1954 FIFA World Cup

The **1954 FIFA World Cup**, the fifth staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzerland was chosen as hosts in July 1946. The tournament set a number of all-time records for goal-scoring, including the highest average goals scored per game. The tournament was won by West Germany, who defeated Hungary 3–2 in the final, giving them their first title.

## Host selection

Switzerland was awarded the tournament unopposed on 22 July 1946, the same day that Brazil was selected for the 1950 World Cup, in Luxembourg City.

## Qualification

Main article: 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification
The hosts (Switzerland) and the defending champions (Uruguay) qualified automatically. Of the remaining 14 places, 11 were allocated to Europe (including Egypt, Turkey and Israel), two to the Americas, and one to Asia.

Scotland, Turkey and South Korea made their World Cup debuts at this tournament (Turkey and Scotland had qualified for the 1950 competition but both withdrew). Austria appeared for the first time since 1934. Turkey would not participate at a finals again until the 2002 competition, while South Korea's next appearance would be in 1986.

The third and fourth place teams from 1950, Sweden and Spain, both failed to qualify. In a shock result, Spain was eliminated by Turkey: after the two countries had tied a three-game series, Turkey progressed by drawing of lots.

German teams were allowed to qualify again, after having been banned from the 1950 FIFA World Cup. West Germany qualified against fellow Germans from the Saarland (which then was a French protectorate), while East Germany had not entered, cancelling international football games after the East German uprising of 1953.
Argentina declined to participate for the third World Cup in succession.

## Summary

### Format

The 1954 tournament used a unique format. The sixteen qualifying teams were divided into four groups of four teams each. Each group contained two seeded teams and two unseeded teams. Only four matches were scheduled for each group, each pitting a seeded team against an unseeded team. This contrasts with the usual round-robin in which every team plays every other team: six matches in each group. Another oddity was that extra time, which in most tournaments is not employed at the group stage, *was* played in the group games if the score was level after 90 minutes, with the result being a draw if the scores were still level after 120 minutes.

Two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. The two teams with the most points from each group progressed to the knockout stage. If the first and second placed teams were level on points, lots were drawn to decide which team would top the group. However, if the second and third placed teams were level on points, there was a play-off to decide which team would progress to the next stage.

It turned out that two of the four groups required play-offs, and the other two required drawing of lots between the two top teams. The play-offs were between Switzerland and Italy, and Turkey and West Germany: in both matches the unseeded teams (Switzerland and West Germany) repeated earlier victories against the seeds (Italy and Turkey) to progress. In the other two groups, lots were drawn to determine the first-place teams: resulting in Uruguay and Brazil finishing above Austria and Yugoslavia, respectively.

A further unusual feature of the format was that the four group-winning teams were drawn against each other in the knockout stages to produce one finalist, and the four second-placed teams played against each other to produce the second finalist. In subsequent tournaments it has become customary to draw group winners against second-placed teams in the first knockout round.

In any knockout game tied after 90 minutes, 30 minutes of extra time were played. If the scores had still been level after extra time, in any knockout game other than the final, lots would have been drawn to decide which team progressed. However, if the final had been tied after extra time, it would have been replayed, with lots deciding the winner only if the replay was also tied after extra time. In the event, all the knockout games were decided in either normal time or extra time, with no replays or drawing of lots being required.

## Venues

Six venues in six cities (1 venue in each city) hosted the tournament's 26 matches. The most used stadium was the St. Jakob stadium in Basel, which hosted 6 matches. The venues in Bern, Zurich and Lausanne each hosted 5 matches, the venue in Geneva hosted 4 matches and the venue in Lugano only hosted 1 match.

## Squads

For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see *1954 FIFA World Cup squads*.

## Match officials

* Template:Flagicon Raymon Wyssling
* Template:Flagicon Benjamin Griffiths
* Template:Flagicon Charlie Faultless
* Template:Flagicon Manuel Asensi
* Template:Flagicon Jose da Costa Vieira
* Template:Flagicon Raymond Vincenti
* Template:Flagicon William Ling
* Template:Flagicon Esteban Marino
* Template:Flagicon Arthur Edward Ellis
* Template:Flagicon Laurent Franken
* Template:Flagicon Vincenzo Orlandini
* Template:Flagicon Vasa Stefanovic
* Template:Flagicon Mario Vianna
* Template:Flagicon Emil Schmetzer
* Template:Flagicon Carl Erich Steiner
* Template:Flagicon István Zsolt

## Participants

### Europe

* Austria (AUT)
* Belgium (BEL)
* Czechoslovakia (TCH)
* England (ENG)
* France (FRA)
* West Germany (FRG)
* Hungary (HUN)
* Italy (ITA)
* Scotland (SCO)
* Switzerland (SUI)
* Turkey (TUR)
* Yugoslavia (YUG)

### South America

* Brazil (BRA)
* Uruguay (URU)

## Results

### First round

#### Group 1

* Brazil finished ahead of Yugoslavia on drawing of lots

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#### Group 2

* West Germany finished ahead of Turkey by winning a play-off

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#### Group 3

* Uruguay finished ahead of Austria on drawing of lots

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#### Group 4

* Switzerland finished ahead of Italy by winning a play-off

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#### Quarter-finals

Main article: Austria v Switzerland (1954 FIFA World Cup)
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Main article: Battle of Berne (1954 FIFA World Cup)
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#### Semi-finals

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#### Final

Main article: 1954 FIFA World Cup Final
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## Goalscorers

With 11 goals, Sándor Kocsis was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 140 goals were scored by 63 different players, with four of them credited as own goals.

11 goals
* Template:Flagicon Sándor Kocsis

6 goals
* Template:Flagicon Erich Probst
* Template:Flagicon Josef Hügi
* Template:Flagicon Max Morlock

4 goals
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* Template:Flagicon Nándor Hidegkuti
* Template:Flagicon Ferenc Puskás
* Template:Flagicon Robert Ballaman

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* Template:Flagicon Carlos Borges
* Template:Flagicon Helmut Rahn
* Template:Flagicon Hans Schäfer

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* Template:Flagicon Ottmar Walter

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3 goals
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* Template:Flagicon Ernst Stojaspal
* Template:Flagicon Theodor Wagner
* Template:Flagicon Léopold Anoul
* Template:Flagicon Nat Lofthouse

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* Template:Flagicon Zoltán Czibor
* Template:Flagicon Burhan Sargun
* Template:Flagicon Suat Mamat

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* Template:Flagicon Juan Hohberg
* Template:Flagicon Óscar Míguez
* Template:Flagicon Fritz Walter

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2 goals
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* Template:Flagicon Robert Körner
* Template:Flagicon Ernst Ocwirk
* Template:Flagicon Didi
* Template:Flagicon Julinho

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* Template:Flagicon Pinga
* Template:Flagicon Ivor Broadis
* Template:Flagicon Mihály Lantos
* Template:Flagicon Péter Palotás

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* Template:Flagicon Lefter Küçükandonyadis
* Template:Flagicon Julio Abbadie
* Template:Flagicon Juan Alberto Schiaffino

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1 goal
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* Template:Flagicon Henri Coppens
* Template:Flagicon Baltazar
* Template:Flagicon Djalma Santos
* Template:Flagicon Tom Finney
* Template:Flagicon Jimmy Mullen
* Template:Flagicon Dennis Wilshaw
* Template:Flagicon Raymond Kopa
* Template:Flagicon Jean Vincent
* Template:Flagicon József Tóth
* Template:Flagicon Giampiero Boniperti

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* Template:Flagicon Amleto Frignani
* Template:Flagicon Carlo Galli
* Template:Flagicon Benito Lorenzi
* Template:Flagicon Fulvio Nesti
* Template:Flagicon Egisto Pandolfini
* Template:Flagicon Tomás Balcázar
* Template:Flagicon José Luis Lamadrid
* Template:Flagicon Jacques Fatton

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* Template:Flagicon Mustafa Ertan
* Template:Flagicon Erol Keskin
* Template:Flagicon Javier Ambrois
* Template:Flagicon Obdulio Varela
* Template:Flagicon Richard Herrmann
* Template:Flagicon Bernhard Klodt
* Template:Flagicon Alfred Pfaff
* Template:Flagicon Miloš Milutinović
* Template:Flagicon Branko Zebec

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Own goals
* Template:Flagicon Jimmy Dickinson (against Belgium)
* Template:Flagicon Raúl Cárdenas (against France)
* Template:Flagicon Luis Cruz (against Austria)
* Template:Flagicon Ivica Horvat (against Germany)

## FIFA retrospective ranking

In 1986, FIFA published a report that ranked all teams in each World Cup up to and including 1986, based on progress in the competition, overall results and quality of the opposition. The rankings for the 1954 tournament were as follows:

## In film

The final scene of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film *The Marriage of Maria Braun* takes place during the finals of the 1954 World Cup; in the scene's background, the sports announcer is celebrating West Germany's victory and shouting *"Deutschland ist wieder was!"* (Germany is something again); the film uses this as the symbol of Germany's recovery from the ravages of the Second World War.

Sönke Wortmann's 2003 German box-office hit *The Miracle of Bern* (in German: *Das Wunder von Bern*) re-tells the story of the German team's route to victory through the eyes of a young boy who admires the key player of the final, Helmut Rahn.

## External links

* 1954 FIFA World Cup Switzerland ™, FIFA.com
* Details at RSSSF

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