France quietly arranged the 1998 World Cup draw to dodge Brazil
Twenty years after France won its home World Cup by beating Brazil 3-0 in the final, organiser Michel Platini admitted a little trickery. Before the draw, a committee had placed France and Brazil in group slots that kept them apart until the final, if both kept winning.
France had been awarded the 1998 tournament in July 1992, beating Morocco by 12 votes to 7 and becoming only the third country, after Mexico and Italy, to host twice. In 2015 the former FIFA official Chuck Blazer confirmed that executive committee members had taken bribes during the selection. Since France won, suspicion first fell on its bid, but the payment turned out to have come from the losing Moroccan side.
The draw itself set records. For the first time it was staged in a football stadium, the Stade Velodrome in Marseille, before 38,000 spectators and an estimated billion television viewers. The organising committee had already agreed to put France in slot C1 and holders Brazil in A1. Because the knockout bracket kept certain group winners and runners-up on opposite sides, the two giants could only meet in the final, and that is exactly what happened on 12 July.
It was a bigger tournament than ever before. The field grew from 24 teams to 32, playing 64 matches over 32 days in ten stadiums, and Croatia, Jamaica, Japan and South Africa made their debuts. At the time of the bid no French club ground could safely seat the 40,000 FIFA required, so the plan hinged on a new national stadium, the Stade de France, built in Saint-Denis after a deal between Paris mayor Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. It hosted both the opener and the final.
The rules changed too. It was the first World Cup to use golden goals, ban dangerous tackles from behind and allow three substitutions a game, and fourth officials held up electronic boards instead of cardboard ones. France's win made it the sixth nation to lift the trophy at home, and as of 2026 still the most recent.
Source: 1998 FIFA World Cup
