Change Needed
The 1990 World Cup
is turning point for the competition. The biggest
tournament is a very poor spectacle. The beautiful game is
becoming ugly. Something needs to change.
What went wrong? One problem is that many teams played very
defensively. The average number of goals per game was the
lowest ever.
Teams could defend for 120 minutes and then try and win on
penalties. Argentina reached the final having only scored
only five goals in seven games.
Some very ‘dirty’ play led
to a then record number of red cards. After the
competition FIFA began a campaign to encourage more
open play.
Format
One of the problems of the 1990
World Cup was the format. 16 teams qualified for the
knockout competition: six group winners, six second place
finishers, and four best third place finishers. This
complicated arrangement did not encourage attacking
football.
