100 World Cup historical fun facts (part 2)

The rest of a really good list, from the Mirror:

50. The 1974 final was delayed by 10 minutes because officials had forgotten to put in the corner and centre-line flags.

49. Belgian keeper Paul Preud'homme used to wear a shirt of Standard Liege (his first club) under his national jersey during international matches. He had to abandon this tradition in USA because of the heat.

48. The crowd for Romania v Peru at the 1930 finals was a whopping 300.

47. Greeted by a Japanese hostess on arrival at the finals, Ronaldo responded by sticking out his teeth still further and making the 'slitty-eyes' gesture.

46. Ronaldo decided to switch to his 'half-moon' hairstyle in the later stages of the 2002 tournament after he saw his infant son Ronald kissing a picture of Roberto Carlos, apparently believing the diddy defender was his dad.

45. In 2006, Ecuadorian shaman Tzamarenda Naychapi was allowed to "purify" each German stadium by letting out a loud scream to chase away evil spirits.

44. Frank Borghi, America's goalkeeper when they beat England at the 1950 finals, was a baseball player and part-time hearse driver who never learned to kick the ball. He threw the ball to a defender after saves and had a team-mate take goal kicks. Borgi never wore gloves--unlike USA full-back Charlie 'Gloves' Colombo, who always did.

43. BMW gave each competing team a luxury coach to use during the 1974 tournament. Police had to reclaim Zaire's after the team left their hotel in it, intending to drive it home to Africa

42. Italian FA chief Dr Ottorino Barassi was so worried that the German army might steal the Jules Rimet trophy that he kept it under his bed in a shoebox for the duration of the 1934 tournament.

41. Belgium's Jean Langenus reffed the 1930 Argentina v Uruguay final wearing plus fours, a tie and a deerstalker hat.

40. When Juan Hohberg scored a late equaliser for Uruguay against Hungary in 1954, he was jumped on by delighted team-mates. When they got up they discovered Hohberg had passed out.

39. United Arab Emirates players received a Rolls Royce for every goal their team scored at the 1990 finals. The UAE managed two in three defeats.

38. The string in Italy captain Peppino Meazza's shorts broke just before he took a vital penalty in the 1938 semi-final against Brazil. He took the kick while holding them up, then let them drop as he was mobbed by delighted team-mates.

37. During the 1938 finals, Brazil's Leonidas attempted to remove his boots and play in bare feet during a game against Poland held on a muddy pitch in Strasbourg. The ref ordered him to put them back on and the striker subsequently scored four goals as Brazil won 6-5.

36. India pulled out of the 1950 finals partly because of financial problems but also because they were not allowed to play in bare feet.

35. Scotland wore thick wool jerseys with long sleeves and buttoned collars for their match against Uruguay at the 1954 finals. Unfortunately, the temperature was in the 30s. Said midfielder Tommy Docherty: "The Scottish FA assumed Switzerland was cold because it had mountains. The Uruguayans wore light V-necked shirts with short sleeves. We lost 7-0."

34. K'naan's Wavin' Flag, the official tournament song, has had its lyrics rewritten after the original words described South Africa as a “violence-prone poor people zone.”

33. A German newspaper sent a squad of attractive women to the Dutch team hotel before the 1974 final, leading to a story headlined 'Cruyff, Champagne, Naked Girls And A Cool Bath'.

32. African cultural association The Makhonya Royal Trust has backed a plan to sacrifice a cow in each of the new World Cup stadia before they are officially opened. Said chairman Zolani Mkiva: "We must have a cultural ceremony of some sort, where we are going to slaughter a beast. We sacrifice the cow for this great achievement and we call on our ancestors to bless, to grace, to ensure that all goes well.”

31. On the way home from the 2002 finals, the Senegal side stopped off for a diplomatic visit in Taiwan, where it is said players were ministered to by 37 different call girls.

30. The Senegalese also outraged locals by wearing T-shirts and flip flops for what had been advertised as a full exhibition match against the hosts. The game lasted 15 minutes.

29. Alex Villaplane, France's captain at the 1930 finals, was imprisoned in 1935 for fixing horse races and later became a gold smuggler. He joined the French Gestapo during the Nazi occupation and, after the liberation, was shot as a traitor.

28. Romanian goal machine Gheorghe Hagi was a fully-qualified dentist.

27. American physio Jack Coll was knocked unconscious during the 1930 semi-final against Argentina when he ran onto the field to treat an injured player, dropped his bag next to the stricken Yank and was overcome by the fumes from a bottle of chloroform which had broken inside.

26. The great Soviet keeper Lev Yashin's pre-match routine was "have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles."

25. Japan's Shunsuke Nakamura or "Super Naka" is possibly the only player at the World Cup with an asteroid named in his honour (29986 Shunsuke for telescope enthusiasts).

24. Argentina's bruising Luisito Monti received death threats before he faced home side Uruguay in the 1930 final. Team-mates said the hard man was so badly shaken he even helped an opponent up after fouling him--which he had never done before.

23. Despite having its own award-winning vineyard, Fish Hoek near Cape Town--the home town of Matthew Booth, South Africa's bald, white, 6-foot-6 defender--had a ban on alcohol until 1994.

22. The Greek national anthem is a 158-verse poem set to music. Alas, only the first two verses are sung.

21. Russian striker Sergei Yuran was linked with Arsenal before the 1994 finals. Alas, he was sent home for a breach of team discipline and later signed for Millwall.

20. With France trailing Mexico 1-0 in their second game of the 1930 World Cup finals, referee Almeida Rego blew up for full time with a French forward clear through on goal and six minutes remaining on the clock.

19. Romania's 1930 squad was personally selected by King Carol II.

18. Brothers Victor and Vyacheslav Chanov battled each other to be the Soviet Union's goalkeeper at the 1982 finals. Both went to Spain, but neither played - they were second- and third-string to Rinat Dassajev.

17. Cameroon's team hotel at the 2010 finals is called The Oyster Box.

16. The Japanese squad list goes from 3 to 5 as the number 4 is considered unlucky in the country. Four is pronouced "shi" which is the same as "death."

15. After his brilliant blunder in 2006, former referee Graham Poll begins his after-dinner speeches with the words: "Good evening, I'm the prat who gave one bloke three yellow cards at the World Cup."

14. After losing 9-0 to Yugoslavia in the 1974 finals, Zaire players were threatened by President Mobutu’s guards and told that they could not return home if they lost to Brazil by a score of 4-0 or worse. Luckily, they kept it to 3-0.

13. Argentina's opening match in the 1930 tournament was watched by only 18,000 because supporters arriving by sea to Montevideo found the port so fogbound that eight of their 10 ships did not make it to land before their match had finished.

12. A mugger who stole Eva Standmann's handbag before the Brazil-Australia game in Munich four years ago found her ticket inside and decided to enjoy the game. Unfortunately, he sat in Eva's seat, next to her husband Berndt, who had him arrested.

11. The story of Scotland winger Willie Johnstone's positive drug test at the 1978 finals was broken on live TV by young reporter Trevor McDonald.

10. Not only did Diana Ross miss her penalty at the opening ceremony of USA 94, but hostess Oprah Winfrey fell off the stage.

9. In April 2010, prisoners at Castro-Castro prison in Lima, Peru, staged their own World Cup-- including an opening ceremony in which inmates danced for several hours.

8. After Ireland were beaten by Italy in 1990, then-Prime Minister Charles Haughey visited the dressing room. Niall Quinn remembered: "Those of us brought up in Ireland stood there in amazement as he made a speech about sporting sons of Ireland. It was totally hair standing up on the back of the neck stuff. But not everyone was from Ireland. Tony Cascarino was behind me and said loudly: 'Who the f*** is that?', ruining the moment. I said: 'that's the Taoiseach'. Andy Townsend was beside him and said loudly again: 'Who is it, Cas?' And he said: 'Dunno. Quinny said he owns a tea shop.'"

7. Garrincha, Brazil's World Cup hero of 1968 and 1962, lost his virginity at age 12. To a goat. He went on to father 14 children.

6. During the 1954 'Battle Of Berne' between Brazil and Hungary, English ref Arthur Ellis dismissed three players, including Joseph Bozsik, who was also a Hungarian MP. During the match a Brazilian player was struck on the head by a bottle thrown from the Hungarian bench, allegedly by legend Ferenc Puskas. Ellis later spent 18 years as the referee on BBC TV's It's A Knockout.

5. Yugoslavia's Rajko Mitic failed to make the kick-off of their 1950 match against hosts Brazil in Rio because he had run into an iron girder in the players' tunnel. He emerged 20 minutes later, his head bandaged, with his team already a goal down.

4. Juergen Sparwasser, who scored East Germany's winning goal over the West in a 1974 finals match which would be the only meeting between the sides, was forbidden to join the team celebration as Communist leaders feared a photo of him celebrating in Munich would be damaging to national morale. He defected to the West in 1988.

3. The Jabulani ball which will be used at the tournament has been advertised as the "roundest-ever ball"

2. After Scotland's disastrous start to the 1978 tournament Ally McLeod had told supporters they would win, the manager was holding a press conference in his Cordoba hotel when a small dog ran up to him, and the manager reached down to pat the stray. "This little fellow is my last friend in the world," he said mournfully. The dog bit him.

1. The 1990 'art' film Cicciolina And Moana At The World Cup features two porn stars who sleep their way through the opposition, tiring out star performers like thinly-disguised versions of Jurgen Klinsmann and Diego Maradona and enabling Italy to win. The Ruud Gullit lookalike in the movie was a big lad.

100 World Cup historical fun facts (part 1)

A great list and a great read, from the Mirror newspaper:

100. Heat at the 1954 game between Austria and Switzerland was so intense that one player got hyperthemia - the opposite of hypothermia - while another became disoriented and wandered off the pitch during the game, at one point being seen 'defending' while standing behind his own goal.

99. Of the 154 players to have represented Bulgaria at the World Cup finals, only two did not have a surname that ended in the letter v.

98. Mwepu Ilunga, the Zaire defender who famously broke from his team's defensive wall to boot away the ball before Rivelino could take a free-kick during their 1974 finals match, shouldn't have been playing in the game at all. Striker Mulumba Ndaye was sent off in the previous game against Yugoslavia for a foul committed by Mwepu. He said: "I panicked and kicked the ball away before he had taken it. Most of the Brazil players, and the crowd too, thought it was hilarious. I shouted, 'You bastards!' at them because they didn't understand the pressure we were under."

97. ITV producer John Bromley and sidekick Jimmy Hill invented the football panel ahead of the 1970 World Cup, hiring controversial pundits like Malcolm Allison, Derek Dougan and Pat Crerand. Panelists were sequestered at a Hertfordshire hotel and woken every morning with a bottle of champagne. Handed Allison's room service bill by a worried manager after the first week, Bromley contended that it was "not nearly high enough" and doubled the bubbly order.

96. Italy broke the World Cup soon after receiving it in 2006. A large piece of the green malachite which surrounds the base was chipped off during their wild celebrations.

95. Peru's players are claimed to have received $50,000 per man to throw their 1978 game against Argentina, which the hosts had to win by four clear goals. The Peruvian FA is said to have received $10m, while the country also received a $100m consignment of wheat. The match finished 6-0. 94. A search of the crowd before the 1930 World Cup final uncovered 1,500 revolvers.

93. Spain keeper Santiago Canizares was ruled out of the 2002 World Cup finals in May of that year, when the first-choice stopper dropped a bottle of aftershave in his hotel bathroom and a shard of glass cut the tendon in his big toe. "I do not consider myself to be unlucky by any manner of means," Canizares said.

92. Cameroon legend Roger Milla is said to have been arrested in 1992 after his plan to organise a Pygmy World Cup drew only a handful of spectators to the country's 50,000-seat Omnisports Stadium. By the third day, the disgruntled little folk, from local rain forests, were complaining about being locked in a guarded room underneath the ground with only one meal of rice and sauce in 72 hours. Said a spokeman: "You don't know the pygmies. They are extremely difficult to control. They play better if they don't eat too much," argued the spokesman."

91. Frenchman Lucien Laurent, who scored the first goal at the inaugural World Cup finals, was a prisoner of the Nazis during World War II. After the liberation he discovered they had looted a furniture depository in Strasbourg where he had stored memorabilia including his 1930 World Cup jersey.

90. Win a World Cup and you're almost certain to be asked to write an autobiography. Paolo Rossi, whose hat-trick knocked our the favourites in 1982, later penned I Made Brazil Cry , Maradona's was I Am The Diego while Alan Ball's effort was the cleverly titled It's All About A Ball .

89. Three key figures in the 1966 theft and recovery of the World Cup were killed by the 'Curse Of The Jules Rimet Trophy'. Edward Betchley, who supposedly stole it, died of emphysema in 1969, shortly after completing a two-year jail term for demanding money with menaces. Joe Mears, the FA chairman who conducted negotiations with Betchley, to try to get the trophy back, didn't even see England lift it--he died of an angina attack ten days before the finals started. And Pickles, the mongrel who recovered it from a hedge, died in 1967, strangling himself with his lead as he attempted to chase a cat up a tree.

88. West Germany's Paul Breitner organised a strike at the 1974 finals, urging his team-mates to refuse to play unless they were guaranteed a 100,000 Deutschmark bonus each for winning the trophy. The left-back was politically a left-winger who was once photographed seated in a rocking chair beneath a poster of Mao Tse-Tung, while leafing through a Chinese communist newspaper.

87. Matthias Sindelar, remembered as the greatest footballer in Austrian history, was asked to play for Germany at the 1938 finals because his country had been annexed by the Nazis. He refused, and a year later he and his girlfriend were found dead in bed, with carbon monoxide poisoning blamed. Some say they were murdered, some they they committed suicide, while others simply blame a defective chimney.

86. U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jnr wrote Ireland's 1990 World Cup record, Put 'Em Under Pressure .

85. During the 2002 World Cup, commentator John Motson became obsessed with the fact that most of the matches were being played at breakfast time in the UK. “You can have your breakfast with Batistuta and your cornflakes with Crespo," he informed the nation, later telling us there was "just one minute of overtime, so you can put the eggs on now if you like" and adding: “I can confirm that Trevor Brooking did have his own eggs and bacon before setting off this morning.” When David Beckham scored against Argentina, he told viewers to "smash your cups and saucers if you like".

84. When Brazil surprisingly lost the 1950 final to Uruguay at their own Maracana Stadium, two fans committed suicide by jumping off a stand.

83. Pickles, the black and white mongrel who found the Jules Rimet Trophy when it was stolen before the 1966 World Cup final, later starred alongside Eric Sykes and June Whitfield in the film The Spy With the Cold Nose . He shared an agent with Sykes and Spike Milligan.

82. The Jules Rimet Trophy, which Brazil got to keep after winning the World Cup for a third time in 1970, was stolen in 1983 from their FA's headquarters in Rio and melted down for its 3kg of solid gold.

81. Holland great Johan Cruyff missed the 1978 finals, with the Dutch FA originally claiming it was down to his distaste for the junta in Argentina. But 30 years later it was revealed Cruyff had pulled out because of worries over family security following a kidnap attempt. He said: "Someone had a rifle at my head and tied me up and tied up my wife in front of the children at our flat in Barcelona."

80. The Falkands War was still ongoing as the 1982 finals opened and when birds were released at the end of the opening ceremony, Irish TV commentator Jimmy Magee hailed, "The symbol of peace... the pigeon."

79. Drug-snorting, hand-balling, cigar-puffing, Castro-worshipping, ephedrine-taking wild man Diego Maradona's original nickname was... 'Fluffy'.

78. While South Africa are nicknamed Bafana Bafana (The Boys), the South African women's team is known as Banyana Banyana (The Girls). The Under-21 men's team, however, is called Amaglug-glug, because they are sponsored by a petrol firm.

77. Denmark are nicknamed Olsens Elleve - Olsen’s Eleven - after coach Morten Olsen.

76. Argentina introduced ticker tape to the finals in 1978 and four years later their FA brought crates of the stuff to Spain in support of their country's efforts in the Falkands War. One side bore a Spanish flag with the message 'Gracias Espana', while the other showed Argentinean blue and white with the legend 'Las Malvinas Son Argentinas'.

75. Brazil's legendary midfielder Socrates, who was a medical doctor despite smoking 20 cigarettes a day, was another left-winger. He listed his heroes as Che and Fidel Castro.

74. Chain-smoking coach Cesar Luis Menotti, who led Argentina to World Cup glory in 1978, was befriended by the country's military leaders despite being a Communist whose home was decorated with a framed picture of Che Guevara.

73. Mexico coach Ricardo Lavolpe was warned by FIFA during the 2006 World Cup after cameras caught him chain-smoking in the dugout. The former Argentine international had a magnificent tournament, calling journalists "f***ing idiots" and spending much of his time at the team's training sessions eating doughnuts under a roped-off parasol.

72. South Africa's Nazareth Baptist Church have threatened to sue FIFA if they allow fans to play vuvuzelas - the African horns - at the World Cup. They claim they have a copyright on the 'holy' instrument.

71. Franz Beckenbauer returned from the 1966 World Cup as a teen sensation and had a hit single in West Germany, Gute Freunde Kann Niemand Trennen - Good Friends Can't Be Separated.

70. Prevented from going on the field by a FIFA official during Ireland's defeat to Mexico at USA 94, John Aldridge responded with a magnificent verbal tirade picked up by the off-field microphones. The hapless suit--clad in yellow baseball hat and light blue jacket--was told: "F*** off, you. F*** off. You t**t. You d***head. W****r. You f*****g cheat."

69. The preliminaries at the 1930 final included two coin-tosses--one for ends and one to decide which ball should be used as both Argentina and Uruguay had brought their own. The Argentines won but Uruguay still used their own for the second half--and overturned a 2-1 deficit to win 4-2.

68. As he prepared to take the kick-off in a match at Mexico 70, Pele gestured to the referee that he needed to tie his laces. The camera panned in and the world got a glimpse of his new Puma Pele boots, giving the company a huge sales boost. It might just have been deliberate ...

67. During Italia 90, Irish manager Jack Charlton fell asleep during an audience with the Pope. He said: "The Pope had his hand in the air and as I woke up I thought he was waving at me so I stood up and waved back."

66. Before the 2002 finals, Swedish TV aired an hour-long documentary claiming that the 1958 finals had not been held in the country but in fact had been a hoax cooked up by the American government as Cold War propaganda. Conspiracy '58 contained interviews with Swedish players of the era admitting their matches had been stitched together from old footage--but was itself, of course, a hoax.

65. Before the 1938 final, Mussolini sent Italy's team a telegram reading 'Win Or Die'. News of this so upset their opponents that after losing 4-1, Czech keeper Antal Szabó said: "At least I saved some lives". But the phrase was common in Italy at the time and was the rough equivalent of 'win or bust'.

64. Swedish referee Ivan Eklind infuriated opponents Czecholslovakia by visiting Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in his box before the 1938 final.

63. In 2006, Jimmy Armfield told BBC viewers: "There's a real international flavour to this World Cup."

62. David Coleman prefaced BBC highlights of the 1962 'Battle of Santigao' between Italy and Chile with the words: "Good evening. The game you are about to see is the most stupid, appalling, disgusting and disgraceful exhibition of football, possibly in the history of the game."

61. Chilean coach Marco Bielsa, known as El Loco--The Madman--once gave a four-hour press conference.

60. Uruguay's 2-1 win over France at the 1966 World Cup was played at White City Stadium, Shepherd's Bush, because Wembley was already booked for a greyhound race night.

59. The New York Times refused to report that the USA had beaten England 1-0 at the 1950 World Cup because editors believed the scoreline was a hoax.

58. Chile's utility defender, who has been linked with a move to Wigan, is called Waldo Ponce.

57. The Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) side which appeared at the 1938 finals was captained by a doctor, Acmad Nawir, who wore glasses during the games.

56. Uruguay were sequestered in a hideaway for eight weeks before the 1930 finals. Keeper Antonio Mazzali was caught sneaking out to see his family and was kicked out of the squad.

55. Hector Castro, who scored the winner in the 1930 World Cup final, accidentally cut off his right arm with an electric saw when he was 13. He was known as El Manco--The Maimed.

54. The top scorer in 1938, the Brazilian Leonidas, became a private detective after retiring.

53. Switzerland centre-forward Poldi Kielholz scored three goals in two matches at the 1934 finals despite keeping his spectacles on during matches.

52. The opening match of the 1966 tournament, against Uruguay, was delayed because seven England players had left their FIFA registration cards back at the team hotel. A police motorcyclist was sent to get them.

51. After Brazil paraded the Jules Rimet trophy following the 1970 final, a young supporter snatched the lid and ran. He was apprehended near the stadium exit by sub Davio.