World Cup - England 1966

Awarded the 1966 finals for forming the FA a hundred years prior,  England became champions with no-wingers, a formation that firmly turned its back on Hungary and the lessons of '53 and - with goalnets hung mostly on stanchions as English as World Cup Willie - the 1966 finals could be seen as the empire's last hurrah.

But with journalists from a greater diversity of countries than ever before attending the tournament, the matches broadcast live to the world for the first time and these Continental D's supporting the nets at Hillsborough, Sheffield, the 1966 World Cup finals could as easily be seen as the first of the modern era.



Games for the 1966 finals were held at (among others) Wembley, Old Trafford and Hillsborough. White City Stadium and their temporary A-frames was used only because - get this - Wembley refused to cancel the scheduled greyhound racing for the same night as Uruguay v France.  Like I said, the empire's last hurrah.



My favourite hardware at the finals was the marvellous A-frames at Ayresome Park, Middlesborough, where North Korea famously knocked out Italy; what's yours?

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Bobby Charlton

Forget all that, "is he right-footed or left footed" stuff.

This is simply the most famous goal off the stanchions at Wembley.

World Cups - England 1966

Considering England were awarded the 1966 finals for forming the FA a hundred years before; that their side became champions with no-wingers and a formation that firmly turned its back on Hungary and the lessons of '53; and most importantly that the goalnets were hung on stanchions as English as World Cup Willie then the '66 finals could be seen as the empire's last hurrah.

But with journalists from a greater diversity of countries than ever before attending the tournament, the matches broadcast live to the world for the first time and these Continental D's supporting the nets at Hillsborough, Sheffield -



 the 1966 finals could as easily be seen as the first of the modern tournaments.

Games for the 1966 finals were held at seven other venues, including:

Wembley

Goodison Park

White City Stadium, London - used only because Wembley refused to cancel the scheduled greyhound racing for the same night as Uruguay v France, hence the temporary look of the goalposts

But pride of place goes to the awesome 1966 hardware at:

Ayresome Park