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.

Before the finals there was a lot of talk about Brazil, Uruguay and Italy's chances of getting to keep the Golden Nike (as the regulations of the tournament said, if a team is a three-time world champion). But the course of events during the qualifiers disillusioned both the "canarinhos" and the "squadra azzurra" - the favourites unexpectedly said goodbye to the cup after the first round (one of the causes of this surprise was Korea DPR). Non-European teams (Korea DPR, Argentina, Uruguay) didn't make it past the quarterfinals and only elevens from the Old World played for the rest of the competition. The semi-final game between England and Portugal was called an early final, as the home team beat their technically better opponent 2:1. The other semi between West Germany and USSR ended with the same score. The final match England - West Germany ended in a tie 2:2 (the Germans shot the equalizer in the last minute of the game), but in overtime England was better by two goals. Even today you can't be sure if their third goal should have been accepted by the referees. Portugal got 3. place after a 2:1 victory over USSR.

Top players of the tournament: Banks, R. Charlton, Moore, Ball (England), Albert (Hungary), Augusto, Coluńa, Eusebio (Portugal), Beckenbauer, Haller, Seeler (West Germany).