Hosts: Chile
Winners: Brazil
Competing teams: 16
Where were England? Lost in the quarter-finals
If you’re a fan of free-flowing football and bags of goals then don’t bother to watch the official film of the 1962 tournament, it wasn’t a classic.
Not only did the best players of the day fail to shine on the biggest stage, but the tournament is best remembered for one of the worst, most bad-tempered and ugly matches in the competition’s history – the infamous Battle of Santiago.
Hosts Chile met Italy in a group clash with passions already inflamed by two Italian journalists, who had questioned the morality of Chilean women and the state of the capital city Santiago.
In a frenzied atmosphere, which saw players punching and kicking each other, referee Ken Aston sent off two Italians but could have dismissed far more. Meanwhile, the visitors needed a police escort at the end of the game which Chile, incidentally, won 2-0.
Elsewhere England made it out of the group stages only to fall to a Garrincha-inspired Brazil in the quarter-finals, while hosts Chile made the last four after beating the Soviet Union.
Chile’s run came to an end with a 4-2 defeat to Brazil in the semis, while Czechoslovakia made their first and only final after beating Yugoslavia.
Just like in 1958, Brazil found themselves a goal down in the final but fought back to retain their crown running out 3-1 winners.
Did you know? Battle of Santiago referee Ashton went on to invent the red and yellow card system to clarify whether a player was being cautioned or sent off. He got the idea while sitting at a set of traffic lights.
