The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place between August 1960 and December 1961, with 56 teams entering from six confederations, and fourteen qualifying for the finals tournament alongside Chile, the hosts, and Brazil, the defending champions.
Brazil successfully defended their World Cup title, defeating Czechoslovakia 3–1 in the final in the Chilean capital Santiago. They became the second team, after Italy in 1934 and 1938, to win the World Cup twice consecutively; no team has since achieved the feat. Host nation Chile finished third, defeating Yugoslavia 1–0 in the match for third place.
The tournament was marred by violence between players on the pitch and a toxic atmosphere; it included the first-round match between Chile and Italy (2–0), which became known as the Battle of Santiago, one of a number of violent matches played throughout the tournament. The tournament saw a then-record six sendings off.
It was the first World Cup that used goal average as a means of separating teams with the same number of points. It was also the first World Cup in which the average number of goals per match was less than three (2.78); this has been repeated at every World Cup since.
Host selection
After Europe hosted two consecutive World Cups, the American federations demanded the 1962 edition must be held in South America or they would stage a complete boycott of the tournament, similar to 1938. Argentina, after previously failed candidacies, was the favourite. Magallanes' chairman, Ernesto Alvear, attended a FIFA Congress held in Helsinki while the Finnish city was hosting the 1952 Summer Olympics. He considered that Chile was able to organise the World Cup. Several sources also say that FIFA did not want Argentina to run alone, requesting the participation of Chile as almost symbolic. Chile registered its candidacy in 1954 alongside Argentina and West Germany, the latter withdrawing at the request of FIFA.
Chile's football federation committee, led by Carlos Dittborn and Juan Pinto Durán, toured many countries convincing various football associations about the country's ability to organise the tournament in comparison to Argentina's superior sports infrastructure and prestige. The FIFA Congress met in Lisbon, Portugal on 10 June 1956. That day, Raul Colombo, representing Argentina's candidacy, ended his speech with the phrase "We can start the World Cup tomorrow. We have it all." The next day, Dittborn presented four arguments that supported Chile's candidacy: Chile's continued participations at FIFA-organised conferences and tournaments, sports climate, tolerance of race and creed and political and institutional stability of the country. In addition, Dittborn invoked Article 2 of the FIFA statutes that addressed the tournament's role in promoting the sport in countries deemed "underdeveloped". In a counter-point to Colombo's claim that "We have it all" Dittborn coined the phrase "Because we have nothing, we want to do it all" () around the fifteenth minute of his speech. Chile won 32 votes to Argentina's 10. Fourteen members abstained from voting.
+30th FIFA Congress voteBidsVoteResult3112align=center Abstentions13Total votes56
Qualification
57 teams entered the 1962 World Cup (due to rejected entries and withdrawals, 52 teams eventually participated in the qualifying stages). Chile as host nation and Brazil as reigning World Cup champions were granted automatic qualification, with the remaining 14 finals places divided among the continental confederations.
Eight places were contested by UEFA teams (Europe) and three by CONMEBOL teams (South America). CAF teams (Africa), AFC teams (Asia), NAFC teams (North America), and CCCF teams (Central America and Caribbean) contested three play-offs slots. The three winners would then face a European or South American team for entry into the World Cup. The 1962 tournament was the last one for which only nations from Europe or the Americas qualified.
Two teams qualified for the first time ever: Colombia and Bulgaria.
Austria withdrew during the qualification tournament due to financial problems.
Canada withdrew during the qualification tournament due to scheduling constraints.
Italy, Switzerland and Uruguay all qualified for the first time since 1954, and Spain for the first time since 1950.
List of qualified teams
The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
AFC (0) None qualified CAF (0) None qualified
CONCACAF (1)
CONMEBOL (5)
(holders) (hosts) (debut)
UEFA (10) (debut)
Venues Originally, eight stadiums were selected to host the World Cup matches in eight cities: Santiago, Viña del Mar, Rancagua, Arica, Talca, Concepción, Talcahuano and Valdivia.
The Valdivia earthquake, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, occurred on 22 May 1960. With over 50,000 casualties and more than 2 million people affected, the earthquake forced the organising committee to completely modify the World Cup's calendar. Talca, Concepción, Talcahuano and Valdivia were severely damaged and discarded as venues. Antofagasta and Valparaíso declined to host any matches as their venues were not financially self-sustainable. Viña del Mar and Arica managed to rebuild their stadiums while Braden Copper Company, then an American company that controlled the El Teniente copper mine, allowed the use of its stadium in Rancagua. Due to these setbacks, this is the World Cup edition with the smallest number of venues spread across the country (while the 1930 FIFA World Cup was held in three venues, all of them were located in a single city). The most used stadium was the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, with 10 matches; the Estadio Sausalito in Viña del Mar hosted 8 matches, and the stadiums in Rancagua and far-away Arica (the only location that was not close to the other cities) both hosted 7 matches. Being that Estadio Nacional was the only large venue of the tournament (all others had less than 20,000 seats), it also saw the largest attendance average, by far, with Estadio Sausalito's attendance only being boosted with the Brazil matches it hosted (the semi-final between Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia was the only one in the stadium with less than 10,000 spectators).
Being largely concerned with the rebuilding of the country after the 1960 earthquake, government support for the tournament was minimal.
Santiago Viña del Mar Estadio Nacional Estadio Sausalito Capacity: 66,660 Capacity: 18,037 Rancagua Arica Estadio Braden Copper Co. Estadio Carlos Dittborn Capacity: 18,000 Capacity: 17,786
Team bases TeamSiteCityHostería El SauzalRancaguaVilla RetiroQuilpuéParque MunicipalMachalíVilla del SeleccionadoSantiagoHotel El Morro AricaPosada Quebrada VerdeValparaísoStaff House Braden Copper Co.Coya, CachapoalHotel TurismoRengoEscuela de Aviación Cap. ÁvalosSantiagoHotel O'HigginsViña del MarHostería AricaAricaHotel Miramar Caleta AbarcaViña del MarClub SuizoSantiagoHotel AzapaAricaEscuela Militar Bernardo O'HigginsSantiagoHotel El PasoArica
Squads
Squads for the 1962 World Cup consisted of 22 players, as for the previous tournament in 1958.
After Attilio Demaría and Luis Monti, who both represented Argentina in 1930 and Italy in 1934, Ferenc Puskás (Hungary in 1954, then Spain), José Santamaría (Uruguay in 1954, then Spain) and José Altafini (Brazil in 1958, then Italy) became the third, fourth and fifth players to play for two national teams in the World Cup. In light of this, FIFA created stipulations describing that once a player represents a nation during a World Cup or its qualifying rounds the player cannot switch to another national team. Robert Prosinečki and Robert Jarni would later become the sixth and seventh such players, playing for Yugoslavia in 1990, then for Croatia in 1998; Davor Šuker was also selected in both squads, but did not play in 1990. This was accepted by FIFA because Croatia was a newly independent former republic of Yugoslavia.
Match officials Eighteen match officials from 17 countries were assigned to the tournament to serve as referees and assistant referees.
Europe Erich Steiner Arthur Blavier Ken Aston Juan Gardeazábal Pierre Schwinte Albert Dusch Andor Dorogi Cesare Jonni Leo Horn
Robert Holley Davidson Gottfried Dienst Karol Galba Nikolay Latyshev Branko Tesanić
South America João Etzel Filho Sergio Bustamante Carlos Robles Arturo Yamasaki
Seeding Pot 1: South AmericaPot 2: Europe IPot 3: Europe IIPot 4: Rest of the World (host nation) (defending champions)
Format The format of the competition was similar to that of the 1958 competition: 16 teams qualified, divided into four groups of four. Four teams were seeded in the draw taking place in Santiago, on 18 January 1962: Brazil, England, Italy and Uruguay. The top two teams in each group advanced to the quarter-finals.
Two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. In a change from the 1958 format, goal average was used to separate any teams equal on points."for the first time goal average was brought in as a means of separating teams with the same number of points" (In 1958, goal average was available, but was only between teams level on points in first place, or if a playoff between teams equal in second place failed to yield a result after extra time). Argentina became the first team in World Cup history to be eliminated on goal average when England advanced from Group 4 in second place.
In the knockout games, if the teams were level after ninety minutes, thirty minutes of extra time were played. For any match other than the final, if the teams were still even after extra time then lots would be drawn to determine the winner. The final would have been replayed if still tied after extra time; but if still tied after the replay, the champion would have been decided by drawing lots. In the event, no replays or drawing of lots were necessary.
Summary In May 1960, as the preparations were well under way, Chile suffered the largest earthquake ever recorded (9.5 magnitude), which caused enormous damage to the national infrastructure. In the face of this, Carlos Dittborn, the president of the Organization Committee, coined the phrase "Porque nada tenemos, lo haremos todo" (Because we have nothing, we will do everything). Stadia and other infrastructure were rebuilt at record speed and the tournament occurred on schedule with no major organisational flaw. Dittborn did not live to see the success of his efforts, as he died one month before the start of the tournament. The World Cup venue at Arica was named Estadio Carlos Dittborn in his honour and bears his name to this day. Even with these few and low-capacity stadiums Chile was able to meet the demand for seats as international travel to Chile, far-away from Europe, was minimal at the time.
President Jorge Alessandri gave an uninspiring inaugural speech before the first match, which was played between Chile and Switzerland. Alessandri left however before the end of the match. While Chilean society was living in a "footballized" atmosphere, Alessandri was criticised for his cold attitude towards the tournament, which forced his ministers to come out and claim he was as "footballized" as everybody else, but was too busy to devote too much attention to the competition.