Every FIFA World Cup Ranked From Worst To Best
10. England 1966
The 1966 World Cup was a tournament of incredible highs and lows.
England’s triumph was among the former, with a team featuring the likes of Bobby Charlton, Gordon Banks and captain Bobby Moore the finest to ever represent the Three Lions.
Geoff Hurst was the hero of the final with a hat-trick in a 4-2 win over West Germany that is among the tournament’s greatest ever finales, full of goals, drama and a few contentious decisions involving balls crossing lines.
The other major positive was the emergence of Eusébio, who fired Portugal to the semi-finals, scoring nine goals to earn the Golden Boot and a place in football folklore.
North Korea also made global headlines after beating Italy to reach the quarter-finals in one of the World Cup’s most legendary shocks.
It wasn’t all fun and games though.
African teams boycotted the tournament after FIFA refused to provide the continent with at least one guaranteed spot in the finals, instead forcing teams to come through qualifying groups and then play-offs with qualifiers from Asia.
England rode their luck to reach the final too, benefitting from a dodgy refereeing decision in the quarter-finals that resulted in Argentina captain Antonio Rattin getting sent off for "violence of the tongue". Despite the fact the referee spoke no Spanish.