1998 FIFA World Cup

Lore & Background

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 in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis. The tournament was won by host country France, who beat defending champions Brazil 3–0 in the final to win their first title. In doing so France became the seventh nation to win the World Cup, and the sixth (after Uruguay, Italy, England, West Germany and Argentina) to win the World Cup on home soil. Through 2026, France remains the most recent team to win the tournament on home soil. Croatia, Jamaica, Japan and South Africa made their first appearances in the tournament.

Reader's Guide

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 and 1990 respectively.

France previously hosted the third edition of the World Cup in 1938. England, who hosted the competition in 1966, 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 confirmed that he and other members of FIFA's executive committee were bribed during the 1998 and 2010 World Cups 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 (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, Japan and South Africa.