1974 World Cup - West Germany

Host country	West Germany
Dates	13 June – 7 July (25 days)
Teams	16 (from 5 confederations)
Venue(s)	9 (in 9 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	West Germany (2nd title)
Runners-up	Netherlands
Third place	Poland
Fourth place	Brazil
Tournament statistics
Matches played	38
Goals scored	97 (2.55 per match)
Attendance	1,865,753 (49,099 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Grzegorz Lato (7 goals)

Official Logo

The 1974 FIFA World Cup, the tenth staging of the World Cup, was held in West Germany (including West Berlin) from 13 June to 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the current trophy, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, created by the Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, was awarded. The previous trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, had been won for the third time by Brazil in 1970 and awarded permanently to the Brazilians. The host nation won the title beating theNetherlands in the final, 2–1. The victory was the second for West Germany, who had also won in 1954. Australia, East Germany, Haiti and Zaire made their first appearances at the final stage, and the Netherlands and Poland their first since 1938.

West Germany was chosen as the host nation by FIFA in London, England on 6 July 1966. Hosting rights for the 1978 and 1982 tournaments were awarded at the same time. West Germany agreed a deal with Spain by which Spain would support West Germany for the 1974 tournament, and in return West Germany would allow Spain to bid for the 1982 World Cup unopposed.

Ninety-eight countries took part in the qualifying tournament, and some of football's most successful nations did not qualify. Between them, the champions of the 1966 tournament (England), France, the hosts of the 1970 tournament (Mexico), Hungary and Spain were knocked out and failed to qualify for the finals. The USSR was disqualified after the playoff against Chile. First-time qualifiers included Australia, which would not qualify again until the next time the tournament was held in Germany, in 2006, and Zaire, the first team from sub-Saharan Africa to reach the finals.

16 teams qualified, divided into four groups of four. Each played a round-robin with two points for a win and one for a draw, and goal difference used to separate teams level on points. The top two teams from each group advanced to the next stage. However, in a change from the format used in the previous three competitions, the second round consisted of another group stage: the eight remaining teams were divided into two groups of four. The winners of each group played each other in the final, and the second place teams in each group played each other in the third/fourth place match.

Winner: West Germany