This is a list of all red cards shown during FIFAWorld Cups; that is, the occasions when a player has been expelled from the game in a football World Cup Finals match. As FIFA is the governing body of football, official red cards are only noted when FIFA recognised that a player was expelled or sent off in a match. This list includes all dismissals since the first FIFA World Cup in 1930. The use of red and yellow cards to indicate dismissals and cautions is a more recent invention, having been introduced at the 1970 tournament.
Uruguay's José Batista received the quickest red card when he was sent off in the first minute in 1986 for bringing down Gordon Strachan in a game against Scotland.
Five players have been sent off in the final. Argentina's Pedro Monzón was the first in 1990 and was quickly followed by teammate Gustavo Dezotti in the same match. Marcel Desailly, playing for France in 1998, was the first player to be sent off from the winning team in the final. In 2006, Zinedine Zidane of France, who scored twice in 1998, would become the first captain to be sent off in the final.
Argentina's Claudio Caniggia became the first person to be sent off from the substitute's bench, after he swore at the referee in a game against Sweden in 2002.
The most players sent off on one day occurred on 18 June 1998 when five players received a red card across two different first round matches.
The 2006 tournament had the highest amount of red cards; a total of 27 players were sent off.
Rigobert Song became the first player to receive two red cards - one in 1994 and one in 1998. Zinedine Zidane replicated this in 1998 and 2006.
The single World Cup match with the greatest number of red cards was the Portugal-Netherlands game in the second round of the 2006 World Cup, this match also known as the "Battle of Nuremberg". 4 players, 2 from each team, were sent off; overall referee Valentin Ivanov dished out 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards, the greatest number of players booked and sent off in any one match.
The physical red card was introduced in 1970, but nobody was sent off. Carlos Caszely of Chile became the first person to receive a red card, after his second yellow card against West Germany in 1974, for bringing down Berti Vogts. Chile lost 1–0.
