[1] Five German players (Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer, Wolfgang Overath, Jürgen Grabowski and Horst-Dieter Höttges) became the first in history to have won gold, silver and bronze medals at the FIFA World Cup.

West Germany was led by Franz Beckenbauer, while the Dutch had their star Johan Cruyff and their Total Football system, which had dazzled the competition.

The start of the match was delayed as the ground staff at the stadium had removed the corner flags for the tournament's closing ceremony (which preceded the final) but then forgot to put them back.

West Germany struggled to recover, but they were awarded a penalty of their own in the 25th minute after Bernd Hölzenbein was fouled within the Dutch area.

[5] João Havelange, FIFA President from 1974 to 1998, made an unsubstantiated claim that the 1966 and 1974 World Cups were fixed so that England and West Germany would win respectively.