England’s World Cup

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31126, 1 August 1966, Page 10

England’s World Cup

The 1966 World Cup tournament, the Olympic Games of soccer, ended on Saturday afternoon in scenes of wild enthusiasm that will be recalled as long as there are those living who saw the final match at Wembley, watched the television broadcast, or heard the radio commentaries. Sixteen years ago England touched soccer’s rock bottom when it failed to qualify for the last eight, losing to the United States in a group match. Today, England is the world soccer champion for the first time. British people everywhere will share the triumph of England’s footballers. There will, too, be sympathy for the beaten finalist, West Germany, which played its part in producing a memorable final match; for Portugal, with which England shared a semi-final of richness and splendour; for Brazil, which sadly returned home without the Jules Rimet Trophy it had held for the last eight years. The feats of little North Korea, gallant conqueror of Italy, also will be recalled. Unhappily, there were some of the unsavoury incidents to be expected from such an intense, nationalistic competition; but these were fewer than in some past tournaments, no doubt because soccer’s international governing body imposed immediate and heavy penalties on the offending players and countries. A few months before the latest series began the World Cup was stolen in London. Before a mongrel named Pickles found the trophy in a suburban London garden, there were those who said, half seriously, that England would have to steal the World Cup because it would never Uh. win it. Now it will remain in England, legally, until Hk the next tournament is played in Mexico in 1970.