams.
Italy were the defending champions, but were eliminated by France in the Round of 16.
The tournament saw the appearance of the Mexican wave, a spectator phenomenon which was popularised worldwide after featuring during the tournament.

Host selection

was originally chosen as hosts by FIFA in June 1974, with Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Pereira and Bucaramanga intended as the host cities, plus potentially Barranquilla. Colombia agreed to host a 16-team competition. However, days before the 1978 FIFA World Cup's opening match, FIFA later allowed an expansion to 24 teams for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, which was more challenging for Colombia to host, although FIFA President João Havelange initially gave assurances that they could revert to a 16-team tournament. Colombian president Julio César Turbay Ayala was initially against holding the tournament in his country, but reluctantly granted permission in October 1980. However, the next Colombian president, Belisario Betancur, declared on 5 November 1982 that they could not afford to host the World Cup under the terms that FIFA demanded.
File:Fuente de los Balones, en Querétaro.jpg|thumb|Football fountain created in 1986 to commemorate the FIFA World Cup in Mexico. Querétaro was one of the venues and this fountain is located just a few blocks away from the Corregidora Stadium.
Although Mexico, United States and Canada submitted bids on 11 March 1983 to be the replacement host, the five-person special FIFA committee responsible for recommending the bids to the Executive Committee announced on 31 March that it would only consider Mexico's bid, saying the United States and Canada had "deviated" from FIFA's criteria and Exco members refused to visit Canadian and American stadium sites. On 20 May, the committee announced Mexico as the replacement hosts despite Havelange stating that the United States and Canada had made better presentations. Mexico became the first nation to host two World Cups, as it had hosted the 1970 FIFA World Cup.
The Canadian representatives criticised the committee's decision not to consider Canada, saying they had submitted a more complete bid than Mexico, and that they had been misled by the number of stadiums required for bidding. The United States' bid contained more than the required number of stadiums with the required capacity to host World Cup matches. Mexico submitted a bid with 14 stadiums, only six of which seated over 40,000 at the time of the bid, and three over 60,000. Havelange in turn criticised the United States' handling of stadium selection for the football tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The Americans also pointed out that Mexico had the influence of two seats on the 22-person executive committee, a FIFA vice president and an executive at Televisa, a Mexican television network with ties to Havelange. Also working in Mexico's favour was Havelange secretly promising the broadcast rights to Televisa ahead of the vote. Following the bidding process, Henry Kissinger, the former United States Secretary of State who led the United States bid committee, remarked, "The politics of soccer make me nostalgic for the politics of the Middle East," while the leader of the Canadian committee called Mexico's 10-page bid document "a joke."
A severe earthquake in September 1985, eight months before the tournament, cast doubt over Mexico's ability to organise the event, but the stadiums were not affected and it was decided to go ahead with the preparations. As 1986 had been declared the International Year of Peace by the United Nations, the advertising boards of all the stadia displayed the FIFA and United Nations logos along with the legend "Football for Peace – Peace Year".
For the design of the logo an unofficial motto was adopted: "El Mundo Unido por Un Balón".

Qualification

Three teams qualified for the World Cup for the first time: Canada, Denmark and Iraq. Iraq played all their home matches on neutral ground because of the Iran–Iraq War. South Korea qualified for the first time since 1954, Paraguay for the first time since 1958, Portugal for the first time since 1966, Morocco for the first time since 1970 and Bulgaria and Uruguay for the first time since 1974.

List of qualified teams

The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament.
AFC
CAF
OFC
  • None qualified
CONCACAF
CONMEBOL
UEFA

  • Venues

Eleven cities hosted the tournament, with a total of twelve stadia used, among which were counted all five stadia that hosted the 1970 tournament. The Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, the largest stadium used for the tournament, hosted nine matches, more than any other stadium used. Mexico City hosted 13 total matches; the Olimpico Universitario Stadium hosted four matches. Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city hosted nine total matches, Monterrey hosted eight matches, and the Cuauhtémoc Stadium in Puebla hosted five matches.
The hot, humid and rainy summer weather in Mexico varied from humid desert locations like Monterrey to tropical locations such as Guadalajara; but perhaps the greatest hardship the players had to contend with was the high altitude of the Mexican locations. With the exception of the temperatures of Monterrey, all of the stadia were located in cities that varied anywhere from Guadalajara being above sea level to Toluca being above sea level, making conditions very difficult for the players running around in these stadia – but the higher the cities, the less intense the heat. Mexico City, the location of the opening and final matches and the location where the most matches were played was above sea level and the weather there was not as hot as in other cities used in this World Cup.
All of these venues except Monterrey were located in central Mexico, as this tournament was organized with the then-standard way of keeping teams playing in locations in close proximity to each other. Group A only played at the Olimpico and in Puebla, Group B only played at the Azteca and in Toluca, Group C played in León and Irapuato, Group D only played in Guadalajara, Group E exclusively played in Querétaro and Nezahualcóyotl, and Group F played in the northern city of Monterrey. All of the venues listed hosted knockout round matches except the ones in Nezahualcoyotl, Irapuato, Zapopan, Toluca and the Estadio Tecnologico in Monterrey.
StadiumMatchesTeams hosted in the first round
Estadio AztecaOpening match, Group B,
R2, QF, SF, Final		'
Estadio Olímpico UniversitarioGroup A, R2,,
Estadio JaliscoGroup D, R2, QF, SF'
Estadio CuauhtémocGroup A, R2, QF,
Third-place match		'
Estadio UniversitarioGroup F, R2, QF'
Estadio La CorregidoraGroup E, R2'
Estadio TecnológicoGroup F, *, *
Estadio Nou CampGroup C, R2'
Estadio Neza 86Group E,,
Estadio Sergio León ChávezGroup C,,
Estadio Tres de MarzoGroup D*,, *
Estadio Nemesio DíezGroup B,,

  • ''Morocco and Portugal played in Guadalajara while Spain and Algeria played in Monterrey.''

    Match officials

;Africa
;Asia
;Europe
;North and Central America
;Oceania
;South America