The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event twice. Teams representing 116 national football associations from all six populated continents entered the competition, with its qualification process beginning in April 1988. Twenty-two teams qualified from this process, along with host nation Italy and defending champion Argentina, for the finals tournament. The official match ball was the Adidas Etrusco Unico. The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the first World Cup that officially was recorded and transmitted in HDTV by the Italian broadcaster RAI in association with the Japanese NHK broadcaster.
The tournament was won by West Germany, who claimed their third World Cup title by defeating reigning champions Argentina 1–0 in the final, a rematch of the previous final four years earlier. Hosts Italy beat England 2–1 to finish third after both lost their semi-finals in penalty shootouts. It would be the last tournament to feature a German side representing the divided Germany, with the country being reunified later in 1990.
The 1990 World Cup is widely regarded as one of the poorest World Cups ever. It generated a record low goals-per-game average of just 2.21- a record that still stands to date- and a then-record 16 red cards were handed out, including the first ever dismissal in a final.
Despite the low goalscoring, the 1990 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.69 billion non-unique viewers, compiled over the course of the tournament. At the time it was the most watched World Cup in history in non-unique viewers, but has subsequently been bettered by the 1994 and 2002 FIFA World Cups.
Following this World Cup, the back-pass rule was introduced in 1992 to discourage time-wasting and overly defensive play, and wins were awarded three points in the group stage of the 1994 World Cup to encourage more aggressive offensive tactics and discourage the strategy of playing for a draw.
Read more about 1990 FIFA World Cup: Host Selection, Qualification, Venues, Squads, Match Officials, Tournament Review, Awards, Goalscorers, FIFA Final Ranking, Statistics
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