There was no World Cup in 1967
The men’s soccer World Cup is held every four years, and 1967 was not one of those years. The tournament before it was in England in 1966, and the next one was in Mexico in 1970. The match that people sometimes link to 1967 is the 1966 final, played on 30 July 1966 at Wembley Stadium in London. England beat West Germany 4-2 after extra time. This article covers that final and what followed in 1967, the year England lived as world champions.
The 1966 final
West Germany took the lead through Helmut Haller in the 12th minute, and England equalised six minutes later when Geoff Hurst headed in. Martin Peters put England ahead in the 78th minute, but a late West German free kick was bundled in by Wolfgang Weber in the final minute of normal time, making it 2-2 and forcing extra time.
In extra time came the most argued-over moment in World Cup history. Hurst’s shot hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced down near the goal line. The Swiss referee Gottfried Dienst consulted his linesman, Tofiq Bahramov from the Soviet Union, and awarded the goal. Whether the ball crossed the line has been debated ever since. Hurst then scored again in the final seconds to make it 4-2. His Geoff Hurst hat-trick was the first in a men’s World Cup final.
England’s manager was Alf Ramsey, and the captain was Bobby Moore, who received the Jules Rimet Trophy from Queen Elizabeth II. The trophy had been stolen on public display earlier in 1966 and was found a week later by a dog named Pickles, a story that became part of the tournament’s lore.
The wider tournament
Other stories from the 1966 tournament remained well known in 1967. North Korea beat Italy 1-0 in the group stage, one of the biggest shocks in the history of the competition. Portugal’s Eusebio finished as top scorer, with nine goals, and Portugal took third place. The tournament was also the first to have an official mascot, World Cup Willie, and it was widely televised in Britain. It gave the sport a new audience.
England in 1967
For England, the year after the triumph was a mixed one. The side carried the title of world champions, but there was no World Cup to defend. Qualifying for the 1968 European Nations’ Cup was under way instead. On 15 April 1967 Scotland beat England 3-2 at Wembley in a Home Championship match that also counted toward that qualification. Scottish fans and the press joked that Scotland were now the real world champions, since they had beaten the team that had won. England did go on to qualify and reached the semi-finals of the 1968 tournament in Italy.
Alf Ramsey was knighted in 1967, as recognition of the 1966 victory. In the English press, the national mood was proud. At the same time, the country faced economic difficulties, which culminated in the pound devaluation of November 1967, and the glow of 1966 was contrasted with harder times.
1967 in the wider soccer world
The most important soccer story of 1967 was at club level. Celtic became the first British club to win the European Cup in Lisbon in May 1967, and the Lisbon Lions became a lasting part of Scottish sporting legend. In South America, Racing Club won the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup, a story covered separately under the club competition that year. These events kept the sport in the news during a year without a World Cup.
The road to 1970
Qualifying for Mexico 1970 began after 1967. England went to the tournament as holders, and in 1970 lost to West Germany in the quarter-finals after leading 2-0. Brazil won the 1970 title with a side often counted among the greatest, beating Italy in the final. The 1930 World Cup, in Uruguay, had begun the sequence of four-year tournaments, which was interrupted only by the Second World War.
So the correct sequence is simple: England 1966, no tournament in 1967, no tournament in 1968 or 1969, and Mexico 1970. Any claim of a 1967 World Cup is a misdating of 1966 or a confusion with a club or regional competition.