First World Cup for France-1998

It was the second time when the country was hosting the World Cup which was selected by FIFA after beating Morocco in the biding process. In 1998, it was the FIFA World Cup, the world championship in men category. The duration was of 32 days which was the longest duration of the World cup ever done. Qualifications for the tournament started in March-1996 and were concluded in November 1997. For the first time, the teams were expanded from 24 to 32 containing eight groups of four teams each. 10 stadiums were used in 10 host cities with 64 matches to be held including the opening match and the final match to be played in Stade de France Stadium made in Parisian commune of Saint Denis.

The Final was won by the host team France beating the defending champions Brazil by 3-0. It was the first time when France won the title, which made the France the seventh country to win the title and sixth country to become the winners by winning on their own ground after Uruguay, Italy, West German and Argentina. Brazil was the runner-up for the tournament followed by Croatia and Netherlands for the third and fourth positions respectively.

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HOW FRANCE GOT THE CHANCE TO HOST THE WORLD CUP?

As per the data says, France was given the opportunity on 2 July 1992 by the FIFA committee during a meeting in Switzerland. France defeated Morocco by 12:7 votes respectively whereas Switzerland withdrew its’ name as it wasn’t able to fulfill the desired requirement of the FIFA committee. After Mexico and Italy, France became the third country to host the FIFA World Cup twice.

When a country wins the bidding to host the FIFA World Cup, bribery and corruption is investigated between the committee and the countries to check any illegal activities are happening in such cases or not. On June 4, Chuck Blazer while talking with swizz authorities and the FBI confirmed that he and other committee members were bribed in 1998 World Cup and 2010 World Cup. As we all know, the FIFA World Cup was won by France. So, it was initially thought that bribery must have come from France but eventually it was Morocco who bribed the committee which was brought into the consideration. Blazer stated that "we facilitated bribes in conjunction with the selection of the host nation for the 1998 World Cup".

32 teams that qualified for the tournament –

UEFA (15)

Austria (31)

Belgium (36)

Bulgaria (35)

Croatia (19)

Denmark (27)

England (5)

France (18) (hosts)

Germany (2)

Italy (14)

Netherlands (25)

Norway (7)

Romania (22)

Scotland (41)

Spain (15)

FR Yugoslavia (8)

These numbers after the country names shows the pre-tournament ranking of the countries.

10 Stadiums that were used in 1998 World Cup in France-

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Lyon Stade de Gerland Capacity: 44,000

Paris Parc des Princes Capacity: 48,875

Marseile Stade Vélodrome Capacity: 60,000

Saint-Denis Stade de France Capacity: 80,000

Lens Stade Félix-Bollaert Capacity: 41,300

Nantes Stade de la Beaujoire Capacity: 39,500

Toulouse Stadium de Toulouse Capacity: 37,000

Saint-Eteinne Stade Geoffroy-Guichard Capacity: 36,000

Bordeaux Parc Lescure Capacity: 35,200

Montpellier Stade de la Mosson Capacity: 34,000

Players who played for France in FIFA World Cup-1998
Bernand Lama Goalkeeper
Vincent Candela Defender
Bixente Lizarazu Defender
Patrick Vieira Mid-field
Laurant Blanc – Defender
Youri Djorkaeff Mid-field
Marcel Desailly Defender
Stephane Guivarch Forward
Zinedine Zinade Mid Field
Robert Pires Mid-Field
Thiery Henry Forward
Bernard Diomede Mid-field
Alain Boghossain Mid-field
Liliam Thuram Defender
Fabien Barthez Goalkeeper
Emmanuel Petit Mid-field
Frank Leboeuf Defender
Christian Karembeu Mid-field
David Trezeguet Forward
Christophe Dugarry Forward
Lionel Charbonnier Goalkeeper

FINAL MATCH

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The final match took place on 12 July 1998, at Saint de France in Saint-Denis. France won its, first title against Brazil by 3-0. It was said as second heaviest defeat to any of the teams in the world cup but in 2014 Brazil topped it by defeating Germany by 7-1. Zidane scored two goals and Patrick Vieira scored a goal summing it up of three goals for France whereas no goal was scored by the Brazilian team. French president Jacques Chirac was in attendance to congratulate and commiserate the winners and runners-up respectively after the match. Several days after the victory, winning manager Aimé Jacquet announced his resignation from the French team with immediate effect.