Featuring live by satellite from Argentina
The Opening Ceremony and The Opening Match
This evening the world's greatest football tournament gets under way in the vast River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires as representatives of the 16 competing nations gather for the colourful opening ceremony.

And after the festivities, the football:
Live at 6.50 West Germany v Poland
The whole of tonight's match which opens the XIth World Cup. The holders, West Germany, face formidable opposition from the country that finished third in the last tournament. When they met in their final group match in 1974, to decide a place in the Final, West Germany won by a single goal.
The Germans, who are still managed by the veteran Helmut Schoen, have qualified automatically as reigning World Champions, but their build-up has included a 3-1 defeat in Sweden, and defeat on their own home territory - for the first time since 1974 - by Brazil 1-0 in Hamburg. Poland's qualifying group also included Portugal, Denmark and Cyprus.
Commentator David Coleman

Introduced by Frank Bough
Comment and analysis by Jimmy Hill and the BBC World Cup experts, Jock Stein, Lawrie McMenemy, Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, John Bond, Trevor Brooking and Bob Wilson.

Daily World Cup news and background on Ceefax