FIFA World Cup 1998
France was chosen to host the World Cup for the second time in its history by FIFA's Executive Committee in July 1992. Morocco was the only other bidder after Switzerland withdrew. The centre piece of the French bid was to build a new national stadium in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis and upgrade regional stadia to meet FIFA's minimum requirement to seat at least 40,000 spectators.
The 1998 tournament was the first to be contested by 32 teams: five places each were awarded to South America and Africa, four to Central/North America and Asia/Oceania while UEFA were allocated 15 slots.
At the associated FIFA Congress, Havelange stepped down as FIFA President and was replaced by his protege and General Secretary, Sepp Blatter, amid widespread allegations of bribery.
Some detailing in this section has been sourced from switchimageproject.com.
Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H | Knock Out Stages
1994 | World Cup Index | 2002