FIFA World Cup 1962
Chile was chosen to host the 1962 tournament over Argentina at the FIFA Congress in June 1956. Argentina were favourites and Chile had to be persuaded to announce their candidacy because FIFA did not want the tournament to be awarded unopposed (West Germany had been asked to withdraw their own bid because the South American teams would have boycotted the competition if it was held in Europe for the third time in succession).
In May 1962, Chile was struck by the Valdivia earthquake, the most powerful ever recorded resulting in over 50,000 casualties, 2 million people displaced and enormous damage to the country's infrastructure. Four of the original eight venues were destroyed while the cities of Antofagasta and Valparaiso withdrew. The stadia in Viña del Mar and Arica were rebuilt in record time while the Braden Copper Company made its stadium in Rancagua available. The brand new Estadio Nacional in Santiago was completed just in time. Matches in each group were played in just one venue so that, in a break with previous practice, the final group games were not played simultaneously. Attendances were poor for games outside Santiago largely because tickets were very expensive and could only be bought in batches.
The format was the same as that used in 1958 except that goal average was now used to separate teams that finished with the same number of points in the group stages.
The tournament saw a marked change away from the attacking play of previous tournaments and was dominated by defensive tactics.
Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3 | Group 4 | Knock Out Stages
1958 | World Cup Index | 1966