User:Foghe/1946 FIFA World Cup

The 1946 FIFA World Cup, the fourth staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in Switzerland from 1 to 11 August.

Host selection
Becuase of the outbreak in Europe of World War II in September 1939, the 1942 FIFA World Cup had been cancelled, even before a host country could have been selected, thus leaving the 1938 FIFA World Cup as the last edition of the tournament to be played in order of time.

Shortly after the end of the war, in May 1945, discussions begun about the possibility to hold the competition in the following year, despite the large damage and the high number of dead the war had inflicted. After some months of debate, FIFA eventually decided to ask countries if there were certain interests to organize the tournament; moreover, as a way to facilitate applications to be proposed, it was agreed to exceptionally reduce the number of participating teams to eight (instead of sixteen) and to request the arrangement of just one venue (instead of six) in which play the matches.

Switzerland, who did not take part in the war, was awarded, despite its initial reluctance, the tournament unopposed on 20 November 1945, the same day that Brazil was selected for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, in Luxembourg City.

Qualification

 * Main article: x|1946 FIFA World Cup qualification

The hosts (Switzerland) and the defending champions (Italy) qualified automatically. Of the remaining six places, four were allocated to Europe and two to the Americas.

Due to the short amount of time available to select the partecipating teams, FIFA decided to use, as part of the qualification process, some international competitions already organized and scheduled, but yet to be played. Thus, the 1946 South American Championship, the 1946 CCCF Championship and the 1945–46 British Home Championship served also as groups of qualification, for CONMEBOL, CCCF and UK respectively.

The three NAFC teams (Canada did not participate) were organized in one group, resulting with the best-placed team challenging the CCCF champions. The winners of such match eventually played against the second-placed team of the South American Championship (of which the winners were automatically qualified) in order to gain acces to the final stage of the competition in Switzerland.

The reimainig three groups, all European, were composed of just two teams each, who competed in two matches home and away, and with the winners of each group qualifying to the final stage. No other continent from the rest of world was admitted by FIFA (nor there were requests in such way). <!--

NAFC Mexico played in a second-round play-off, unsuccessfully challenging Brazil, the runners-up of the 1946 South American Championship, thus losing the spot and making the 1946 FIFA World Cup the only two-confederation edition of its history. No other team from the rest of world was admitted by FIFA (nor there were requests in such way).

Becasue of the perduration of World War II into mid-1945 the qualification process was made difficoult by the short available time and by the teams' reluctance to travel. FIFA decided to follow a fast qualification calendar, staging only two matches

After

Becuase of the lack of time due to the outbreak of World War II in Europe in September 1939,

Becuase of the outbreak in Europe of World War II in September 1939, the 1942 edition did not take place and was therefore cancelled, even before a host country could have been selected. At the end of the war, in May 1945, the idea of holding the competition in the following year was discussed, and FIFA eventually decided to ask to countries if there was certain interest to organize the tournament. To facilitate applications to be proposed, FIFA decided to exceptionally reduce the number of participating teams to eight and to request the arrangement of just one venue in which play the matches.

Becuase of the outbreak in Europe of World War II in September 1939, the 1942 edition did not take place and was therefore cancelled, even before a host country could have been selected. Shortly after the end of the war, in May 1945, FIFA discussed, and eventually decided, to ask to countries if there were certain interests to organize the 1946 tournament. As a way to facilitate applications to be proposed, it was agreed to exceptionally reduce the number of participating teams to eight (instead of sixteen) and to request the arrangement of just one venue (instead of six) in which play the matches.

Becuase of the outbreak in Europe of World War II in September 1939, the 1942 edition did not take place and was therefore cancelled, even before a host country could have been selected. Shortly after the end of the war, in May 1945, discussions begun about the possiblity of holding the competition in the following year, even if, considered the large damage and high number of dead the war had inflicted, the organization initially seemed in strong jeopardy. At the end FIFA decided to ask to countries if there were certain interests to organize the tournament and, as a way to facilitate applications to be proposed, it was agreed to exceptionally reduce the number of participating teams to eight (instead of sixteen) and to request the arrangement of just one venue (instead of six) in which play the matches.

Becuase of the outbreak in Europe of World War II in September 1939, the 1942 edition did not take place and was therefore cancelled, even before a host country could have been selected.

Despite the fact that the organization, due to the large damage and high number of dead the war had inflicted, initially seemed in strong jeopardy, discussions begun in mid-1945 about the possibility of holding the competition in the following year. After some months of debate, FIFA eventually decided to ask to countries if there were certain interests to organize the tournament and, as a way to facilitate applications to be proposed, it was agreed to exceptionally reduce the number of participating teams to eight (instead of sixteen) and to request the arrangement of just one venue (instead of six) in which play the matches.

whether it was the case to hold the competition in the following year

if was possible to hold the competition in the following year

if it was possible to hold the competition in the following year

lodged applications to host the event

to ask if there were countries interested to organize the tournament. To facilitate the

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List of qualified teams
The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.


 * 🇦🇷 argentina
 * 🇧🇷 brazil
 * 🇮🇹 italy
 * (hosts)
 * Flag of None.svg x|Sixth
 * Flag of None.svg x|Seventh
 * Flag of None.svg x|Eight
 * Flag of None.svg x|Eight

Format


Abc.

Seeding
Abc.

Notable results
Abc.

Final
Abc.

Records
Abc.

Other landmarks
Abc.

Venues
Abc.

Squads
For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see x|1946 FIFA World Cup squads.

Match officials

 * Flag of None.svg x|First
 * Flag of None.svg x|Second
 * Flag of None.svg x|Third
 * Flag of None.svg x|Fourth
 * Flag of None.svg x|Fifth
 * Flag of None.svg x|Sixth
 * Flag of None.svg x|Seventh
 * Flag of None.svg x|Eight

Group A
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-

Group B
-

-

Third place play-off
The two runners-up of each group qualified for the third place play-off.

Final
The two winners of each group qualified for the final of the competition.

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


 * 11 goals


 * 🇭🇺 Sándor Kocsis


 * 6 goals


 * 🇦🇹 Erich Probst


 * Josef Hügi


 * Max Morlock


 * 4 goals


 * 🇭🇺 Nándor Hidegkuti
 * 🇭🇺 Ferenc Puskás
 * Robert Ballaman


 * Carlos Borges
 * Helmut Rahn
 * Hans Schäfer


 * Ottmar Walter


 * 3 goals


 * 🇦🇹 Ernst Stojaspal
 * 🇦🇹 Theodor Wagner
 * 🇧🇪 Léopold Anoul
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Nat Lofthouse


 * 🇭🇺 Zoltán Czibor
 * 🇹🇷 Burhan Sargun
 * 🇹🇷 Suat Mamat
 * Juan Hohberg


 * Óscar Míguez
 * Fritz Walter


 * 2 goals


 * 🇦🇹 Robert Körner
 * 🇦🇹 Ernst Ocwirk
 * 🇧🇷 Didi
 * 🇧🇷 Julinho


 * 🇧🇷 Pinga
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ivor Broadis
 * 🇭🇺 Mihály Lantos
 * 🇭🇺 Péter Palotás


 * 🇹🇷 Lefter Küçükandonyadis
 * Julio Abbadie
 * Juan Alberto Schiaffino


 * 1 goal


 * 🇧🇪 Henri Coppens
 * 🇧🇷 Baltazar
 * 🇧🇷 Djalma Santos
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tom Finney
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jimmy Mullen
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Dennis Wilshaw
 * 🇫🇷 Raymond Kopa
 * 🇫🇷 Jean Vincent
 * 🇭🇺 József Tóth


 * 🇮🇹 Giampiero Boniperti
 * 🇮🇹 Amleto Frignani
 * 🇮🇹 Carlo Galli
 * 🇮🇹 Benito Lorenzi
 * 🇮🇹 Fulvio Nesti
 * 🇮🇹 Egisto Pandolfini
 * 🇲🇽 Tomás Balcázar
 * 🇲🇽 José Luis Lamadrid
 * Jacques Fatton


 * 🇹🇷 Mustafa Ertan
 * 🇹🇷 Erol Keskin
 * Javier Ambrois
 * Obdulio Varela
 * Richard Herrmann
 * Bernhard Klodt
 * Alfred Pfaff
 * Miloš Milutinović
 * Branko Zebec


 * 1 own goal


 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jimmy Dickinson (playing against Belgium)
 * 🇲🇽 Raúl Cárdenas (playing against France)


 * Luis Cruz (playing against Austria)


 * Ivica Horvat (playing against West 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.