Has Every FIFA World Cup Been Fixed? 

Honestly, Alfie making that five hour video on every world cup scandal would be the greatest thing ever, though I understand his health and sanity take priority

The 2002 WC was so blatant. The referee of the games involving South Korea was later charged with accepting bribes and corruption in his home country.

"Who served as a corrupt FIFA president " you say that like there ever was a FIFA president that was not corrupt

I heard a horrific story about the Argentine junta during the '78 Cup. After Argentina's semifinal victory, the military put some of their political prisoners in cars and drove around Buenos Aires. Even though the prisoners were plainly visible through the windows of the cars, people were celebrating Argentina's win so much they didn't notice them. The junta then told the prisoners, in effect, "See? They don't care about you!"

If every World Cup has been fixed England clearly hasn’t been bribing FIFA enough.

The 2010 host bidding process was also corrupt, with Morocco actually winning the right to host the tournament before a 'deliberate miscount' gave it to South Africa

Another aspect about the 54 WC was that West Germany was a new country and one who's success would tacitly prove the capitalist system of that country was far superior than East Germany and communism in general. You can't understate the symbolic stakes of success in a global context of West German in a post WW2 early cold war world. In that context I'd say the dubiousness of that victory is increased. It's probably easy to forget that context in 2022.

Hey Alfie, didn’t Franz Beckenbauer admit that the west German team had “been injected with something unknown that gave me energy” in 1974 after admitting that they intentionally kept the pitch grass longer than fifa regulation to mess up the Dutch? Also, Cruyff didn’t really “decide” not to be apart of the 1978 WC. His home had been robbed at gun point and faced threats of kidnapping less than a month before he was supposed to leave.

Sorry about making a suggestion for another video, but could you potentially do one on the Munich Air Disaster, the team before hand and the influence of people like Tommy Taylor and Duncan Edwards, and how they rebuilt the team and made, although eventually lost, the 1958 FA Cup Final?

Alfie's dodgyometer is the best thing I will hear today and it's only quarter past nine

In 1966 you missed that the semi-final between England and Portugal was moved from Goodison Park to Wembley so the English didn't have to travel at all. I would give it an 8/10

No mention of England having the rules changed mid-tournament to continue playing at Wembley? Utterly shameless. The refereeing in 1966 was the most corrupt I can ever remember. It was, quite simply, a fix from start to finish.

WORLD CUP 1966: After Portugal and England reached the semi-finals, the game between them, which was originally scheduled for Liverpool and where Portugal had already played twice, was rescheduled by FIFA to London (Wembley). So, Portugal had to travel by train from Liverpool to London while the english team rested peacefully. In fact, England played all its matches at Wembley during the 1966 world cup.

In 1950 Brazil were struggling to qualify behind Yugoslavia in their group (only group leaders progressed) and a Yugoslav player was injured taking the field before their match with Brazil. The Maracana was still being built, and players had to cross a building site to reach the playing area, where the injury took place; however the bent Welsh referee refused to allow the injured player to immediately go to the changing room for treatment. The Yugoslavs were told the team all had to attend the National Anthems, and the injured player went for treatment AFTER the game had started. Brazil had scored before Yugoslavia got their full 11 on the field. The referee's subsequent remarks about 'communist' officials trying to tell him how to run a game do indicate political bias.

1966; Semi final England vs Portugal; Engalnd switched the stadium where the game should be played on the day of the match. English players rested peacefully while portuguese players had to travel by bus for hours befor the game.

I realised FIFA and UEFA were totally corrupt before I was 10, about 1978, nice to see everyone is catching up

1966 was definitely a fix.

You’ve missed a big scandal in 1966, the semi final was supposed to be at Goodson Park, which was close to Portugals base, then the FA moved the game at the last minute to London

Semifinal in 1966 between Portugal and England was rigged as well. One day before the game they changed the stadium, relocated portugals team, so they couldn’t prepare nore have a proper rest before the game

Worst referring mistakes ever I would like to see a video on that

I'll name two trivia things that I was suprised weren't mentioned: 1962 Chile - Italy was refereed by Ken Aston who, after that match, created Yellow and Red Cards as he felt he needed those to control the game. 1990 Argentina - Brazil water thingy is all but confirmed to have happened by Argentines themselves (Maradona and Ruggeri come to mind). Other than that it is a great video, with points that I'm sure everyone will try to discuss (heck, I do) but that serves as a nice review of the past. I'd also like/love to unearth some of the stuff that 1938 had to offer off the pitch (Germany was denied to host it but promised/lied to host it next time, as next time also included South America and England and you couldn't have 3 world cup on the same year, afaik), but I guess that's a request I'll happily wait.

Great upload as always Alfie. Just one thing though - you mentioned that Italy withdrew from qualification for the 1958 WC but they actually lost out to Northern Ireland who defeated Italy in Belfast.

I watched this yesterday and can't stop thinking about: Ex FIFA president: "1966 and 1974 were rigged for their hosts and both had some of the shoddiest refereeing of all time" -Haha lad's being cheeky, simple as, no proof of anything, cheerio. Argentina stomps the almighty Peru, at home, Peru playing for nothing and Argentina for everything, and the only sussy thing about that match are the giant amount of conflicting accounts on how it supposedly got rigged. -9/10 rigged.

This channel is just a pure limitless football library. Enjoying everything you're putting in here👍Keep them coming Alfie

Addition to the 1934 WC: I believe that Italy only qualified for the worldcup after Greece retreated. The Greek FA were then "gifted" a HQ by italy, which is still the seat of the Greek FA today.

Nothing beats the intelligent and sarcastic tone of HITC 7s

In retrospect and surprisingly, the 2018 WC in Russia was real good.

As a Dutchman, the 1978 world cup final loss is still hard to swallow given all the decisions that went against us. Also, you mentioned around 22:10 that Cruijff decided not to play (which prompted the other star player, Van Hanegem, not to play either). The reason Cruijff didn't play was a failed kidnapping attempt and a threat by Videla that if he played, it wouldn't fail next time. Talk about fixing and targeting star players.

Okay the earlier world cups sound more like a schoolboy-ran tourney rather than an international tournament. From the looks of it, the organizers went with hearty doses of nepotism and corruption. I get the feeling little has changed since then. They just got better at marketing the shiny bits and obscuring the unsavoury bits.

Honestly I love Alfie for the fact he does his research diligently and quickly

Thank you Alfie, this video gives me peace after Saturday.

What about the WC that England bought in 66?

Q: "Has every World Cup been fixed?" A: Yes, definitely

Hi Alfie, Loved the video, but the section around 8:46 regarding face offs between Italy and England is highly misleading. 2 of the victories were 10+ years after the '38 world cup, so they are not exactly relevant to that WC edition. The only England victory over Italy somewhat close to the '38 world cup was in '34, where they famously broke the Italian central defenders foot in the second minute and scored all 3 goals in the first 12 minutes, when he was just casually walking around the pitch with a broken foot, because his team players did not know about his injury; subs were also not permitted. In addition, you mention that Austria was regarded as one of Europe's strongest teams, still they lost 4 of the 6 matches against Italy in the 1930s, among which the final of the 1936 summer olympics that Italy won as well. As per the use of Italians born in Argentina, it seems like stricter rules prohibiting switching of national teams were only introduced in the 60s, so them playing for Argentina first and for Italy a couple of years later was not illegal, since they did hold Italian citizenship.

Graham Polls refereeing in the Australia vs Croatia game in 2006 was the worst refereeing performance in football history, so bad it was suspicious. Australia had 3 clear penalties disallowed and Croatian Josip Simmonic (who was actually born and raised in Australia) was given 3 yellow cards before being sent off.

Add 2022 whole aregentina run was just refree favouring aregentina giving penalties to make messi win world cup

One name Eusebio (The black panther) I still can not wrap my head around how few people talk about him I think it was 1966 Portugal was robbed. I wonder if the true harm of these tournaments is that it has carried on into the present. We really dont know who the best were because they played favourites and were corrupt from the beginning.

I like how you went into details about how hosts were being favored in some tournaments but you skipped over how England were being massively favored in 1966. How they would change venues to have their matches as Wembley, some times even making changes in the last minute. How the FIFA president was a biased English man. You were so vague with the 66 World Cup lol

For the 1958 WC, there is also the story of the Algerian players of France that is interesting. The Algerian War began 4 years prior, but in France, the media minimised what was happening, so a few days before the WC began, 9 Algerian players who played for France (+1 who was arrested at the border with Italy), went to Tunisia instead to play for the team of the National Liberation Front (FLN), the main organisation who fought for Algerian Independence, some willingly, such as Rachid Mekhloufi, but other, such as Moustapha Zitouni a bit less (he was willing to go, but also scared of the consequences). The French press didn't talked about them, the French Federation (FFF) pressured FIFA into banning other teams to play against this Algerian team, to no avail since they played in a competition against other Maghreb countries. Those countries were also having troubles to register in FIFA competitions because of French pressures. Another story, much darker, about Algeria is some consequences for the players of '82, who after being injustly eliminated, were given strange substences by a Soviet doctor during the competition, that, alleged by those players, led to many of their children to being born with disabilities. Such sad stories for a team that saw really good players and moments (such as the WC 2014, and the match they nearly won against Germany)

I'd like to imagine every World Cup is a written TV show with multiple writers.

As an American fan, I'm pretty happy to see USA '94 given one of the best scores in this list and I tend to agree, that there's been little conversation about corruption related to that tournament, other than the "why did you award the tournament to such a soccer minnow" pre-tournament sentiment. But once the teams, fans and officials got here, they realized that the reason you do that is that the US, of all countries, had the facilities and the know how to put on such an event and all of that talk was quickly forgotten when they saw the size and enthusiasm of the crowds that attended. The fact that Major League Soccer was born out of it and that the US has a much, much stronger team, player development structure and soccer culture in the aftermath was one of the great successes of that endeavor.

Hey alfie. I would recommend reading up on the Diego story of the doping scandal at the 94 WC, in almost certainty the entire controversy was a ploy to screw him over and push FIFA's image of a credible organization working against steroid use, as it was a recurrent theme at that time especially in the USA. All this controversy killed the career of one of the best to ever play, screw FIFA. And the USA too while we're at it.

Getting suitable results isn't necessarily fixing, it's falls into the category of cheating more. That Gijon match was pretty much repeated at Euro 2004 by Sweden and Denmark. But yes, '78 and '38 are pretty crystal clear and everyone knows the reasons. Every tournament played in history of mankind across sports presumably has scandals and errors.

I think this is a great video to show how off the pitch corruption would hurt on the pitch play back in the day, this video also shows that corruption off the pitch is still influencing who where the World Cup can be played.

Every World Cup is RIGGED. Italia & Espana get screwed so Korea is in the Semis of a Cup held at Asia, what does FIFA mafia do? Award Italty & Spain as winner of next 2 World Cups. Germany had to take a back seat so wins in 2014. France winning at Russia was a symbolic tribute to the peak of Napoleon's empire. Now Argentinian Pope FRANCis celebrate his 86th birthday on 12/17/2022, a day before Argentina win their 1st title since 86' vs FRANCe!

This was an excellent video. Imagine us Austrians potentially being double world cup winners 🙈. That would probably have changed the whole perception of the sport here and set us up for continued success over the years. 19:31 this time period sounded weird to me as I was sure he was FIFA president when I was a kid, so I looked it up: he was president from 74 to 98, not 88. Regarding Gijon 82: this does not fit the term "fixed" in my opinion. Fixed means that the outcome was predetermined by participants actively working towards a certain outcome. For Gijon 82 both teams knew that a certain result would mean that they both would progress and when that result came to be they decided to not exert themselves to change it. Was it a disgrace? Yes. Was it fixed? Possibly but not certainly. If that means "literally fixed" for you then the Spain vs Japan group match at the ongoing 2022 world cup was also fixed since Spain decided they did not want to win the group in order to get into the easier side of the bracket (not that it did them any good) and they basically lost to Japan on purpose and thus knocked Germany out of the tournament in the process. FIFA really needs to change that teams know in advance how the bracket will look like after the gtoup stage. They need to have a playoff draw after the group stage like the champions league has.

(written before watching) Given that everybody somehow knew that Argentina would in 2022 months in advance, and they were still favourites after losing to Saudi Arabia, I'd say it may have been a bit iffy. And it had to be Messi and Mbappe (ie the changing of the guard) in the final. The officiating in the France-England game was absolutely atrocious and biased, which was necessary to get France through.

the 1978 world cup was fixed!

I love how everyone glosses over the Costa Rica disallowed goal in 2009 that would have sent them to the World Cup over Uruguay, and then Uruguay goes on a miraculous Semi Final Run.

I remember Maradona reportedly saying back in 1998 after the second set of first round matches during that year's particular World Cup that it was set up so that host France would win.For some reason I decided to believe him, perhaps because of his sketchy side and possible knowledge of how the underworld worked.He turned out to be correct .

In 1982 you missed the France-Kuwait game, where France scored and the brother of the Emir told the Soviet referee to disallow the goal. France went on to win 4-1, but the referee was sent home

You should have mentioned the Chile vs USSR match for the 1974 WC, since you have made a video about it, too.

The officiating in 1966 was certainly very suspect. Not just the final (Hurst's two non-goals in ET, of which the first didn't cross the line and the second was during a pitch invasion), but other matches too. Two English referees ensured that defending champions Brazil were dumped out of the competition at the group stage (Pele received no protection at all and had to be stretchered off). Then in the quarter-finals a German referee officiated England v Argentina while an English referee officiated West Germany v Uruguay, which ensured the remaining two South American teams were eliminated (in the England game Argentine captain Antonio Rattin was sent off in a particularly bizarre piece of refereeing...).

In 1966 we'll never know if the ball did or didn't cross the line? We can all see it didn't. I think this video is slightly biased.

south korea in 2002 was the cringiest thing to watch...

3:31 I like how they're meant to be spelling Viva Uruguay, which is 11 letters long, and got it wrong

This time Argentina is fixed by qatar

Alfie I just looked at the ligue 2 table and am flabbergasted that Saint Etienne are bottom. Can you please do a video explaining why they’re there. Thanks so much🙏🏼

„I will give them all a sussines rating“ are words I did not think I’d ever hear from you

Whether FIFA or IOC slightly favoring hosts is the norm. It is gambling related fixing that is shameful and corrosive.

Few of the incidents mentioned here constitute "fixing." And many if not most aren't even "dodgy." Teams boycotting, wars or plane crashes preventing teams from participating, or host nations having unsavory political systems don't make WC's illegitimate or rigged. There have been plenty of shenanigans at WC's, many of which weren't even mentioned in this piece. It would have been best had this video confined itself to looking at these.

Argentina’s run to the final with this being Messi’s last World Cup, who happens to play for PSG, who happens to be owned by Qatar, is definitely suspicious lol

Thank you for all of your most intelligent, funny and well documented videos: you are a true champ, so hats off to you. With regards to the content, I would probably have added three instances all involving Germany: 1. They lost to the GDR in 1974 to avoid a second group stage with Brazil, the Netherlands and Argentina. 2. The semi-final in 1974 should never have been kicked-off due to the unplayable surface, which helped the Germans, but not the Polish team. Again, they were awarded a most dubious penalty. 3. Doped in 1956, awarded a dubious penalties in the semi-final and final of 1974, given another dubious penalty in the final of 1990 against two man down Argentina (thanks to Klinsmann's theatrics), they won three titles cheating for all the world to see. Almost four if the Italians had not put an end to their disregard for football in 1982. There is funny story to the aftermath of the 1982 final: each German team member was entitled to an award: (Bundesverdienstkreuz zweite Klasse) Order of Merit 2nd Class for reaching the finals. Even in Germany, particularly after the non-game against Austria and the brutal foul by Schumacher against Battiston in the semi-final, the mood was such that should they get the reward, the Italian team should get the Order of Merit 1st Class for stopping the Germans ...

Your content is amazing. Thanks 🙏

1958 Was played in Sweden and Sweden came second in that world cup.

The football called "JOBULANI" is interesting as the Freemason God is known as Jan-Bul-On. Just a coincidence, I am sure.

One of your best. Thanks!

"Has Every FIFA World Cup Been Fixed?"..No, they're all still broken.

A theory I heard was that in the 2002 world cup FIFA fixed it so that South Korea reached the semi-finals to keep home audiences interested in tournament

"FIFA's corrupt president" is the most redundant phrase ever uttered.

In 1954, you forgot that a player literally died on the pitch and came back to live. Hojberg, a Uruguayan player tied the game against Hungary after being 2-0 down with just minutes to go. After scoring, and the fatigue that all that caused, the player fell on the floor and when the medics got to him, he was at the moment declared dead. However, he somehow came back to life a few seconds later and refused to leave the pitch, coming back to play the Extra time. Effort that wasn't enough as Uruguay would lose 4-2 to Hungary in extra time

Why does FIFA not have to pay taxes in Switzerland? - Because they would have to declare the bribes in their tax return...

At least all of argentina worldcups have been fixed. Including this one.

Really enjoyable video... informative and unbiased. My only criticism would be that I don't understand the rankings of dodginess. For instance, how was '82 an 8 for a fixed game that kicked out a team that would never have won the WC and some bad refereeing, and '86 was a 2, which contained the infamous hand of God that sent Argentina through and they went on to win the whole tournament? There's bad refereeing at every WC, even today with VAR. But good to see it's harder to get away with modern technology.

argentina getting some cheezy penalties in almost every game they play is proof of fix

Not sure, but the latest one has for sure. Argentina gifted a penalty every game.

As a Swede I'm proud that our world cup is the least dodgy of them all

The matter with close calls is that no matter what team gets the call, one team will be mad and call it a paid ref, or a fixed match, cheating, or corruption.

Home soil is a huge advantage. Just look at 1966. No way did Jeff Hurts go in. As well Frank Lampard goal in Germany.

I don't think anything is deliberately fixed beforehand because there are too many things left to fate on the pitch that you can't control. However, the host nation at a World Cup has always had an advantage, not only playing in front of the home crowd but also the pressure it puts on referees. They also normally have a relatively easy first round draw and if assistance is needed it is usually provided; for example, England playing all their games at Wembley and West Germany in 1974 playing their decisive second round match on a pitch that was disadvantageous to their opponents, instead of postponing it.

Somehow Argentina is the center of all the underhanded doings.

So, what exactly happened in the Brazil v Hungary game in 1954 that caused u to describe it as “the most vicious game in WC history”? Was it worse than the “Battle of Santiago” (Chile v Italy) in 1962?

In the 1994 WC opening ceremony, Diana Ross was supposed to kick a giant ball into a goal, breaking it in half. She shanked it like David Batty super spoon, the ball went well wide and the goal broke anyway. DODGY AF.

In 2006. I remember Italy and Australia were drawn at extra time and then the Italian guy tripped over himself in the box and got a pk. Australia had a great goal keeper and they didnt want to take the risk that a no name country would get through over Italy.

As a Swede, I feel pretty great when the list takes a short break from dodgy to perfectly legit at 1958. :)

1998 world cup was lost by brazil so they can host the 2014 edition and france can be winners while hosting

23:48 that image is brutal, they're literally signalling a dead body so rescuers can get it out of the fallen building :/

I'm just watching Chile v Italy in 1962 now...two minutes in, and the ref's already had to call a ceasefire - it's a free kick to Italy about 40 yards out. Centre-half doesn't look too pleased to have to play a bit of football, but worry not! He hoofs the ball nonchalantly into the stratosphere, hostilities resume and we're straight back into war. My god, another 88 minutes of this...

If it’s Portugal vs Argentina final then I’m going to go ahead and say this one is certainly rigged.

Could you do a video on the juventus board scandal and what the outcomes could be?

Loved the video, just one small point to make though. I'm not usually in the business of naming other peoples inventions, but shouldn't it be Dodgy-O-Meter, like speedometer and thermometer etc?

It recommended me after Argentina vs Croatia game. I wonder why????

2002 basically ruined a Italian Golden Generation... a lesser version of this won the World Cup 4 years later. Also the Spanish squad was really good too, Morientes/Raul were arguably the best strike force in the world at the moment just behind what Brazil had

Always good to see South Africa mentioned 😎 do a video on where the South African national team is now, 12 years later? The "legacy" of the world Cup and our FA head being found guilty of bribing fifa for the hosting rights, yet he still remains our fa head...

Best player for Argentina is Messi, Best player for France is Mbappe, Best player for Morocco is Hakimi. All play for Qatari owned PSG. Something not quite right there

Qatar haven´t fixed it for their national team, but they have for their national assets... (Messi, Mbappé)

The actual story in 1974 was, that the german tabloid Bild published a story shortly before the final: Dutch players had a allegedly had a champagne party in their hotel pool with naked women. The Dutch players disputed the story, but Cruyff had a lenghty telefon conversation with his wife, that left him mentaly drained in the final. This was never an attempted of blackmail, but percived by the dutch players as an attempted of diversion.

4:52 The gentleman holding the ball in this shot later went on to star as a supporting role in Police Squad and the Naked Gun movies 😂

How about Chile qualifying in 1974 because the Soviets refused to play in Santiago, because the stadium was used as a prison, verging on a concentration camp.

The 1966 World Cup alone could take 2 hours.