1990 FIFA World Cup
The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time. Teams representing 116 national football associations entered and qualification began in April 1988. 22 teams qualified from this process, along with the host nation Italy and defending champions Argentina.
The tournament was won by West Germany, for the third time. They beat defending champions Argentina 1–0 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, a rematch of the previous final four years earlier. Italy finished third and England fourth, after both lost their semi-finals in penalty shootouts. This was the last tournament to feature a team from West Germany, with the country being reunified with East Germany a few months later in October, as well as teams from the Eastern Bloc before the end of the Cold War in 1991, as the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia teams all made their final appearances. Costa Rica, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates made their first appearances in the finals. As of 2026, this was the only time the United Arab Emirates qualified for a FIFA World Cup finals. Cameroon went on an unexpectedly strong run in the tournament, becoming the first African team to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup. The official match ball was the Adidas Etrusco Unico.
The 1990 World Cup is widely regarded as one of the poorest World Cups in terms of the games. It generated an average 2.21 goals per game – a record low that still stands – and a then-record 16 red cards, including the first dismissal in a final. However, the tournament had a significant lasting influence on the game as a whole. In England, the team's success in this tournament led to the resurgence of the domestic top-flight, which had suffered from violence on the pitch and hooliganism by spectators throughout the 1980s. It saw the introduction of the pre-match Fair Play Flag to encourage fair play. Overly defensive tactics of many teams led to the introduction of the back-pass rule in 1992 and three points for a win instead of two, both of which have encouraged attacking play, increasing spectator interest in the sport. The tournament also produced some of the World Cup's best remembered moments and stories, including the emergence of African nations, and Luciano Pavarotti's performance of "Nessun dorma" during the first ever joint concert of The Three Tenors on July 7, shortly before the third place play-off which featured the host team.
The 1990 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.69 billion non-unique viewers over the course of the tournament. This was the first World Cup officially recorded and transmitted in HDTV, which was a joint effort of the Italian broadcaster RAI and Japan's NHK. The huge success of the broadcasting model also had a lasting impact on the sport. At the time, it was the most watched World Cup in history in non-unique viewers, later bettered only by the 1994 and the 2002 editions of the competition.
Host selection
The vote to choose the hosts of the 1990 tournament was held on 19 May 1984 in Zürich, Switzerland. Here, the FIFA Executive Committee chose Italy ahead of the only rival bid, the USSR, by 11 votes to 5. This awarding made Italy only the second nation to host two World Cup tournaments after Mexico had also achieved this with their 1986 staging, having agreed to replace Colombia as hosts the year before the 1990 hosts were chosen. Italy had previously held 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. A month later, only England, Greece, Italy and the Soviet Union remained in the hunt after the other contenders all withdrew. All four bids were assessed by FIFA in late 1983, with the final decision over-running into 1984 due to the volume of paperwork involved. 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, although this was denied by the FIFA President João Havelange. The Soviet state media responded by accusing FIFA of political corruption, and blamed the organisation's American sponsors for influencing the decision.
Iran also planned to host the competition. They proposed it to FIFA in 1977, but a few months later they withdrew their request.
Qualification
116 teams entered the 1990 World Cup, including Italy as host nation and Argentina as reigning World Cup champions, who were both granted automatic qualification. Thus, the remaining 22 finals places were divided among the continental confederations, with 114 initially entering the qualification competition. Due to rejected entries and withdrawals, 103 teams eventually participated in the qualifying stages.Thirteen places were contested by UEFA teams, two by CONMEBOL teams, two by CAF teams, two by AFC teams, and two by CONCACAF teams. The remaining place was decided by a play-off between a CONMEBOL team and a team from the OFC.
Mexico was disqualified during the qualification process for fielding four overage players in a prior youth tournament.
Three teams made their debuts; this was the first World Cup to feature Costa Rica, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates.
Returning after long absences were Egypt, which appeared for the first time since 1934; the United States, which competed for the first time since 1950; Colombia, which appeared for the first time since 1962; Romania, which last appeared at the Finals in 1970; and Sweden and the Netherlands, both of which last qualified in 1978. Austria, Cameroon, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia also returned after missing the 1986 tournament.
List of qualified teams
The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament.;AFC
- None qualified
Venues
Twelve stadiums in twelve cities were selected to host matches at the 1990 World Cup. The Stadio San Nicola in Bari and Turin's Stadio delle Alpi were completely new venues opened for the World Cup. Of the twelve stadiums used, only four had been used for the 1934 FIFA World Cup, while Trieste was the only host city from 1934 not to be selected for the 1990 tournament.The ten existing 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 to implement the changes required.
Like España '82 and México '86, the group stage of this tournament was organised so an individual group only played in two cities in close proximity to each other. Group A only played in Rome and Florence, Group B played their matches in Naples and Bari, Group C played their matches in Turin and Genoa, Group D played all their matches in Milan and Bologna, Group E played only in Udine and Verona, and Group F played in the insular cities of Cagliari and Palermo. The cities that hosted the most World Cup matches were the two biggest cities in Italy: Rome and Milan, each hosting six matches, and Bari, Naples, and Turin each hosted five matches. Cagliari, Udine and Palermo were the only cities of the 12 selected that did not host any knockout round matches.
The England national team, at the British government's request, played all 3 of their group stage matches in Cagliari on the island of Sardinia. Hooliganism, rife in English football in the 1980s had spilled over onto the European continent when 39 mostly Italian Juventus supporters were killed and 600 were injured at the 1985 European Cup Final in Brussels while trying to flee from an attack by Liverpool supporters. This hooliganism had followed the England national team while they played friendlies on the European continent – the distrust of English fans was high enough that the English Football Association's reputation and even diplomatic relations between the UK and Italy were seen to be at risk if England played any group stage matches on the Italian mainland. Thanks largely to British Sports Minister Colin Moynihan's negative remarks about English fans weeks before the match, security around Cagliari during England's three matches there was heavy – in addition to 7,000 local police, the Carabinieri and special forces of the Italian military were also there patrolling the premises. The Italian authorities' presence proved to be justified as there were several riots during the time England were playing their matches in Cagliari, leading to a number of injuries, arrests and even deportations.
Most of the construction cost in excess of their original estimates and total costs ended up being over £550 million. Rome's Stadio Olimpico which hosted the final was the most expensive project overall, while Udine's Stadio Friuli, the newest of the existing stadia, cost the least to redevelop.