The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

, the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

for the second time in the history of the tournament, defeating Morocco in the bidding process. It was the second time that France staged the competition (the first was in

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

) and the ninth time that it was held in Europe. Spanning 32 days, it is the longest World Cup tournament ever held. Qualification for the finals began in March 1996 and concluded in November 1997. For the first time in the competition, the group stage was expanded from 24 teams to 32, with eight groups of four. 64 matches were played in 10 stadiums in 10 host cities, with the opening match and final staged at the newly built

Stade de France The Stade de France (, ) is the national stadium of France, located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the sixth-largest stadium in Europe. The stadium is used by the France national foot ...

in the Parisian commune of Saint-Denis. The tournament was won by host country

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, who beat defending champions

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

3–0 in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. France won their first title, becoming the seventh nation to win a World Cup, and the sixth (after

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

) to win the tournament on home soil.

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

made their first appearances in the finals.

Host selection

France was awarded the 1998 World Cup on 2 July 1992 by the executive committee of FIFA during a general meeting in

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

, Switzerland. They defeated Morocco by 12 votes to 7. Switzerland withdrew, due to being unable to meet FIFA's requirements. This made France the third country to host two World Cups, after Mexico and Italy in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

respectively. France previously hosted the third edition of the World Cup in

. England, who hosted the competition in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

and won it, were among the original applicants, but later withdrew their application in favour of an ultimately successful bid to host

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

Bribery and corruption investigations

On 4 June 2015, while co-operating with the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

and the Swiss authorities,

Chuck Blazer Charles Gordon Blazer (April 26, 1945 – July 12, 2017) was an American soccer administrator, who held a number of high level positions before becoming a government informant on widespread corruption within organized soccer. He was a FIFA Exec ...

confirmed that he and other members of FIFA's executive committee were bribed during the 1998 and

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

s host selection process. Blazer stated that "we facilitated bribes in conjunction with the selection of the host nation for the 1998 World Cup". Since France won the selection process it was initially thought the bribery came from its bid committee. It eventually transpired that the bribe payment was from the failed Moroccan bid.

Qualification

The qualification draw for the 1998 World Cup finals took place in the Musée du

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, Paris on 12 December 1995. As tournament hosts, France was exempt from the draw as was defending champion Brazil, but it was also France's first World Cup since 1986. 174 teams from six confederations participated, 24 more than in the previous round. Fourteen countries qualified from the European zone (in addition to hosts France). Ten were determined after group play – nine group winners and the best second-placed team; the other eight group runners-up were drawn into pairs of four play-off matches with the winners qualifying for the finals as well.

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

(South America) and CAF (Africa) were each given five spots in the final tournament, while three spots were contested between 30

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

members in the North and Central America and the Caribbean zone. The winner of the Oceanian zone advanced to an intercontinental play-off against the runner-up of the Asian play-off, determined by the two best second-placed teams. Four nations qualified for the first time:

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

and

. The last team to qualify was

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

by virtue of beating

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in a

two-legged tie In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...

on 29 November 1997. It marked their first appearance in the finals since

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

, the last time

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

also qualified for the tournament.

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

qualified for the first time since 1982, after serving a ban that saw them miss out on the two previous tournaments. Paraguay and Denmark returned for the first time since 1986. Austria, England, Scotland and Yugoslavia returned after missing out on the 1994 tournament, with the Balkan team now appearing under the name of

FR Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup A relationship breakup, breakup, or ...

. Among the teams who failed to qualify were two-time winners

(for the second successive tournament);

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

(their last absence as of 2022);

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, who finished third in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

;

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

(who failed to qualify for the first time since 1978 after losing to Italy in the play-off round); and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

, who had qualified for the previous two tournaments. The highest-ranked team not to qualify was the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

(ranked 3rd), while the lowest-ranked team that did qualify was Nigeria (ranked 74th). As of 2022, this was the last time Austria, Bulgaria, Norway, Romania and Scotland qualified for a FIFA World Cup finals, and the only time Jamaica have qualified.

List of qualified teams

The following 32 teams, shown with final pre-tournament rankings, qualified for the final tournament. ; AFC (4) * (42) * (12) * (34) * (20) ; CAF (5) * (49) * (13) * (74) * (24) * (21) ; OFC (0) * ''None qualified'' ;

(3) * (30) * (4) * (11) ;

(5) * (6) * (1) * (9) * (10) * (29) ;

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

(15) * (31) * (36) * (35) * (19) * (27) * (5) * (18) (hosts) * (2) * (14) * (25) * (7) * (22) * (41) * (15) *

(8)

Venues

France's bid to host the World Cup centered on a national stadium with 80,000 seats and nine other stadiums located across the country. When the finals were originally awarded in July 1992, none of the regional club grounds were of a capacity meeting FIFA's requirements – namely being able to safely seat 40,000. The proposed national stadium, colloquially referred to as the 'Grand stade', met with controversy at every stage of planning; the stadium's location was determined by politics, finance and national symbolism. As

Mayor of Paris The Mayor of Paris (french: Maire de Paris) is the chief executive of Paris, the capital and largest city in France. The officeholder is responsible for the administration and management of the city, submits proposals and recommendations to the C ...

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...

successfully negotiated a deal with Prime Minister

Édouard Balladur Édouard Balladur (; born 2 May 1929) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France under François Mitterrand from 29 March 1993 to 17 May 1995. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1995 French presidential election, comi ...

to bring the Stade de France, as it was now called, to the commune of Saint-Denis just north of the

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...

. Construction on the stadium started in December 1995 and was completed after 26 months of work in November 1997 at a cost of ₣2.67 billion. The choice of stadium locations was drafted from an original list of 14 cities. FIFA and CFO monitored the progress and quality of preparations, culminating in the former providing final checks of the grounds weeks before the tournament commenced.

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

was the surprise inclusion from the final list of cities because of its low urban hierarchy in comparison to

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, who boasted a better hierarchy and success from its local football team, having been taken over by a consortium. Montpellier however was considered ambitious by the selecting panel to host World Cup matches. The local city and regional authorities in particular had invested heavily into football the previous two decades and were able to measure economic effects, in terms of jobs as early as in 1997. Some of the venues used for this tournament were also used for the previous World Cup in France in

. The Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, the Stade Municipal in Toulouse, the Gerland in Lyon, the Parc Lescure in Bordeaux and the Parc des Princes in Paris received the honour of hosting World Cup matches once again in 1998 as they had all done in 1938. 10 stadiums in total were used for the finals; in addition to nine matches being played at the Stade de France (the most used stadium in the tournament), a further six matches took place in

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

Parc des Princes Parc des Princes () is an all-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Paris, France, in the south-west of the French capital, inside the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, near the Stade Jean-Bouin ...

, bringing Paris's total matches hosted to 15. France played four of their seven matches in the national stadium; they also played in the country's second and third largest cities, Marseille (hosting 7 total matches) and Lyon (hosting 6 total matches), as well as a Round of 16 knockout match in the northern city of Lens (also hosting 6 total matches). Nantes, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Saint-Etienne also hosted 6 matches in total; all of the stadiums used also hosted knockout round matches.

Innovations

Technologies

This was the first FIFA World Cup where fourth officials used electronic boards, instead of cardboard.

Rule changes

This was the first World Cup since the introduction of

golden goal The golden goal or golden point is a rule used in association football, lacrosse, field hockey, and ice hockey to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the end of normal time. It is a type of sud ...

s,France 1998.
Sport24, 5 May 2010 12:12. banning of tackles from behind that endanger the safety of an opponent and allowance of three substitutions per game.

Match officials

34 referees and 33 assistants officiated in the 1998 World Cup. As a result of the extension to 32 teams in the finals, there was an increase of 10 referees and 11 officials from the 1994 World Cup. ; CAF (5) *

Said Belqola Said Belqola ( ar, سعيد بلقولة; August 30, 1956 – June 15, 2002) was a Moroccan Association football referee, best known for officiating the 1998 FIFA World Cup final between Brazil and France, being the first African referee to offic ...

Gamal Al-Ghandour Gamal Mahmoud Ahmed El-Ghandour ( ar, جمال محمود الغندور; born June 12, 1957) is a retired Egyptian referee. Details El-Ghandour has refereed the 2002 African Cup of Nations final (Cameroon vs Senegal), the second leg of the 200 ...

Lucien Bouchardeau Lucien Bouchardeau (18 December 1961 – 20 February 2018) was a Nigerien football referee. Born in Niamey, he is best remembered for having officiated in 1998 a World Cup first round match between Italy and Chile. He called a penalty against Chi ...

Lim Kee Chong An Yan Lim Lim Kee Chong (born May 15, 1960) is a retired Mauritian association football referee. He is mostly known for supervising two matches in the FIFA World Cup - a Group B first-round match between Brazil and Russia in 1994 and a Group G fi ...

* Ian McLeod ; AFC (4) *

Abdul Rahman Al-Zaid Abdul Rahman Al-Zaid (born 11 January 1959) is a retired Saudi football referee. He is known for supervising two matches during the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily ...

Ali Bujsaim Ali Mohamed Bujsaim ( ar, علي بوجسيم, born September 9, 1959 in Dubai) is a retired association football referee from the United Arab Emirates, who is best known for supervising matches at three FIFA World Cups: 1994 (two matches), 1998 (t ...

Masayoshi Okada is a Japanese football referee. He refereed a first round match between England and Tunisia in the 1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The fin ...

* Pirom Un-Prasert ;

(15) *

Marc Batta Marc Batta (born 1 November 1953) is a French former football referee. Football career Born in Marseille, Batta reached FIFA international status in 1990. He was namely in charge of the 1993–94 Coupe de France final, also directing the firs ...

Günter Benkö Günter Benkö (born 12 July 1955 in Oberwart, Burgenland) is a retired football (soccer) referee from Austria, best known for supervising two matches during the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. He also led two matches at the 2000 UEFA European F ...

Pierluigi Collina Pierluigi Collina (; born 13 February 1960) is an Italian former football referee. He was named "The World's Best Referee" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics six consecutive times from 1998-2003. Collina is still i ...

Hugh Dallas Hugh Dallas MBE (born 26 October 1957) is a Scottish former football referee. He officiated at two FIFA World Cup tournaments, in 1998 and 2002; he was appointed fourth official for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final. Dallas also officiated at th ...

Paul Durkin Paul Anthony Durkin (born 15 August 1955) is an English former football referee, who retired in 2004. He comes from the Isle of Portland in Dorset. He works as a referee assessor for the Football Association. Durkin was England's only referee ...

José María García-Aranda José María García-Aranda Encinar (born 3 March 1956 in Madrid) is a retired football (soccer) referee from Spain, best known for supervising three matches during the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. He also led two matches at the 2000 UEFA Europ ...

Bernd Heynemann Bernd Reinhold Gerhard Heynemann (born 22 January 1954 in Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, ...

Nikolai Levnikov Nikolai Vladislavovich Levnikov (russian: Николай Владиславович Левников; born May 15, 1956, in Pinsk, Belarus) is a retired Russian football referee. He is known for having refereed one match in the 1998 FIFA World Cu ...

Urs Meier Urs Meier (born January 22, 1959, in Zurich) is a retired Swiss football referee. He officiated at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, taking charge of the semi-final between South Korea and Germany in 2002. He also refereed the 2002 UEFA Champi ...

Vítor Melo Pereira Vítor Manuel Melo Pereira (born 21 April 1957) is a retired football (soccer) referee from Portugal, best known for supervising four matches at the FIFA World Cup: two in 1998 and 2002. Since August 2017 he was the head of Greek refereeing app ...

Kim Milton Nielsen Kim Milton Nielsen (born 3 August 1960) is a Danish former international football referee. An IT manager by trade, Jesper Victor LarsenKim Milton Nielsen: Ham i sort!, ''Krop & Sport'', vol. 2, 2006 Nielsen is noted for his impressive height ...

* Rune Pedersen *

László Vágner László Vágner (born December 24, 1955 in Gávavencsellő) is a Hungary, Hungarian former football (soccer), football referee. He refereed two matches in the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France: Scotland national football team, Scotland v Norway nat ...

Mario van der Ende Mario van der Ende (born March 28, 1956, in The Hague, South Holland) is a retired football referee and coordinator from the Netherlands. He is mostly known for supervising five matches in the FIFA World Cup: three in 1994 FIFA World Cup, 1994 and ...

Ryszard Wójcik Ryszard Wójcik (born 6 June 1956) is a retired Polish football referee who is best known for refereeing a match at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and two at the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship in Portugal. He was born in Opole in 1956 and refere ...

;

(3) *

Esfandiar Baharmast Esfandiar "Esse" Baharmast (born March 11, 1954) is a retired Iranian-American football referee best known for supervising two matches during the 1998 FIFA World Cup held in France. Career At that tournament, he was briefly vilified for giving a ...

Arturo Brizio Carter Arturo Brizio Carter (born 9 March 1956) is a Mexican former association football referee. He is mostly known for supervising six matches in the FIFA World Cup, three each in 1994 and 1998. He gave seven red cards ( a record for the tournament) ...

Ramesh Ramdhan Ramesh Ramdhan (born July 25, 1960) is a football (soccer) referee from Trinidad and Tobago, The first referee from the Caribbean to officiate in the WC Finals (Japan-Croatia) during the 1998 FIFA World Cup held in France. Ramdhan also officiated ...

; OFC (1) *

Eddie Lennie Edward McGregor Lennie OAM JP (born 5 October 1959) is a retired Australian association football referee. He is best known for officiating at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 1996 Olympic Games. Refereeing career Lennie began refereeing in Sco ...

;

(6) *

Javier Castrilli Javier Castrilli (born May 22, 1957) is a former football referee from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He worked as a referee from 1980 to 1998, earning the nickname ''El Sheriff'' due to his character and decisions on the field by strictly imposing the ...

Epifanio González Epifanio González Chaves (born January 19, 1958) is a former Paraguayan football referee. He is known for supervising two matches in the 1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world champi ...

Márcio Rezende de Freitas Márcio Rezende de Freitas (born December 22, 1960 in Timóteo) is a former Brazilian football (soccer) referee. He has refereed more than 1100 games, 269 of these in national championships, between 1989 and 2005. He was present in the World Champ ...

Mario Sánchez Yanten is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...

Alberto Tejada Noriega Carlos Alberto Tejada Noriega (born 11 November 1956 in Lima, Peru) is a former Peruvian Minister of Health between 2011 and 2012. He was also a urologist and later a football referee. Football career He refereed three matches in the FIFA Wo ...

John Toro Rendón John Jairo Toro RendónProfile
(born April 4, 1958) is a retired FIFA Organising Committee announced the eight seeded teams on 3 December 1997. The historic tradition to seed the hosts (France) and holders (Brazil) was upheld; while the remaining six seeds were granted for the other top7-ranked teams, based on their results obtained in the last three FIFA World Cups (ratio 3:2:1, counting in total 60%) and their

FIFA World Ranking The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil . The teams of the men's member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the ...

position in the last month of the past three years (equal ratio, counting in total 40%). For the draw, the 32 teams were allocated into four pots. The eight top-seeded teams were allocated in pot A and would be drawn/selected into the first position of the eight groups playing in the group stage. The remaining 24 unseeded teams were allocated into three pots based on geographical sections, with the: Nine European teams in pot B; four Asian teams and three South American teams in pot C; five African teams and three North American teams in pot D. The general principle was to draw one team from each pot into the eight groups, although with special combined procedures for pot B and pot C, due to comprising more/less than eight teams - but sixteen teams in total. At the same time, the draw also needed to respect the geographical limitation, that each group could not feature more than one team from each confederation, except for the European teams where the limitation was maximum two per group. * The draw took place at

Stade Vélodrome The Stade Vélodrome (; oc, Estadi Velodròm, ), known as the Orange Vélodrome for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1 since it opened in 1937, ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, and was televised live on 4 December 1997
FIFA World Cup Draw
on

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

. For the first time in history, the draw event took place in a football stadium, with 38,000 spectators and an estimated 1 billion TV viewers. The draw was officiated by FIFA secretary general

Sepp Blatter Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of ...

. Teams were drawn by football legends

Franz Beckenbauer Franz Anton Beckenbauer (, ; born 11 September 1945) is a German former professional footballer and manager. In his playing career he was nicknamed ''Der Kaiser'' ("The Emperor") because of his elegant style, dominance and leadership on the fi ...

Carlos Alberto Parreira Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira (born 27 February 1943) is a Brazilian former football Coach (sport), manager who holds the record for attending the most FIFA World Cup final tournaments as manager with six appearances. He also managed five differ ...

George Weah George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah (; born 1 October 1966) is a Liberian politician and former professional footballer who is the incumbent president of Liberia, in office since 2018. Prior to his election to the presidency, Weah served a ...

and

Raymond Kopa Raymond Kopa (né Kopaszewski; 13 October 1931 – 3 March 2017) was a French professional footballer, integral to the France national team of the 1950s. At club level he was part of the legendary Real Madrid team of the 1950s, winning three Eu ...

. Organiser

Michel Platini Michel François Platini (born 21 June 1955) is a French football administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'Or three times in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, ...

, who later became president of UEFA, admitted in 2018 that the draw for the group stage of the competition had been fixed so that France and Brazil were kept apart until the final, telling France Bleu Sport: "We did a bit of trickery. When we were organising the schedule. We did not spend six years organising the World Cup to not do some little shenanigans". The statement from Platini referred to the fact that, shortly before the World Cup finals draw took place, the FIFA Organising Committee had met to finalise the draw process. At this meeting, the committee had approved the proposal to assign host nation France to group position C1 and defending champions Brazil to group position A1 ahead of the draw. As the tournament structure was also predetermined so that the winners of Groups A, D, E and H, and the runners-up of Groups B, C, F and G would be kept apart from the group winners of B, C, F and G, and the runners-up of Group A, D, E and H until the final; thus, France and Brazil could avoid meeting each other until the final if both teams finished in the same position in the top two of their respective groups. Procedure for the draw: # Pot A was used to draw the remaining six top-seeded teams for the first position of groups B, D, E, F, G and H. # Pot D was used to draw one team to each of the eight groups (drawing in the alphabetic order from A to H). # Pot B was used to draw one team to each of the eight groups (drawing in the alphabetic order from A to H). # As per the FIFA rule of only allowing a maximum of two UEFA teams in each group, the remaining ninth team from Pot B, was subject to a second draw, to be put in either of the groups containing a top-seeded South American (CONMEBOL) team. # Pot C was used to draw one team to each of the seven groups with an empty spot (drawing in alphabetical order from A to H). However, as each group could only contain one South American (CONMEBOL) team, the first Asian (AFC) team drawn would not be drawn into a group in alphabetical order, but instead be drawn into the remaining open group with a top-seeded South American (CONMEBOL) team. # To decide the match schedules, the exact group position number for the un-seeded teams in each group (2, 3 or 4), were also drawn immediately from eight special group bowls, after each respective team had been drawn from pot D, B and C.

Draw results and group fixtures

The draw resulted in the following eight groups: In each group, the teams played three matches, one against each of the other teams. Three points were awarded for each win, while a draw was worth one point. After completion of the group stage, the two teams with the most points in each group would advance to the

knockout stage A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, with each group winner facing the runner-up from one of the other groups in the round of 16. This was a new format for the World Cup, following the expansion from 24 teams in 1994. A total of 64 games were played, including the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

and a third-place play-off between the losers of the two semi-finals. The fixtures for the group stage were decided based on the draw results, as follows:

Squads

As with the preceding tournament, each team's squad for the 1998 World Cup finals consisted of 22 players. Each participating national association had to confirm their final 22-player squad by 1 June 1998. Out of the 704 players participating in the 1998 World Cup, 447 were signed up with a European club; 90 in Asia, 67 in South America, 61 in Northern and Central America and 37 in Africa. 75 played their club football in England – five more than Italy and Spain.

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

of Spain was the club contributing to the most players in the tournament with 13 players on their side. The average age of all teams was 27 years, 8 months – five months older than the previous tournament.

Samuel Eto'o Samuel Eto'o Fils (; born 10 March 1981) is a Cameroonian football administrator and former player who is the current president of the Cameroonian Football Federation from 11 December 2021. In his prime, Eto'o was regarded by pundits as one of ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

was the youngest player selected in the competition at 17 years, 3 months, while the oldest was

Jim Leighton James Leighton (born 24 July 1958) is a Scottish former professional association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Leighton started his career with Aberdeen F.C., Aberdeen, where he won seven d ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

at 39 years, 11 months.

Group stage

''All times are

Central European Summer Time Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time ...

(

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...

)''

Group A

Defending champions Brazil won Group A after only two matches as the nation achieved victories over Scotland (2–1) and Morocco (3–0). Heading into the third game, Brazil had nothing to play for but still started its regulars against Norway, who was looking to upset Brazil once again. Needing a victory, Norway overturned a 1–0 deficit with 12 minutes remaining to defeat Brazil 2–1, with

Kjetil Rekdal Kjetil André Rekdal (born 6 November 1968) is a Norwegian football manager and a former player. He is the manager of Eliteserien club Rosenborg. Rekdal began his playing career in Molde FK, playing afterwards for clubs in the Bundesliga, Ligue ...

scoring the winning penalty to send Norway into the knockout stage for the first time. Norway's victory denied Morocco a chance at the Round of 16, despite winning 3–0 against Scotland. It was only Morocco's second ever victory at a World Cup, having recorded its first previous win 12 years earlier on 11 June 1986. Scotland managed only one point, coming in a 1–1 draw against Norway, and failed to get out of the first round for an eighth time in the FIFA World Cup, a record that stands to this date.

Group B

Italy and Chile progressed to the second round, while Austria failed to win for the first time since

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

and Cameroon failed to get out of the group stage for the second time in a row.

Group C

France, the host nation, swept Group C when the start of their path to their first FIFA World Cup trophy culminated with their 2–1 win over Denmark, who despite their loss, progressed to the second round. Saudi Arabia, after a good performance four years earlier, finished bottom with only one point. Debutant South Africa grabbed two points and also exited at the group stage.

Group D

Nigeria and Paraguay advanced to the Round of 16 after a surprise elimination of top seed Spain, while Bulgaria failed to repeat their surprise performance from the previous tournament.

Group E

The Netherlands and Mexico advanced with the same record (The Netherlands placed first on goal difference); Belgium and eventual

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

co-hosts South Korea failed to advance.

Group F

Germany and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia advanced, each with 7 points (Germany took 1st through goal differential tiebreak). Iran and 1994 host United States failed to advance.

Group G

Romania and England became Group G top finishers as Colombia and Tunisia were unable to reach the last 16, despite Colombia having one win.

Group H

Argentina finished at the top of Group H against three debutants. Croatia took the runners up spot while Jamaica and Japan failed to advance.

Knockout stage

The

comprised the 16 teams that advanced from the group stage of the tournament. For each game in the knockout stage, any draw at 90 minutes was followed by 30 minutes of

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

; if scores were still level, there was a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

to determine who progressed to the next round.

Golden goal The golden goal or golden point is a rule used in association football, lacrosse, field hockey, and ice hockey to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the end of normal time. It is a type of sud ...

comes into play if a team scores during extra time, thus becoming the winner which concludes the game.

Round of 16

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Quarter-finals

---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

----

Third place play-off

Croatia beat the Netherlands to earn third place in the competition.

Davor Šuker Davor Šuker (; born 1 January 1968) is a Croatian football administrator and former Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. He served as president of the Croatian Football Federation from 2012 t ...

scored the winner in the 35th minute to secure the golden boot.

Final

The final was held on 12 July 1998 at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis. France defeated holders Brazil 3–0, with two goals from Zinedine Zidane and a stoppage time strike from Emmanuel Petit. The win gave France their first World Cup title, becoming the sixth national team after

and

to win the tournament on their home soil. They also inflicted the second-heaviest World Cup defeat on Brazil, later to be topped by Brazil's 7–1 defeat by Germany in the semi-finals of the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

. The pre-match build up was dominated by the omission of Brazilian striker

Ronaldo Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, being also prevalent in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: As ...

from the starting lineup only to be reinstated 45 minutes before kick-off. He managed to create the first open chance for Brazil in the 22nd minute, dribbling past defender Thuram before sending a cross out on the left side that goalkeeper

Fabien Barthez Fabien Alain Barthez (born 28 June 1971) is a French racing driver and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. At club level, he played football in both France and England with Toulouse, Marseille, AS Monaco, Manchester United ...

struggled to hold onto. France however took the lead after Brazilian defender

Roberto Carlos Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (born 10 April 1973), commonly known as Roberto Carlos, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who now works as a football ambassador. He started his career in Brazil as a forward but spent most of his care ...

conceded a corner from which Zidane scored via a header. Three minutes before half-time, Zidane scored his second goal of the match, similarly another header from a corner. The tournament hosts went down to ten men in the 68th minute as

Marcel Desailly Marcel Desailly (born Odenke Abbey; 7 September 1968) is a French former professional footballer, widely considered to be among the greatest centre-backs and defensive midfielders to ever play football. During a successful career at club level, l ...

was sent off for a second bookable offence. Brazil reacted to this by making an attacking substitution and although they applied pressure France sealed the win with a third goal: substitute

Patrick Vieira Patrick Vieira (born 23 June 1976) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Crystal Palace. He is widely considered as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. Vieira began his career at ...

set up his club teammate Petit in a counterattack to shoot low past goalkeeper

Cláudio Taffarel Cláudio André Mergen Taffarel (; born 8 May 1966) is a Brazilian retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and is the goalkeeping coach of English Premier League club Liverpool and the Brazil national team. During an 18-year career he p ...

. French president Jacques Chirac was in attendance to congratulate and commiserate the winners and runners-up respectively after the match. Several days after the victory, winning manager

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announced his resignation from the French team with immediate effect.

Statistics

Goalscorers

Davor Šuker received the Golden Boot for scoring six goals. In total, 171 goals were scored by 112 players: ;6 goals *

;5 goals *

Gabriel Batistuta Gabriel Omar Batistuta (; born 1 February 1969) is an Argentine former professional Association football, footballer. During his playing career, Batistuta was nicknamed Batigol () as well as El Ángel Gabriel (; Spanish for ''Archangel Gabriel, ...

Christian Vieri Christian "Bobo" Vieri (; born 12 July 1973) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre forward. Having been born in Italy, Vieri moved with his family to Australia as a child, before returning to Italy to pursue his ...

;4 goals *

Marcelo Salas José Marcelo Salas Melinao (; born 24 December 1974), nicknamed ''Matador'' (due to his goalscoring celebrations), ''El Fenómeno'' and ''Shileno'', is a Chilean former footballer who played as a striker. Salas is considered the best strik ...

* Luis Hernández ;3 goals *

Bebeto José Roberto Gama de Oliveira (born 16 February 1964), known as Bebeto (), is a Brazilian former professional football player who played as a forward. He entered politics in the 2010 Brazilian General Elections and was elected to the Legi ...

César Sampaio Carlos César Sampaio Campos (born 31 March 1968) is a Brazilian football pundit and retired footballer, who played as a midfielder. Club career A former defensive midfielder, César Sampaio is one of the few players who played for the four ma ...

Rivaldo Rivaldo Vítor Borba Ferreira (born 19 April 1972), known simply as Rivaldo (), is a Brazilian former footballer who played mainly as an attacking midfielder but also as a second striker, and on occasion deployed as a wide midfielder or as a w ...

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;2 goals *

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;1 goal * Claudio López * Mauricio Pineda *

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Tijani Babangida Tijani Babangida (born 25 September 1973) is a Nigerian former professional footballer, who played as a winger. Known for his pace, his playing style was sometimes compared to that of Marc Overmars. Babangida spent the majority of his playing c ...

Victor Ikpeba Victor Ikpeba Nosa (born 12 June 1973) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a forward for both club and country. Ikpeba played 31 international matches and scored seven goals for Nigeria. He was a member of Super Eagles team ...

Sunday Oliseh Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh (born 14 September 1974) is a Nigerian football manager and former player. In his active playing career he played as a defensive midfielder. Physical yet technically gifted, he played for top European clubs including Aja ...

Wilson Oruma Wilson Oruma (born 30 December 1976) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his career in France. Club career Oruma was born in Warri, Nigeria. He arrived at RC Lens from Bendel Insurance in ...

Dan Eggen Dan Eggen (born 13 January 1970) is a Norwegian football manager and former player. He has previously coached KFUM Oslo and Kolbotn in the Norwegian Premier League for women. He was capped 25 times for Norway, scoring two goals. Career Da ...

Håvard Flo Håvard Flo (born 4 April 1970) is a Norwegian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a forward (association football), forward. He played for Stryn TIL and Sogndal Fotball, before he left Norway in 1994 and played for ...

Tore André Flo Tore André Flo (born 15 June 1973) is a Norwegian former professional football striker and coach who is the manager of 1. divisjon club Sogndal. He was capped 76 times, scoring 23 goals for Norway, and represented his country in 1998 FIFA Wor ...

Celso Ayala Celso Rafael Ayala Gavilán (; born 20 August 1970) is a Paraguayan football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. Career With 85 caps and six goals, Ayala one of the most capped players in the Paraguay national team. Ayal ...

Miguel Ángel Benítez Miguel Ángel Benítez Pavón (born 19 May 1970), also known as Peque Benítez, is a Paraguayan retired footballer who played as a forward. He is best known for his spell with Spain's Espanyol, where he played for seven years. Altogether he s ...

José Cardozo José Saturnino Cardozo Otazú (; born 19 March 1971) is a Paraguayan football manager and former professional footballer. He played as a striker and spent 10 years of his career playing for Toluca and is the club's all-time top goalscorer. He ...

Adrian Ilie Bucurel Adrian “The Cobra” Ilie (born 20 April 1974) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He represented the Romania national team in one World Cup and two European Championships. Club career Ilie began h ...

Dan Petrescu Daniel Vasile Petrescu (; born 22 December 1967) is a Romanian football manager and former player, who is currently in charge of Liga I club CFR Cluj. As a player, Petrescu was deployed as a full-back or a winger and represented Premier Lea ...

Sami Al-Jaber Sami Abdullah Al-Jaber ( ar, سامي الجابر; born 11 December 1972) is a Saudi Arabian football manager and former professional player who played as a striker. He spent the entirety of his career with Al-Hilal apart from a five-month ...

Yousuf Al-Thunayan Yousuf Al-Thunayyan ( ar, يوسف الثُنيان, born November 18, 1963) is a former association football winger and attacking midfielder from Saudi Arabia. He spent all 21 seasons of his senior career at Al-Hilal FC. A playmaker known for ...

Craig Burley Craig William Burley (born 24 September 1971) is a Scottish former professional footballer and sports television pundit and co-commentator for ESPN. As a player he was a midfielder from 1989 until 2004, notably playing in the Premier League for ...

John Collins John Collins may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John Collins (poet) (1742–1808), English orator, singer, and poet * John Churton Collins (1848–1908), English literary critic * John H. Collins (director) (1889–1918), American director an ...

Benni McCarthy Benedict Saul "Benni" McCarthy (born 12 November 1977) is a South African coach and former footballer who is a first-team coach at Manchester United. He previously worked as head coach of South African Premier Division team AmaZulu. A former fo ...

Ha Seok-ju Ha Seok-ju (born February 20, 1968) is a South Korean football manager and former player. Ha was one of the few left-footed South Korean players at the time. International career He played for the South Korea national football team, and was ...

Yoo Sang-chul Yoo Sang-chul ( ko, 유상철; 18 October 1971 – 7 June 2021) was a South Korean football player and manager. Yoo was regarded as one of the greatest South Korean midfielders of all time. He was selected as a midfielder of the 2002 FIFA Worl ...

* Kiko *

Luis Enrique Luis Enrique Martínez García (; born 8 May 1970), known as Luis Enrique, is a Spanish football manager and former player. A versatile player with good technique, he was capable of playing in several different positions, but usually played as ...

Raúl Raul, Raúl and Raül are the Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan forms of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph. They are cognates of the French Raoul. Raul, Raúl or Raül may re ...

Skander Souayah Skander Souayah ( ar, إسكندر السويح) (born 20 November 1972) is a Tunisian former football player who played for CS Sfaxien and Espérance Tunis. He played for the Tunisia national football team and was a participant at the 1998 FI ...

Brian McBride Brian Robert McBride (born June 19, 1972) is an American former soccer player who played as a forward for Columbus Crew, Fulham and Chicago Fire. He is the fifth-highest all-time leading goalscorer for the United States national team. For mu ...

Siniša Mihajlović Siniša Mihajlović ( sr-Cyrl, Синиша Михајловић, ; 20 February 1969 – 16 December 2022) was a Serbian professional Footballer, football player and Football coach (association football), manager. During his career as a football ...

Predrag Mijatović Predrag "Peđa" Mijatović ( sr-Cyrl, Предраг Мијатовић, ; born 19 January 1969) is a Montenegrin retired professional footballer who played as a striker. At club level, Mijatović played for six clubs: Budućnost, Partizan, Val ...

Dragan Stojković Dragan Stojković ( sr-Cyrl, Драган Стојковић, ; born 3 March 1965), also known by the nickname Piksi (Пикси), is a Serbian former footballer who played as a midfielder, and the current manager of the Serbia national team. Wi ...

;Own goals *

Georgi Bachev Georgi Krumov Bachev ( bg, Георги Бачев; born 18 April 1977) is a former Bulgarian professional footballer who played as a winger or forward. Career He played for a few clubs, including Slavia Sofia, Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( b ...

(against Spain) *

Youssef Chippo Youssef Chippo ( ar, يوسف شيبو; born 10 May 1973) is a Moroccan retired footballer. He was a renowned midfielder for the Morocco national team during the 1990s, and was a member of the team that participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics i ...

(against Norway) * Tom Boyd (against Brazil) *

Pierre Issa Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

(against France) x2 *

Andoni Zubizarreta Andoni Zubizarreta Urreta (, ; born 23 October 1961) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. The all-time most capped player for the Spain national team for several years, he played with individual and team succ ...

(against Nigeria) *

(against Germany)

Awards

Players who were red-carded during the tournament

Gert Verheyen Gert Verheyen (; born 20 September 1970) is a Belgian retired footballer and manager, who was last in charge of Oostende. In a 20-year professional career, he was mainly associated with Anderlecht and Club Brugge (especially the latter), scor ...

Anatoli Nankov Anatoli Aleksandrov Nankov ( bg, Анатоли Александров Нанков; born 15 July 1969) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Career Nankov spent most of his career playing in the Bulgarian A P ...

Raymond Kalla Raymond Koned Kalla Nkongo (born 22 April 1975), known as Kalla, is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a central defender. His main asset was a powerful physique, and he had already been picked by the Cameroonian nation ...

Lauren Lauren may be a given name or surname.The name's meaning may be "laurel tree", "sweet of honor", or "wisdom". It is derived from the French name Laurence, a feminine version of Laurent, which is in turn derived from the Roman surname Laurentius. ...

Rigobert Song Rigobert Song Bahanag (born 1 July 1976) is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who is the manager of the Cameroon national team. Known for his defensive skills, Song usually played as a centre-back but could also operate at right-back ...

Miklos Molnar Miklos Jon Molnar ( hu, Molnár Miklós János; born 10 April 1970), nicknamed "Danish Dynamite", is a Danish former professional footballer of Hungarian origin who played as a striker for a number of Danish and foreign clubs. He was the top go ...

Morten Wieghorst Morten Wieghorst (born 25 February 1971) is a Danish association football manager and former player. He is currently the assistant coach for the Denmark national football team. He is the former head coach of the Denmark national under-21 footba ...

Christian Wörns Christian Wörns (born 10 May 1972) is a German former professional footballer who played as a defender. Wörns is widely considered one of the finest German defenders of his generation. He started his career with Waldhof Mannheim but played the ...

Darryl Powell Darryl Anthony Powell (born 15 November 1971) is a sports agent and former professional association football, footballer who made more than 350 appearances in the Football League and Premier League and played international football for the Jamai ...

Pável Pardo Pável Pardo Segura (; born 26 July 1976) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Pardo spent most of his career playing with Club América and is the fourth most capped player in the history of the Me ...

* Ramón Ramírez *

Arthur Numan Arthur Numan (born 14 December 1969) is a Dutch former professional footballer. He played as a left back and was a regular fixture in Netherlands national football team. He is currently the team manager for the Netherlands B squad and a scout fo ...

Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi Mohammed Saleh Al-Khilaiwi ( ar, محمد الخليوي;‎ 21 August 1971 – 13 June 2013) was a Saudi football defender from Saudi Arabia. At the club level, he played mostly for Al-Ittihad in his home country. Career Between 1992 and 200 ...

Alfred Phiri Alfred Maimane Phiri (born 22 June 1974 in Alexandra) is a South African Association football midfielder who last played for Moroka Swallows. He spent six seasons in Turkey playing mostly for Gençlerbirliği (Turkey), but also for Vanspor a ...

All-star team

The All-star team is a squad consisting of the 16 most impressive players at the 1998 World Cup, as selected by FIFA's Technical Study Group.

Final standings

After the tournament, FIFA published a ranking of all teams that competed in the 1998 World Cup finals based on progress in the competition and overall results.

Marketing

Broadcasting

FIFA, through several companies, sold the broadcasting rights for the 1998 FIFA World Cup to many broadcasters. In the UK

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

and

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

had the broadcasting rights. The pictures and audio of the competition were supplied to the TV and radio channels by the company TVRS 98, the broadcaster of the tournament. The World Cup matches were broadcast in 200 countries. 818 photographers were credited for the tournament. In every match, a stand was reserved for the press. The number of places granted to them reached its maximum in the final, when 1,750 reporters and 110 TV commentators were present in the stand.

Sponsorship

The sponsors of the 1998 FIFA World Cup are divided into two categories:

Sponsors and

Supporters. The absence of

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrelat ...

(which was one of the sponsors in the previous two World Cups) is notable due to the

Evin law Evin is a neighbourhood in the north of Tehran. The district consists of an old section, filled with orchards and gardens of old houses, and a new section, with high rises and skyscrapers. It is adjacent to Shahid Beheshti University Shahid ...

, which forbids alcohol-related sponsorship in France, including in sports events (and thus, being replaced by

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...

Video games

In most of the world, the official video game was, ''

World Cup 98 The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

'' released by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

on 13 March 1998 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...

and the

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same ...

. It was the first international football game developed by Electronic Arts since obtaining the rights from FIFA in 1997 and received mostly favourable reviews. In Japan,

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

was granted the FIFA World Cup licence and produced two distinct video games: '' Jikkyou World Soccer: World Cup France 98'' by KCEO for the Nintendo 64, and '' World Soccer Jikkyou Winning Eleven 3: World Cup France '98'' by

KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV ...

for the PlayStation. These games were released in the rest of the world as ''International Superstar Soccer '98'' and ''International Superstar Soccer Pro '98'', without the official FIFA World Cup licence, branding or real player names. Also in Japan,

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

was granted the FIFA World Cup licence to produce the

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

video game ''World Cup '98 France: Road to Win''. Many other video games, including ''

World League Soccer 98 ''World League Soccer '98'' is an association football video game developed by Silicon Dreams Studio. It was published in May 1998 by Eidos Interactive on the Sony PlayStation and PC, and by Sega on the Sega Saturn. Reception ''Edge Edge or ...

'', ''

Actua Soccer ''Actua Soccer'' (''VR Soccer'' in North America) is a sports video game developed and published by Gremlin Interactive for MS-DOS, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn. The game features a variety of teams and leagues to choose from, including nationa ...

2'' and '' Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory'' were released in the buildup to the 1998 World Cup and evidently were based on the tournament. '' FIFA: Road to World Cup 98'', also by EA Sports focused on the qualification stage.

Symbols

Mascot

The official mascot was ''Footix'', a

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

first presented in May 1996. It was created by graphic designer Fabrice Pialot and selected from a shortlist of five mascots. Research carried out about the choice of having a cockerel as a mascot was greatly received: 91% associated it immediately with France, the traditional symbol of the nation. Footix, the name chosen by French television viewers, is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsAstérix ''Asterix'' or ''The Adventures of Asterix'' (french: Astérix or , "Asterix the Gaul") is a ''bande dessinée'' comic book series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight the Roman Republic, wi ...

'' comic strip. The mascot's colours reflect those of the host nation's flag and home strip – blue for the jump suit, a red crest and with the words 'France 98' coloured in white.

Match ball

The official match ball for the 1998 World Cup, manufactured by

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

was named the ''Tricolore'', meaning 'three-coloured' in French. It was the eighth World Cup match ball made for the tournament by the German company and was the first in the series to be multi-coloured. The tricolour flag and cockerel, traditional symbols of France, were used as inspiration for the design.

Music

The official song of the 1998 FIFA World Cup was "

The Cup of Life "The Cup of Life" (Spanish: "La Copa de la Vida") is a song recorded by Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin for his fourth studio album, '' Vuelve'' (1998). Martin created the song after FIFA requested of him an anthem. The song was written by Lui ...

", also known as "La Copa de la Vida", recorded by

Ricky Martin Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...

. The official anthem was "

La Cour des Grands (Do You Mind If I Play) La Cour des Grands is a song by Youssou N'Dour and Axelle Red that was chosen as the List of FIFA World Cup songs and anthems, official anthem of the 1998 FIFA World Cup held in France. The song’s title in English was "Do You Mind If I Play." ...

" by

Youssou N'Dour Youssou N'Dour (, wo, Yuusu Nduur; also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour; born 1 October 1959) is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine describe ...

and

Axelle Red Fabienne Demal (born 15 February 1968), better known by her stage name Axelle Red, is a Belgian singer-songwriter. She has released 11 albums, including '' Sans plus attendre'', '' À Tâtons'', '' Toujours Moi'' and '' Jardin Secret''; she is b ...

Legacy

Honorary FIFA President

João Havelange Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange (, ; 8 May 1916 – 16 August 2016) was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, athlete and centenarian who served as the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the ...

praised France's hosting of the World Cup, describing the tournament as one that would "remain with me forever, as I am sure they will remain with everyone who witnessed this unforgettable competition".

Lennart Johansson Nils Lennart Johansson (5 November 1929 – 4 June 2019) was a Swedish sports official who served as the fifth and, to date, longest-serving president of UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations. He served in the position from his elec ...

, the chairman of the organising committee for the World Cup and President of UEFA added that France provided "subject matter of a quality that made the world hold its breath".

Cour des Comptes The ''Cour des Comptes'' ("Court of Accounts") is France's supreme audit institution, under French law an administrative court. As such, it is independent from the legislative and executive branches of the French Government. However, the 1946 and ...

, the

quasi-judicial body A quasi-judicial body is non-judicial body which can interpret law. It is an entity such as an arbitration panel or tribunal board, that can be a public administrative agency but also a contract- or private law entity, which has been ...

of the

French government The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who ...

, released its report on the organisation of the 1998 World Cup in 2000.

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

*
1998 FIFA World Cup France
FIFA.com

* at the BBC {{Authority control FIFA World Cup tournaments International association football competitions hosted by France

1998 in association football

Host selection

Bribery and corruption investigations

Qualification

List of qualified teams

Venues

Innovations

Technologies

Rule changes

Match officials

Draw results and group fixtures

Squads

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Knockout stage

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Third place play-off

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

Awards

Players who were red-carded during the tournament

All-star team

Final standings

Marketing

Broadcasting

Sponsorship

Video games

Symbols

Mascot

Match ball

Music

Legacy

See also

References

Sources

External links