How England Were Nearly Denied The 1966 World Cup

In 2017, during the bidding process to determine who would host the 2026 World Cup, FIFA President Gianni Infantino addressed the travel bans introduced by US President Donald Trump's administration which targeted several Muslim-majority nations. Infantino made FIFA’s principles clear: "Any team, including the supporters and officials of that team, who qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup."

 

In response, the US administration guaranteed that all athletes, officials, and fans would be permitted entry without discrimination.

 

FIFA stood by their principles in 2018, ensuring that players, officials, and supporters of competing nations had unfettered access when the World Cup was held in Russia. The hosts had to suspend their usual visa rules for the tournament and foreigners with tickets were allowed to enter visa-free, using a scheme called ‘Fan ID.’ In a move to placate their sponsors, FIFA insisted that Budweiser was the only beer that shops close to Fan Zones and stadiums could sell on match days.

 

In 2022, hosts Qatar made several concessions to keep FIFA happy and retain the right to stage the World Cup, including permitting alcohol sales within designated stadium perimeter zones and in official fan sites, suspending their strict stance on public displays of homosexuality by guaranteeing that rainbow flags and LGBTQ+ symbols would be permitted in stadiums, and waiving their traditional visa requirements for the visiting supporters from many countries.

 

In 2023, FIFA again stood by their principles and refused to allow a host nation to dictate who should be permitted to enter their country for a tournament. Malaysia had been awarded the hosting rights for the FIFA U20 World Cup, but when Israel qualified, Malaysia - which has the largest Muslim population in the world and does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel – announced that they would not allow the Israel team to enter the country. FIFA promptly stripped Malaysia of their hosting duties and the tournament was moved to Argentina, where it had been due to be played in 2021, but had been cancelled due to Covid.

 

FIFA’s principles became more flexible before this year’s World Cup, however. The US denied entry to Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, citing alleged "links to suspected members of terror organizations" as the reason; Iraq’s team photographer was denied entry despite having a valid visa; thousands of Moroccan fans with tickets were reportedly refused entry; members of Iran’s backroom staff were denied visas, and Ghanian player Thomas Partey had his visa application refused by the Canadian government.

 

In the matter of Trump v FIFA, FIFA blinked first. In a complete contradiction of Infantino’s 2017 statement a spokesman said, "FIFA is not involved in the immigration processes of host countries, including the adjudication of visas. The host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and is admitted into the country."

 

Given that the tournament was days away from starting when these matters arose (even though a number of them had been foreseen), moving it to another country or cancelling altogether were not viable options, but FIFA’s stance in backing down from their previous position was as disappointing as it was inevitable. With the 2026 tournament expected to achieve record revenues of US$8.9bn (£6.6bn), FIFA adopted the Groucho Marx approach to principles – if you don’t like these ones, we have others – because principles are one thing, but profits are another.

 

It is probably not widely known – I admit that until recently I was unaware of this – but in 1966 England was close to being denied the right to host the World Cup before a compromise was reached.

 

In documents released by the National Archive in 2010, it was revealed that the British government debated denying visas to the North Korean team. Following the Korean War in the 1950s, Britain did not officially recognize the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as a valid state and officials feared that hosting a communist "enemy" state would severely damage relations with South Korea and the United States.

 

Internal Foreign Office memos suggested that "the simplest way to solve the problem might be to refuse visas to the North Korean team." FIFA made it explicitly clear that if any team that had qualified was denied entry, England would lose the World Cup immediately. Desperate to save four years of preparation and massive financial investments, The FA begged the government to back down and ultimately, concessions were made.

 

Although the government refused to let the team use its official acronym of "DPRK,” they allowed them to compete using the name "North Korea." To avoid playing the DPRK anthem, the government convinced FIFA to play national anthems only before the tournament's opening match and the Final.

 

Ironically, the political manoeuvring backfired in terms of keeping North Korea low-profile as they became hugely popular with English fans, pulling off a sensational 1-0 win over Italy in Middlesbrough. In fact, the people of Middlesbrough took the North Koreans to their hearts so much that when they reached the Quarter Finals, an estimated 3,000 locals travelled to Liverpool for their game against Portugal, where they stunned their illustrious opponents by racing into a 3-0 lead inside 25 minutes before losing 5-3.

 

Sometimes, despite the machinations of the bureaucrats, football finds a way.