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Bulgaria – 14th World Football Championship, Italy, 1990
1990 Proof Silver 25 Leva 38.61mm (23.20 grams) 0.925 Silver (0.6953 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 192 | Engraver: Lyubomir Prahov
НАРОДНА РЕПУБЛИКА БЪЛГАРИЯ ∙ 1990 ∙ 25 ЛЕВА ∙, Coat of arms of People’s Republic of Bulgaria.
1990 XIV СВЕТОВНО ПЪРВЕНСТВО ПО ФУТБОЛ, Football.
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 The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event twice (the first being Mexico in 1986). Teams representing 116 national football associations entered and qualification began in April 1988. 22 teams qualified from this process, along with host nation Italy and defending champions Argentina.
The tournament was won by West Germany, for the third time. They beat Argentina 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, a rematch of the previous final four years earlier. Italy finished third and England fourth, after both lost their semi-finals in penalty shootouts. This was the last tournament to feature a team from West Germany, with the country being reunified with East Germany a few months later in October, as well as teams from the Eastern Bloc prior to the end of the Cold War in 1991, as the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia teams made last appearances. Costa Rica, Ireland and the UAE made their first appearances in the finals. As of 2018, this was the last time the UAE qualified for a FIFA World Cup finals. The official match ball was the Adidas Etrusco Unico.
The 1990 World Cup is widely regarded as one of the poorest World Cups in terms of the games. It generated an average 2.2 goals per game – a record low that still stands – and a then-record 16 red cards, including the first ever dismissal in a final- there were in fact 2 dismissals during the final. Regarded as being the World Cup that has had perhaps the most lasting influence on the game as a whole, and it saw the introduction of the pre-match Fair Play Flag (then inscribed with “Fair Play Please”) to encourage fair play. Defensive tactics led to the introduction of the back-pass rule in 1992 and three points for a win instead of two at future World Cups. The tournament also produced some of the World Cup’s best remembered moments and stories, including the emergence of African nations, in addition to what has become the World Cup soundtrack: “Nessun dorma”.
The 1990 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.69 billion non-unique viewers over the course of the tournament. This was the first World Cup to be officially recorded and transmitted in HDTV by the Italian broadcaster RAI in association with Japan’s NHK. The huge success of the broadcasting model has also had a lasting impact on the sport. At the time it was the most watched World Cup in history in non-unique viewers, but was bettered by the 1994 and 2002 World Cups.
Bulgaria (Bulgarian: България, tr. Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Република България, tr. Republika Bǎlgariya, IPA: [rɛˈpublikɐ bɐɫˈɡarijɐ]), is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria is Europe’s 16th-largest country.
 Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period. Its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Ancient Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian state dates back to the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681 AD, which dominated most of the Balkans and functioned as a cultural hub for Slavs during the Middle Ages. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State. The following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc. In December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgaria’s transition into a democracy and a market-based economy.
Bulgaria’s population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised and mainly concentrated in the administrative centres of its 28 provinces. Most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are heavy industry, power engineering, and agriculture, all of which rely on local natural resources.
The country’s current political structure dates to the adoption of a democratic constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a unitary parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative, and economic centralisation. It is a member of the European Union, NATO, and the Council of Europe; a founding state of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE); and has taken a seat at the UN Security Council three times.
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