Flying Down to Rio, Flight Twenty

On this flight we have gathered together another collection of trivia and weird stories for your enjoyment.  There are a few Tottenham references and some fun images like this one, it seems you can now have your own Maradona!
So pay attention, impress your friends and win all the World Cup quiz's that will appear in the next few weeks.
Enjoy.

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1986 - Talking about his handball to score against England, Diego Maradona's smiled and said it was "a bit with the head of Maradona and another bit with the hand of God"

1982 - Gerry Armstrong scored three goals and became Tottenham’s then top scorer at the World Cup Finals.

1938 - Numbered shirts were used for the first time

1974 - Haiti, under the horrific regime of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, played their final qualifying match against Trinidad at home and the visitors had no less than four goals disallowed. FIFA subsequently suspended the referee

2014 - The World Cup Trophy toured 88 countries in nine months prior to this years Finals.

1986 - Iraq qualified without playing a home match because of the Iran-Iraq war

1. Future Spur Steve Hodge, swapped his shirt with Maradona after that famous game in 1986.

1982 - When four Spurs players appeared in the 1982 Finals they equaled the club record set in 1958. They also set a new record for the most countries represented by Tottenham players in one finals, 4, previously it had been 2 also set in Sweden in 1958 

2. I 'Googled' something and this came up under E-Bay. Surely not ?

1938 - The Dutch East Indies qualified after the only other Asian team Japan, withdrew.

1950 - Romania entered on the personal instructions of King Carol, who also selected the squad. He gave the players three months off from their jobs with guarantees that they would be re-employed.

1974 - A new record of 99 teams entered the competition and 92 took part.

1982 - These finals were the last to feature a fully leather ball

1986 - Portugal's players went on strike, refusing to train between their first and the second games.

1950 - Two players, Erik Nilsson of Sweden and Alfred Bickel of Switzerland who played in this competition had already competed in the finals before World War 2. There was a 12 year gap between finals.

1982 - When Belguims Erwin Vandenbergh scored V Argentina it was the first goal in an opening match since 1962.

1938 - Cuba’s goal goalscoring hero was Socorro, which in Spanish means help, (according to FIFA).

3. TV Coverage in the UK from 1986 headed by Jimmy Greaves with former Liverpool striker Ian St. John. So is that a hat trick ?

1970 - The 'World Cup War.'  El Salvador literally fought a war over the World Cup. The decisive 3-2 win over arch rivals Honduras triggered off military actions for four days between two countries who already were at loggerheads with each other.

4. Brazil's ' Little Bird ' Garrincha in 1962

1986 - England had two players called Gary Stevens in their squad. One from Tottenham and one from Everton.

1950 -  Germany and Japan, the defeated nations in World War II, were barred from taking part.

1954 -  The winning German team were amateurs as there was no professional league at the time

1986 - Uruguay's Jose Batista was sent off after 56 seconds of the group match against Scotland, it still ended 0-0.

1982 - Northern Ireland’s Norman Whiteside, broke Pele’s record of being the youngest player in a Finals when he appeared at 17 years and 41 days.

1950 - Yugoslavia's 22-man squad included players from just four different clubs; Red Star Belgrade, Partizan Belgrade, Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb.

1994  - Saw changes to the rules in the finals  - Three points were introduced for a win.  The use of a fourth official.  As well as the permitting of all squad players to sit on the bench and be considered as potential substitutes.

5. Johan Cruyff V Brazil 1978.

1974 - Poland's Leslaw Cmikiewicz set a record when he made six appearances as substitute

And finally - in 1950 - The USA physio knocked himself out when he ran onto the pitch to treat a player. He  dropped a bottle of chloroform and as he bent down to pick it up he inhaled and had to be stretchered off

Images - Top - Daily Telegraph, 2- Ebay, 3- TV Times, 4 & 5 - FiFa,   Thanks to - FIFA, as well as BBC, ESPN, Planet World Cup,

About the author:
Keith Harrison,
Nilgiris, TN
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Follow Keith on Twitter  @keith16024542