1982 World Cup - Spain

Host country	Spain
Dates	13 June – 11 July (29 days)
Teams	24 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	17 (in 14 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Italy (3rd title)
Runners-up	West Germany
Third place	Poland
Fourth place	France
Tournament statistics
Matches played	52
Goals scored	146 (2.81 per match)
Attendance	2,109,723 (40,572 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Paolo Rossi (6 goals)
Best player	Paolo Rossi

The 1982 FIFA World Cup, the 12th FIFA World Cup, was held in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982.

Official Logo

The tournament was won by Italy, after defeating West Germany 3–1 in the final. It was Italy's third World Cup win and first since 1938. The holders Argentina were eliminated in the second group round. Algeria, Cameroon, Honduras, Kuwait and New Zealand made their first appearances in the finals.

The tournament's top scorer was Paolo Rossi of Italy with six goals, including a hat-trick in a second group gameagainst Brazil and one in the final.

In the first round of Group 3, Hungary defeated El Salvador 10–1, tying the largest margin of victory ever recorded in the finals (Hungary over Korea 9–0 in 1954, and Yugoslavia over Zaire 9–0 in 1974). The tournament was also notable for the first ever penalty shoot-out in a World Cup finals tournament, with West Germany beating France 5–4 on penalties after a dramatic 3–3 draw in the semi-finals in a match often regarded as one of the best World Cup games of all time.

Spain was chosen as the host nation by FIFA in London, England on 6 July 1966. Hosting rights for the 1974 and 1978 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.

For the first time, the World Cup finals expanded from 16 to 24 teams. This allowed more teams, especially from Africa and Asia, to participate.

Teams absent from the finals and that also failed to qualify were 1974 and 1978 runners-up Netherlands(eliminated by Belgium and France), Mexico (eliminated by Honduras and El Salvador), and the participants of the 1974 and 1978 tournaments Sweden (eliminated by Scotland and Northern Ireland). Northern Ireland qualified for the first time since 1958. Belgium, Czechoslovakia, El Salvador, England, and the Soviet Unionwere back in the Finals after a 12-year absence. England had its first successful World Cup qualifying campaign in 20 years – the English team had qualified automatically as hosts in 1966 and as defending champions in 1970, then failed to qualify for the 1974 and 1978 tournaments. Yugoslavia were also back after having failed to qualify for the 1978 tournament.

Algeria, Cameroon, Honduras, Kuwait, and New Zealand all participated in the World Cup for the first time. As of 2014, this was the last time that El Salvador, Kuwait and Peru qualified for a FIFA World Cup finals.

There was some consideration given as to whether England, Northern Ireland and Scotland should withdraw from the tournament due to the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom. A directive issued by the British sports minister Neil Macfarlane in April, at the start of the conflict, suggested that there should be no contact between British representative teams and Argentina. This directive was not rescinded until August, following the end of hostilities. Neil Macfarlane, the Sports Minister, reported to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that some players and officials were uneasy about participating due to the casualties being suffered by British forces. FIFA advised the British Government that there was no prospect of Argentina (the defending champions) being asked to withdraw. It also became apparent that no other countries would withdraw from the tournament. It was decided to allow the British national teams to participate because it could have been used for propaganda purposes by Argentina, rather than having the intended effect of applying political pressure onto Argentina.

Winner: Italy