England Defeats West Germany to Win 1966 FIFA World Cup

The host of the World Cup 1966 was England (mainly because of a centennial of The Football Association falling in 1963). FIFA made a controversial decision to grant only one place in the finals to three confederations, which caused the withdrawal of all African teams and the Syrian eleven from the qualifiers (the wronged confederations from Africa, Asia and Australia called this decision "political discrimination"). Czechoslovakia, the silver medallist from Chile didn't qualify, and neither did Yugoslavia, that was fourth in 1962.

The 1966 FIFA World Cup Final was the final match in the 1966 FIFA World Cup, the eighth football World Cup. The match was contested by England and West Germany on 30 July 1966 at Wembley Stadium in London, and had an attendance of 98,000. England won 4–2 after extra time to win the Jules Rimet Trophy. The England team became known as the "wingless wonders", on account of their then-unconventional narrow attacking formation, described at the time as a 4-4-2 (although the formation was nearer a 4-1-2-1-2, or a modern day "Diamond Formation"). The match is remembered for England's only World Cup trophy, Geoff Hurst's hat-trick and the controversial third goal awarded to England by referee Gottfried Dienst and linesman Tofik Bakhramov.