Royce Franklin, a life member of the Association of Football Statisticians, digs up yet more fascinating facts about football
MY FIRST significant memory of the World Cup was in 1954 when Hungary were red-hot favourites.
They had been unbeaten by European teams for four years and in 1953 had become the first team outside the British Isles to beat England at home – winning 6-3 at Wembley.
England challenged them to a return game in Budapest and I recall England’s captain at the time, Billy Wright, saying ‘we shall do better next time.’ Hungary won 7-1.
In the 1954 World Cup, only 16 teams played in the finals in Switzerland. They were divided into four groups with the winners and runners up going into the quarter finals.
There were two points for a win in those days and where teams finished level on points for second place, a play off resulted, making 26 matches in all. There were 140 goals scored (5.38 per match).
Attendances averaged only 34,212 with only 3,000 recorded at the Turkey – South Korea match which Turkey won 7-0. All attendances were recorded in the number of thousands only.
Other notable scores West Germany 7, Turkey 2 (play off); Uruguay 7 Scotland 0; Austria 7 Switzerland 5 (quarter final) and Hungary 9, South Korea 0, the latter played only two games with an aggregate deficit of 16-0.
Probably the most fascinating score was a group game between West Germany and Hungary which was won 8-3 by Hungary. West Germany fielded seven ‘reserve’ players for that game.
The two teams were to meet again in the final when Hungary led 2-0 early in the first half but West Germany came back to win 3-2. At the time the result was described as ‘The Miracle of Bern’ which was the location of the final.
The golden boot went to Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis with 11 goals.
In these days when referees come from what have been described as ‘lesser countries,’ 16 referees were appointed to the finals in Switzerland including two from England and one each from Wales and Scotland.
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