1998 жылғы Франциядағы әлем чемпионаты

Association football tournament in France

The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the second time in the history of the tournament (the first was in 1938), defeating Morocco in the bidding process. It was the ninth time that it was held in Europe. Spanning 32 days, it was the longest World Cup tournament ever held. Qualification for the finals began in March 1996 and concluded in November 1997. For the first time in the competition, the group stage was expanded from 24 teams to 32, with eight groups of four. 64 matches were played in 10 stadiums in 10 host cities, with the opening match and final staged at the newly built Stade de France in the Parisian commune of Saint Denis. The tournament was won by host country France, who beat defending champions Brazil 3–0 in the final. France won their first title, becoming the seventh nation to win a World Cup, and the sixth (after Uruguay, Italy, England, West Germany and Argentina) to win the World Cup on home soil. As of 2022, they are the most recent team to win the tournament on home soil. Croatia, Jamaica, Japan and South Africa made their first appearances in the finals.

On 4 June 2015, while co operating with the FBI and the Swiss authorities, Chuck Blazer confirmed that he and other members of FIFA's executive committee were bribed during the 1998 and 2010 World Cups host selection process. Blazer stated that "we facilitated bribes in conjunction with the selection of the host nation for the 1998 World Cup". Since France won the selection process it was initially thought the bribery came from its bid committee. It eventually transpired that the bribe payment was from the failed Moroccan bid.

The qualification draw for the 1998 World Cup finals took place in the Musée du Louvre, Paris on 12 December 1995. As tournament hosts, France was exempt from the draw as was defending champion Brazil, but it was also France's first World Cup since 1986. 174 teams from six confederations participated, 24 more than in the previous round. Fourteen countries qualified from the European zone (in addition to hosts France). Ten were determined after group play – nine group winners and the best second placed team; the other eight group runners up were drawn into pairs of four play off matches with the winners qualifying for the finals as well. CONMEBOL (South America) and CAF (Africa) were each given five spots in the final tournament, while three spots were contested between 30 CONCACAF members in the North and Central America and the Caribbean zone. The winner of the Oceanian zone advanced to an intercontinental play off against the runner up of the Asian play off, determined by the two best second placed teams. Four nations qualified for the first time: Croatia, Jamaica, Japan and South Africa. The last team to qualify was Iran by virtue of beating Australia in a two legged tie on 29 November 1997. It marked their first appearance in the finals since 1978, the last time Tunisia also qualified for the tournament. Chile qualified for the first time since 1982, after serving a ban that saw them miss out on the two previous tournaments. Paraguay and Denmark returned for the first time since 1986. Austria, England, Scotland and Yugoslavia returned after missing out on the 1994 tournament, with the Balkan team now appearing under the name of FR Yugoslavia. Among the teams who failed to qualify were two time winners Uruguay (for the second successive tournament); Portugal (their last absence as of 2022); Sweden, who finished third in 1994; Russia (who failed to qualify for the first time since 1978 after losing to Italy in the play off round); and the Republic of Ireland, who had qualified for the previous two tournaments. The highest ranked team not to qualify was the UEFA Euro 1996 runners up the Czech Republic (ranked 3rd), while the lowest ranked team that did qualify was Nigeria (ranked 74th). As of 2022, this was the last time Austria, Bulgaria, Norway, Romania and Scotland qualified for a FIFA World Cup finals, and the only time Jamaica have qualified.

The draw resulted in the following eight groups: 75 played their club football in England – five more than Italy and Spain. Barcelona of Spain was the club contributing to the most players in the tournament with 13 players on their side. the winning penalty to send Norway into the knockout stage for the first time. Norway's victory denied Morocco a chance at the Round of 16, despite winning 3–0 against Scotland. It was only Morocco's second ever victory at a World Cup, having recorded its first previous win 12 years earlier on 11 June 1986. Scotland managed only one point, coming in a 1–1 draw against Norway, and failed to get out of the first round for an eighth time in the FIFA World Cup, a record that stands to this date.

Italy and Chile progressed to the second round, while Austria failed to win for the first time since 1958 and Cameroon failed to get out of the group stage for the second time in a row.

France, the host nation, swept Group C when the start of their path to their first FIFA World Cup trophy culminated with their 2–1 win over Denmark, who despite their loss, progressed to the second round. Saudi Arabia, after a good performance four years earlier, finished bottom with only one point. Debutant South Africa grabbed two points and also exited at the group stage.

Nigeria and Paraguay advanced to the Round of 16 after a surprise elimination of top seed Spain, while Bulgaria failed to repeat their surprise performance from the previous tournament.

The Netherlands and Mexico advanced with the same record, with the former placing first on goal difference. Belgium and eventual 2002 FIFA World Cup co hosts South Korea failed to advance.

Germany and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia advanced, each with 7 points (Germany took 1st through goal differential tiebreak). Iran and 1994 host United States failed to advance.

Romania topped the group over England, while Colombia and Tunisia were unable to reach the last 16, despite Colombia having one win.

Argentina finished at the top of Group H against three debutants. Croatia took the runners up spot against the surprising Jamaica, and Japan failed to advance.

The knockout stage comprised the 16 teams that advanced from the group stage of the tournament. For each game in the knockout stage, any draw at 90 minutes was followed by 30 minutes of extra time; if scores were still level, there was a penalty shoot out to determine who progressed to the next round. Golden goal comes into play if a team scores during extra time, thus becoming the winner which concludes the game.

The Quarter finals were Brazil vs Denmark, Italy vs France, Netherlands vs Argentina and Germany vs Croatia.

Croatia beat the Netherlands to earn third place in the competition. Davor Šuker scored the winner in the 36th minute to secure the golden boot.

The final was held on 12 July 1998 at the Stade de France, Saint Denis. France defeated holders Brazil 3–0, with two goals from Zinedine Zidane and a stoppage time strike from Emmanuel Petit. The win gave France their first World Cup title, becoming the sixth national team after Uruguay, Italy, England, West Germany and Argentina to win the tournament on their home soil. They also inflicted the second heaviest World Cup defeat on Brazil, later to be topped by Brazil's 7–1 defeat by Germany in the semi finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The pre match build up was dominated by the omission of Brazilian striker Ronaldo from the starting lineup only to be reinstated 45 minutes before kick off. He managed to create the first open chance for Brazil in the 22nd minute, dribbling past defender Thuram before sending a cross out on the left side that goalkeeper Fabien Barthez struggled to hold onto. France however took the lead after Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos conceded a corner from which Zidane scored via a header. Three minutes before half time, Zidane scored his second goal of the match, similarly another header from a corner. The tournament hosts went down to ten men in the 68th minute as Marcel Desailly was sent off for a second bookable offence. Brazil reacted to this by making an attacking substitution and although they applied pressure France sealed the win with a third goal: substitute Patrick Vieira set up his club teammate Petit in a counterattack to shoot low past goalkeeper Cláudio Taffarel. French president Jacques Chirac was in attendance to congratulate the winners and commiserate the runners up after the match. Several days after the victory, winning manager Aimé Jacquet announced his resignation from the French team with immediate effect.

After the tournament, FIFA published a ranking of all teams that competed in the 1998 World Cup finals based on progress in the competition and overall results. R (Final Ranking) Team G (Group) P (Played) W (Win) D (Draw) L (Lose) GF (Goals For) GA (Goals against) GD (Goal Difference) Pts. (Points) 1 C 7 6 1 0 15 2 +13 19 2 A 7 4 1 2 14 10 +4 13 3 H 7 5 0 2 11 5 +6 15 4 E 7 3 3 1 13 7 +6 12 Eliminated in the quarter finals 5 B 5 3 2 0 8 3 +5 11 6 H 5 3 1 1 10 4 +6 10 7 F 5 3 1 1 8 6 +2 10 8 C 5 2 1 2 9 7 +2 7 Eliminated in the round of 16 9 G 4 2 1 1 7 4 +3 7 10 F 4 2 1 1 5 4 +1 7 11 G 4 2 1 1 4 3 +1 7 12 D 4 2 0 2 6 9 −3 6 13 E 4 1 2 1 8 7 +1 5 14 D 4 1 2 1 3 2 +1 5 15 A 4 1 2 1 5 5 0 5 16 B 4 0 3 1 5 8 −3 3 Eliminated in the group stage 17 D 3 1 1 1 8 4 +4 4 18 A 3 1 1 1 5 5 0 4 19 E 3 0 3 0 3 3 0 3 20 F 3 1 0 2 2 4 −2 3 21 G 3 1 0 2 1 3 −2 3 22 H 3 1 0 2 3 9 −6 3 23 B 3 0 2 1 3 4 −1 2 24 C 3 0 2 1 3 6 −3 2 25 B 3 0 2 1 2 5 −3 2 26 G 3 0 1 2 1 4 −3 1 27 A 3 0 1 2 2 6 −4 1 28 C 3 0 1 2 2 7 −5 1 29 D 3 0 1 2 1 7 −6 1 30 E 3 0 1 2 2 9 −7 1 31 H 3 0 0 3 1 4 −3 0 32 F 3 0 0 3 1 5 −4 0

A year before the tournament, a small, invitation only tournament named the Tournoi de France was held in France, with Italy, Brazil, England, and hosts France participating.

FIFA, through several companies, sold the broadcasting rights for the 1998 FIFA World Cup to many broadcasters. In the UK BBC and ITV had the broadcasting rights. The pictures and audio of the competition were supplied to the TV and radio channels by the company TVRS 98, the broadcaster of the tournament. The World Cup matches were broadcast in 200 countries. 818 photographers were credited for the tournament. In every match, a stand was reserved for the press. The number of places granted to them reached its maximum in the final, when 1,750 reporters and 110 TV commentators were present in the stand.

In most of the world, the official video game was, World Cup 98 released by EA Sports on 13 March 1998 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and the Game Boy. It was the first international football game developed by Electronic Arts since obtaining the rights from FIFA in 1997 and received mostly favourable reviews. In Japan, Konami was granted the FIFA World Cup licence and produced two distinct video games: Jikkyou World Soccer: World Cup France 98 by KCEO for the Nintendo 64, and World Soccer Jikkyou Winning Eleven 3: World Cup France '98 by KCET for the PlayStation. These games were released in the rest of the world as International Superstar Soccer '98 and International Superstar Soccer Pro '98, without the official FIFA World Cup licence, branding or real player names. Also in Japan, Sega was granted the FIFA World Cup licence to produce the Saturn video game World Cup '98 France: Road to Win. Many other video games, including World League Soccer 98, Actua Soccer 2 and Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory were released in the buildup to the 1998 World Cup and evidently were based on the tournament. FIFA: Road to World Cup 98, also by EA Sports focused on the qualification stage.

The official mascot was Footix, a rooster first presented in May 1996. It was created by graphic designer Fabrice Pialot and selected from a shortlist of five mascots. Research carried out about the choice of having a cockerel as a mascot was greatly received: 91% associated it immediately with France, the traditional symbol of the nation. It was the eighth World Cup match ball made for the tournament by the German company and was the first in the series to be multi coloured. The tricolour flag and cockerel, traditional symbols of France, were used as inspiration for the design. The official anthem was "La Cour des Grands (Do You Mind If I Play)" by Youssou N'Dour and Axelle Red.

Honorary FIFA President João Havelange praised France's hosting of the World Cup, describing the tournament as one that would "remain with me forever, as I am sure they will remain with everyone who witnessed this unforgettable competition". Lennart Johansson, the chairman of the organising committee for the World Cup and President of UEFA added that France provided "subject matter of a quality that made the world hold its breath". Cour des Comptes, the quasi judicial body of the French government, released its report on the organisation of the 1998 World Cup in 2000.