The 1998 FIFA World Cup in France: Tunisia 1998
The 1998 FIFA World Cup, a football world championship for men’s national teams, took place in France. It was organized from June 10 to July 12, 1998. FIFA chose France to host the event for the second time in the tournament’s history. This was the 16th world cup and the ninth time the toutnament is organized in Europe and for the second time in France. The first time the FIFA held the world cup in France was in 1938.
The 16th Football World Cup was the longest staged, lasting 32 days. This was because of the increasing of the the stage from 24 teams to 32 teams for the first time in the competition.
The opening and championship game were held at the newly constructed Stade de France in the Parisian municipality of Saint-Denis. The other 63 matches of the competition took place in 10 stadiums throughout 10 host towns. In this edition for the international tournament, South Africa, Jamaica, Japan, and Croatia made their first finals appearances.
Tunisia in the World Cup
Five African nations qualified for the tournament: Cameroun, Morocco, Nigeria, South AFrica and Tunisia. This was the second appearnce of the Tunisian team in the World Cup. Tunisia qualified to Group stage 6 times, in 1978, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018, and 2022. Unfortunately the Tunisian national team was never able to go beyond the group stage.
In 1998 FIFA world cup, the draw put the Tunisian team in group G with Colombia, England and Romania. The two first teams defeated Tunisia while its match against Romania ended in a draw with one goal for each team.
Semi-Finals and Final game
In 1998, Croatia, France, Brazil and Netherlands arrived to the semi finals. The first two reached the semi-finals in the Qatar 2022 World Cup edition in addition to Argentina and Morocco.
France, the tournament’s host nation, defeated Brazil 3-0 in the championship match and won its first football world cup. After Uruguay, Italy, England, West Germany, and Argentina, who won their first World Cup, France became the seventh country to do so and the sixth to do it on home soil. Croatia who reached the finals for the first time was ranked in the third position.
In addition to Paris and Saint-Denis, the cities of Marseille, Lyon, Saint-Étienne, Montpellier, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and Lens hosted the World Cup matches.
To commemorate this sports event, the Tunisian post issued two stamps. The first showed the Tunisian football team while the second showed the World cup and Tunisian player..
Catalogue Reference: Yvert & Tellier #1120.
