FIFA had decided to
“jazz” the draw up a bit to make more theatre from it. Of course they didn’t intend things to turn
out quite as they did, and had largely forgotten to factor in that sometimes
live television is not as straightforward as it might seem at the planning
stage.
As with many things
handled by FIFA and Sepp Blatter, they dismissed it as just “one of those
things”.
The 24 countries were
split into 4 pots to draw each of the 6 Groups.
Three of the top four from 1978 were seeded in Pot 1, Argentina, Brazil
and Italy, along with hosts, Spain, West Germany and England. Belgium had protested at England’s inclusion
as top seeds, which was a bit rich given they had missed the last two
tournaments, as England had, and had participated in one World Cup in the last
six. But FIFA were unmoved and kept
things as originally planned.
Pot 1
Spain
Argentina
Brazil
Italy
West Germany
England
Pot 2
Austria
USSR
Hungary
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Yugoslavia
Pot 3
Belgium
Scotland
Northern Ireland
France
Chile
Peru
Pot 4
Algeria
Cameroon
Kuwait
El Salvador
Honduras
New Zealand
The draw itself becamesomewhat of a farce with so many mistakes, but as ever FIFA was unmoved and here’s
how the Groups were drawn
GROUP ONE
Italy
Poland
Peru
Cameroon
GROUP TWO
West Germany
Austria
Chile
Algeria
GROUP THREE
Argentina
Hungary
Belgium
El Salvador
GROUP FOUR
England
Czechoslovakia
France
Kuwait
GROUP FIVE
Spain
Yugoslavia
Northern Ireland
Honduras
GROUP SIX
Brazil
USSR
Scotland
New Zealand
17 stadiums in 14 cities
would be used for the tournament with two grounds allocated to each group.
MADRID: Bernabeu (91,000) – Group B
MADRID: Vicente Calderon (66,000) – Group D
BARCELONA: Nou Camp (120,000) – Group A
BARCELONA: Sarria (44,000) – Group C
SEVILLE: Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan (70,500) – Group 6
SEVILLE: Benito Villamarin (47,500) – Group 6
ALICANTE: Jose Rico Perez (38,000) – Group 3
BILBAO: San Mames (47,000) – Group 4
ELCHE: Nuevo (40,000) – Group 3
GIJON: El Molinon (47,000) – Group 2
LA CORUNA: Riazor (34,600) – Group 1
MALAGA: La Rosaleda (44,000) – Group 6
OVIEDO: Carlos Tartiere (23,000) – Group 2
VALENCIA: Mestalla (55,000) – Group 5
VALLADOLID: Jose Zorrilla (30,000) – Group 4
VIGO: Balaidos (31,800) – Group 1
ZARAGOZA: La Romareda (42,000) – Group 5
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