world cup 1990 final

The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event twice. Teams representing 116 national football associations from all six populated continents entered the competition, with its qualification process beginning in April 1988. Twenty-two teams qualified from this process, along with host nation Italy and holders Argentina, for the finals tournament.

The tournament was won by West Germany, who claimed their third World Cup title by defeating reigning champions Argentina 1–0 in the final, a rematch of the previous final four years earlier. Hosts Italy beat England 2–1 to finish third after both lost their semi-finals in penalty shootouts.

The 1990 World Cup is widely regarded as one of the poorest World Cups ever.[1][2][3][4] It generated a record low goals-per-game average and a then-record 16 red cards were handed out, including the first ever dismissal in a final.

Despite the low goalscoring, the 1990 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.69 billion non-unique viewers, compiled over the course of the tournament.[5] At the time it was the most watched World Cup in history in non-unique viewers, but has subsequently been bettered by the 1994 and 2002 FIFA World Cups.

Venues

Twelve stadia were selected to host the World Cup matches in twelve different cities. The Stadio San Nicola in Bari and Turin's Stadio delle Alpi were completely new stadia opened at the World Cup.

The remaining ten venues all underwent extensive programmes of improvements in preparation for the tournament, forcing many of the club tenants of the stadiums to vacate to alternate temporary homes. Additional seating and roofs were added to most stadiums, with further redevelopments seeing running tracks removed and new pitches laid. Due to structural constraints, several of the existing stadiums had to be virtually rebuilt in order to implement the changes required.

Most of the works cost far in excess of their original estimates, and total costs ended up being over £550 million (approximately $935 million). Rome's Stadio Olimpico which would host the final was the most expensive project overall, while Udine's Stadio Friuli, the newest of the existing stadiums (opened 14 years prior), cost the least to redevelop.