The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, 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, who beat defending champions Brazil 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, Italy, England, West Germany and Argentina) to win the tournament on home soil. Croatia, Jamaica,

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 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, 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.

Bribery and corruption investigations

On 4 June 2015, while co-operating with the FBI 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, 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 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, Jamaica,

and South Africa. The last team to qualify was Iran 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 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 also qualified for the tournament. Chile 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. Among the teams who failed to qualify were two-time winners Uruguay (for the second successive tournament); Portugal (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 (who failed to qualify for the first time since 1978 after losing to Italy in the play-off round); and the Republic of Ireland, who had qualified for the previous two tournaments. The highest-ranked team not to qualify was the Czech Republic (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'' ; CONCACAF (3) * (30) * (4) * (11) ;

(5) * (6) * (1) * (9) * (10) * (29) ; UEFA (15) * (31) * (36) * (35) * (19) * (27) * (5) * (18) (hosts) * (2) * (14) * (25) * (7) * (22) * (41) * (15) * FR Yugoslavia (8) 1998 world cup qualification

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

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 goals,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 * Gamal Al-Ghandour *

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 * Pirom Un-Prasert ; UEFA (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 * Pierluigi Collina *

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 * Bernd Heynemann *

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 *

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 * 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 ...

; CONCACAF (3) * Esfandiar Baharmast *

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 ; 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 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, ...

in Marseille, and was televised live on 4 December 1997
FIFA World Cup Draw
on BBC Sport. 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, George Weah 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, 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 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 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 of Cameroon was the youngest player selected in the competition at 17 years, 3 months, while the oldest was Jim Leighton of Scotland at 39 years, 11 months.

Group stage

''All times are Central European Summer Time ( UTC+2)''

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 to determine who progressed to the next round. Golden goal 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 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 Uruguay, Italy, England, West Germany and Argentina 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 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 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 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

Aimé Jacquet Aimé Étienne Jacquet (born 27 November 1941) is a French former professional football manager and player. He was manager of the France national football team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Biography Jacquet was born in Sail-sous-Couzan, L ...

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 * Davor Šuker ;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 ;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 * César Sampaio * Rivaldo * Thierry Henry * Oliver Bierhoff * Jürgen Klinsmann *

Dennis Bergkamp Dennis Nicolaas Maria Bergkamp (; born 10 May 1969) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player. Originally a wide midfielder, Bergkamp was moved to main striker and then to second striker, where he remained throughout his playing ...

;2 goals * Ariel Ortega * Marc Wilmots * Robert Prosinečki * Brian Laudrup * Michael Owen *

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premie ...

* Emmanuel Petit *

Lilian Thuram Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien (; born 1 January 1972) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defender. He began playing football professionally in his homeland with Monaco and played in the top flight in France, Italy and Spai ...

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...

Roberto Baggio Roberto Baggio (; born 18 February 1967) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, or as an attacking midfielder, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. He is the former pre ...

* Theodore Whitmore * Ricardo Peláez * Salaheddine Bassir * Abdeljalil Hadda * Phillip Cocu * Ronald de Boer * Patrick Kluivert *

Viorel Moldovan Viorel Dinu Moldovan (born 8 July 1972) is a Romanian former professional football forward and currently a manager. He was an important player for the Romanian national team in the 1990s. Career Moldovan was born in Bistrița. At club level, ...

* Shaun Bartlett *

Fernando Hierro Fernando Ruiz Hierro (; born 23 March 1968) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a centre-back, sweeper or defensive midfielder. He is the current sporting director of Liga MX club C.D. Guadalajara. He won five La Liga ...

* Fernando Morientes * Slobodan Komljenović ;1 goal * Claudio López * Mauricio Pineda *

Javier Zanetti Javier Adelmar Zanetti (; born 10 August 1973) is an Argentine former professional footballer. He is regarded as one of the best players of his generation, and is especially well known for his role in Inter Milan's treble-winning 2009–10 seas ...

Andreas Herzog Andreas "Andi" Herzog (born 10 September 1968) is an Austrian former footballer and manager who last managed Admira Wacker. As a player, he played as an attacking midfielder, most notably for Werder Bremen. A full international between 1988 and ...

* Toni Polster *

Ivica Vastić Ivica Vastić (; born 29 September 1969) is an Austrian retired professional footballer, who played as a midfielder and as a striker, and head coach of Austria Wien U18. He played, amongst others for FK Austria Wien, SK Sturm Graz and LASK a ...

* Luc Nilis *

Emil Kostadinov Emil Lubtchov Kostadinov ( bg, Емил Любчов Костадинов; born 12 August 1967) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who played as a forward and represented the Bulgaria national team at two World Cups. Club career B ...

Patrick M'Boma Henri Patrick Mboma Dem (born 15 November 1970) is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the former all-time top goal-scorer for the Cameroon national team. Club career Born in Douala, Cameroon, Mboma sta ...

Pierre Njanka Pierre Djaka Njanka-Beyaka (born 15 March 1975) is a Cameroonian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football), defender. Njanka played for Cameroon national football team, Cameroon at the 1 ...

José Luis Sierra José Luis Sierra may refer to the following Chilean footballers: *José Luis Sierra (footballer, born 1968) José Luis "Coto" Sierra Pando (born 5 December 1968) is a Chilean football coach and former player. He is the manager of Al-Wehda. P ...

Léider Preciado Léider Calimenio Preciado Guerrero (born 26 February 1977) is a retired Colombian football striker, who currently manages minor league teams (lower divisions) for Independiente Santa Fe. Club career He has played for Independiente Santa Fe, On ...

Robert Jarni Robert Jarni (born 26 October 1968) is a Croatian former professional footballer who played as a left winger or wingback and current manager. Jarni started his professional career with Hajduk Split in 1986, and went on to spend 10 years playin ...

Mario Stanić Mario Stanić (born 10 April 1972) is a former Croatian footballer. Being a versatile offensive player, he was no stranger to any forward or attacking midfield position, and was even deployed as a wing-back in the national team. Club career S ...

Goran Vlaović Goran Vlaović (born 7 August 1972) is a Croatian retired footballer who played as a striker. Club career Born in Nova Gradiška, Vlaović started his professional career with Osijek in 1989 and moved to HAŠK Građanski in 1992, before goi ...

Thomas Helveg Thomas Lund Helveg (; born 24 June 1971) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He began and ended his career with Odense Boldklub in the Danish Superliga, with whom he won the 1989 Danish championship. The most p ...

Martin Jørgensen Lars Martin Jørgensen (; born 6 October 1975) is a Danish former professional footballer played as a midfielder or defender. He works as talent manager for AGF. Jørgensen amassed 102 caps and scored 12 goals for the Denmark national team. ...

* Michael Laudrup *

Peter Møller Peter Møller Nielsen (born 23 March 1972) is a Danish former professional football player who became a sports journalist after ending his football career in December 2005. In 2018 he became sporting director of Dansk Boldspil Union. He won fo ...

Allan Nielsen Allan Nielsen (born 13 March 1971) is a Danish former professional footballer whose most notable period of football was four years at English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur with whom he won the 1999 League Cup, scoring the winning goa ...

Marc Rieper Marc Jensen Rieper (born 5 June 1968) is a Danish former professional association football, footballer who played as a centre-back for Aarhus Gymnastikforening, AGF and Brøndby IF, Brøndby in Denmark, West Ham United F.C., West Ham United in E ...

* Ebbe Sand *

Darren Anderton Darren Robert Anderton (born 3 March 1972) is an English former professional footballer and pundit. As a player, he was a midfielder who notably played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur and Birmingham City. His twelve-year spell with ...

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Paul Scholes Paul Scholes (born 16 November 1974) is an English football coach, pundit, former player, and co-owner of Salford City. He spent his entire professional playing career with Manchester United, for whom he scored over 150 goals in more than 700 ...

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Christophe Dugarry Christophe Jérôme Dugarry (born 24 March 1972) is a French former professional footballer who played as a forward. His clubs include Bordeaux, Milan, Barcelona, Marseille, Birmingham City and Qatar SC. He was also a member of the France team t ...

* Bixente Lizarazu * David Trezeguet * Andreas Möller * Mehdi Mahdavikia * Hamid Estili * Luigi Di Biagio *

Robbie Earle Robert Fitzgerald Earle MBE (born 27 January 1965) is an English-born Jamaican former international footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He played 578 league games in senior club football, scoring 136 goals. A former youth playe ...

* Masashi Nakayama * Cuauhtémoc Blanco *

Alberto García Aspe Alberto García Aspe Mena (born 11 May 1967) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is one of the all-time appearance leaders for the Mexico national team. He participated in 109 matches, scoring a total 21 g ...

* Mustapha Hadji *

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* Pierre van Hooijdonk * Boudewijn Zenden *

Mutiu Adepoju Mutiu Adepoju (born 22 December 1970) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder. He spent most of his career in Spain, amassing La Liga totals of 175 games and 22 goals over the course of seven se ...

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* Victor Ikpeba *

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* Wilson Oruma * Dan Eggen * Håvard Flo * Tore André Flo *

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 ...

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* José Cardozo *

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 * Sami Al-Jaber * Yousuf Al-Thunayan *

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* Benni McCarthy *

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* Yoo Sang-chul * Kiko *

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* Raúl *

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 * Siniša Mihajlović * Predrag Mijatović * Dragan Stojković ;Own goals *

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(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) *

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(against France) x2 * Andoni Zubizarreta (against Nigeria) * Siniša Mihajlović (against Germany)

Awards

Players who were red-carded during the tournament

* Ariel Ortega * Gert Verheyen *

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* Rigobert Song *

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* Marcel Desailly *

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* Pável Pardo * Ramón Ramírez * Patrick Kluivert * Arthur Numan *

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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 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: FIFA World Cup Sponsors and France Supporters. The absence of Budweiser (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).

Video games

In most of the world, the official video game was, '' World Cup 98'' released by EA Sports 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 and the Game Boy. 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 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 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 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 of "football" and the ending "-ix" from the popular ''

Astérix ''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. 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 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 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, 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 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 FIFA World Cup FIFA World Cup FIFA World Cup 1998 in association football