FIFA World Cup qualification is the process a national association football team goes through to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Finals, or, more commonly known as the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup is a global event, and qualification is used to reduce the large field of participants from about 200 to 32.

Qualifying tournaments are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe), and are organized by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides beforehand the number of spots awarded to each of the continental zones, based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams. 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification commenced in 2007 and finished in late 2009.

The hosts of the World Cup receive an automatic berth in the finals. Unlike many other sports, results of the previous World Cups or of the continental championships are not taken into account. Until 2002, the defending champions also received an automatic berth, but starting from the 2006 World Cup they also need to enter qualifying.

[edit] History

Over many years, the World Cup's qualification has evolved, from having no qualification at all in 1930, when the tournament was invitational and only 13 teams entered, to a two-year process in 2006 which started in 2003.

While the number of teams which qualified for the finals has increased steadily, from 16 between 1934 and 1978, to 24 between 1982 and 1994, and finally to 32 starting from 1998, the qualification format has been basically the same throughout the history of the World Cup. The teams have been grouped continentally, and they competed for a fixed number of berths, with one or two berths reserved for winners of the intercontinental play-offs.

[edit] Qualification spots by continent

The table below lists the numbers of spots allocated by FIFA for each continent in each tournament. Places in the intercontinental play-offs count as 0.5 spots. Numbers in bold represent the winners of the intercontinental play-offs. "+C" denotes an additional spot for defending champions. "+H" denotes an additional spot for hosts.

Places allocated for continents

Continental zone	1934 (16)	1938 (15)1	1950 (13)2	1954 (16)	1958 (16)	1962 (16)	1966 (16)	1970 (16)	1974 (16)	1978 (16)	1982 (24)	1986 (24)	1990 (24)	1994 (24)	1998 (32)	2002 (32)	2006 (32)6	2010 (32)	2014 (32)
Africa	1	/	/	/	0.53	0.54	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	5	5	5	5 +H	5
Asia		1	12	1		0.54		1	1	1	2	2	2	2	3.5	2.5 +2H	4.5	4.5	57
Oceania	/	/	/	/	/	/						0.5	0.5	0.255	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5
Europe	12	111 +C+H	72 +C	11 +H	9.53 +C+H	94	9 +H	8 +C	8.5 +H	8.5 +C	13 +H	12.5 +C	13 +H	12 +C	14 +H	13.5 +C	13 +H	13	13
North and Central America and Caribbean	1	1	2	1	1	0.5	1	1 +H	1	1	2	1 +H	2	1.255 +H	3	3	3.5	3.5	3.5
South America	2	1	4 +H	1 +C	3	3.5 +C+H	3 +C	3	2.5 +C	2.5 +H	3 +C	4	2.5 +C	3.55	4 +C	4.5	4.5	4.5	4.5 +H
Total	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	24	24	24	24	32	32	32	32	32

• ¹ In 1938, Austria withdrew after qualifying due to being annexed by Germany and were not replaced, so only 15 teams, 12 of them European, played in the finals.
• ² In 1950, India, Scotland and Turkey withdrew after qualifying and were not replaced, so only 13 teams, none of them Asian and 6 of them European, played in the finals.
• ³ Initially in 1958, Africa and Asia together were given 1 spot, while Europe was given 9 spots. However, after Israel won the African and Asian zone without playing any matches due to withdrawals of other teams, a special play-off was arranged between them and a European team (Wales). So in effect, Africa and Asia together were given 0.5 spots, while Europe was given 9.5 spots.
• ⁴ In 1962, Europe was given 8 automatic spots, plus 2 additional spots in the intercontinental play-offs, in effect giving them 9 spots. The two European teams played an African team and an Asian team respectively, and both European teams won. Therefore, 10 European teams played in the finals.
• ⁵ In 1994, there were two rounds of intercontinental play-offs. First, an Oceanian team played a team from North and Central America and Caribbean, and the winner then played a South American team.
• ⁶ From the 2006 qualifiers on, the defending champion no longer has an automatic spot secured.
• ⁷ In 2014, the champion of Oceania qualification will join the final round of Asia qualification.

[edit] Qualification competition entrants over time

The number of teams entering the qualification process and the number of matches played have been steadily growing over time.

Number of teams entering qualification (including automatic qualifiers)

Continental zone	1934 (16)	1938 (15)	1950 (13)	1954 (16)	1958 (16)	1962 (16)	1966 (16)	1970 (16)	1974 (16)	1978 (16)	1982 (24)	1986 (24)	1990 (24)	1994 (24)	1998 (32)	2002 (32)	2006 (32)	2010 (32)
Africa	3	0	0	0	11	6	21	13	24	26	29	29	26	40	38	51	51	53
Asia		2	4	3		5		7	18	22	21	27	26	29	36	42	39	43
Oceania1	0	0	0	0	0	0						4	5	7	10	10	12	11
Europe	21	26	19	29	29	30	33	31	33	32	34	33	33	39	50	51	52	53
North and Central America and Caribbean	4	7	3	5	6	8	10	14	14	17	15	18	16	23	30	35	34	35
South America	4	2	8	6	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9	10	10	10	10
Total entrants	32	37	34	45	55	56	74	75	99	107	109	121	116	147	174	199	198	205
Teams played2	27	21	19	33	46	49	51	68	90	95	103	110	103	130	168	193	194	2003
Matches played	27	22	26	57	89	92	127	172	226	252	306	308	314	497	643	777	847	853
Goals scored	141	96	121	208	341	325	393	542	620	723	797	801	735	1446	1922	2452	2464	2344
Average goals per match	5.22	4.36	4.65	3.65	3.83	3.53	3.09	3.15	2.74	2.87	2.60	2.60	2.34	2.91	2.99	3.16	2.91	2.75

• ¹ Because the Oceania Football Confederation has used the World Cup Qualifiers as a phase of (or as the entire) Oceania Nations Cup, there is the possibility for non-FIFA countries to enter in matches that double as World Cup qualifiers. In the 2006 qualifiers, New Caledonia were included in the tournament although they were not FIFA members at the date of close of entries. They are, however, included in the 12 nations listed as they joined FIFA during the course of qualification, even though they had been technically eliminated from contention a few days earlier (a similar situation occurred in the entries for 2010, with Montenegro's entry accepted prior to their admission by FIFA). By contrast, Tuvalu have entered the 2007 South Pacific Games Football tournament, which double as qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup. They are not included in the 11 OFC entrants, although their results will have an impact on qualification.
• ² "Teams played" is the total number of teams that played at least one qualifying match.
• ³ This number include Tuvalu and South Africa. Although South Africa were automatically qualified for 2010 as hosts, they competed in the CAF qualifiers, becoming the first hosts to compete in World Cup qualifying since 1934. This is because the Confederation of African Football used its 2010 World Cup qualifiers as the qualifying phase for the 2010 African Cup of Nations, a tournament for which South Africa had to qualify separately.

[edit] First appearance in qualification by team

World Cup	Europe	South America	North, Central America and Caribbean	Asia	Africa	Oceania	Total
1934	Austria  Belgium  Bulgaria  Czechoslovakia  Estonia  France  Germany  Greece  Hungary  Irish Free State  Italy1  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Netherlands  Poland  Portugal  Romania  Spain  Sweden  Switzerland  Turkey  Yugoslavia	Brazil  Peru  Argentina  Chile2	Cuba  Haiti  Mexico  United States	Palestine	Egypt	none	27
1938	Finland  Republic of Ireland  Latvia  Norway	Colombia	Cuba  Costa Rica  Dutch Guiana  El Salvador	Japan  Dutch East Indies	none	none	4
1950	England  Northern Ireland  Scotland  Wales  Yugoslavia3	Bolivia  Chile  Paraguay  Ecuador  Uruguay	none	Israel4  Syria  Burma  Philippines  Indonesia  India	none	none	7
1954	Saarland  Turkey  West Germany  Iceland	Brazil  Chile  Paraguay	none	Japan  Korea Republic  Republic of China  South Vietnam	none	none	8
1958	Denmark East Germany  Iceland  Soviet Union	Argentina  Bolivia  Colombia  Peru  Uruguay  Venezuela	Canada  Costa Rica  Curaçao  Guatemala	China PR  Indonesia  Hong Kong	Sudan  Ethiopia	none	17
1962	Cyprus	Ecuador	Dutch Guiana  Honduras  Netherlands Antilles	none	Ethiopia  Ghana  Morocco  Nigeria  Tunisia  United Arab Republic	none	10
1966	Albania	Venezuela	Jamaica  Trinidad and Tobago	Korea DPR	Congo  Liberia  Guinea  Algeria  Libya  Cameroon  Mali  Senegal  Gabon  South Africa	Australia	6
1970	none	none	Bermuda  El Salvador	none	Algeria  Cameroon  Libya  Rhodesia  Senegal  Zambia	New Zealand	9
1974	Malta	none	Antigua and Barbuda  Puerto Rico	Hong Kong  Iran  Iraq  Kuwait  Malaysia  South Vietnam  Thailand	Congo  Côte d'Ivoire  Dahomey  Guinea  Kenya  Lesotho  Mauritius  Madagascar  Sierra Leone  Tanzania  Togo  Zaire	none	21
1978	none	none	Barbados  Dominican Republic  Guyana  Panama  Suriname5	Bahrain  Chinese Taipei  Qatar  Saudi Arabia  Singapore  Sri Lanka  United Arab Emirates	Malawi  Mauritania  Niger  Uganda  Upper Volta  Central African Republic	none	15
1982	none	none	Grenada	Macau	Gambia  Liberia  Madagascar  Mozambique  Somalia  Zimbabwe6	Fiji	9
1986	none	none	none	Bangladesh  Brunei  India  Jordan  Nepal  North Yemen  South Yemen  United Arab Emirates  Oman  Lebanon	Angola  Benin7	none	10
1990	none	none	Belize	Oman  Pakistan  Maldives	Burkina Faso8  Gabon  Rwanda	none	4
1994	Faroe Islands  Russia  San Marino	none	Nicaragua  Saint Lucia  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Myanmar  Lebanon  Sri Lanka  Vietnam  Yemen9	Botswana  Burundi  São Tomé and Príncipe  Namibia  South Africa  Swaziland	Solomon Islands  Tahiti  Vanuatu  Samoa	18
1998	Armenia  Azerbaijan  Belarus  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Croatia  Czech Republic10  Georgia  Germany9  Liechtenstein  Macedonia  Moldova  Slovakia10  Slovenia  Ukraine  Yugoslavia11	none	Aruba  Belize  Cayman Islands  Dominica  Bahamas  Saint Kitts and Nevis	Cambodia  Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan  Maldives  Philippines  Tajikistan  Turkmenistan  Uzbekistan	Congo DR12  Guinea-Bissau  Rwanda	Cook Islands  Papua New Guinea  Samoa  Tonga	35
2002	Andorra	none	Anguilla  Bahamas  British Virgin Islands  Montserrat  Turks and Caicos Islands  U.S. Virgin Islands	Guam  Laos  Mongolia  Palestine	Cape Verde  Central African Republic  Chad  Djibouti  Equatorial Guinea  Eritrea  Mali  São Tomé and Príncipe  Seychelles	American Samoa	22
2006	Serbia and Montenegro13	none	none	Afghanistan	none	New Caledonia14	3
2010	Montenegro10  Serbia10	none	none	Bhutan  Myanmar  Timor-Leste	Comoros	Tuvalu14	6
Total	62	10	37	50	58	13	230

• ¹ Despite being the hosts, Italy had to qualify to the tournament.
• ² Only teams that played at least one match are considered for the purposes of first appearance. Teams that withdrew prior to the qualification, or that qualified to the World Cup automatically due to another team's withdrawal are not considered and written Italics.
• ³ First appearance as Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; previous appearance as Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
• ⁴ First appearance as Israel; previous appearances as Palestine.
• ⁵ First appearance as Suriname; previous appearances as Dutch Guiana.
• ⁶ First appearance as Zimbabwe; previous appearances as Rhodesia.
• ⁷ First appearance as Benin; previous appearances as Dahomey.
• ⁸ First appearance as Burkina Faso; previous appearances as Upper Volta.
• ⁹ First appearance after the reunification.
• ¹⁰ First appearance after the split.
• ¹¹ First appearance as Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; previous appearances as Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• ¹² First appearance as Democratic Republic of the Congo; previous appearances as Zaire.
• ¹³ First appearance as Serbia and Montenegro; previous appearances as Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• ¹⁴ Not a member of FIFA at the time of the qualification.

[edit] Current format

Currently, 32 places are available in the final tournament. One of them is reserved for the host nation, but if two or more nations host the competition jointly, each is awarded a place. The 2006 Finals were the first in which an automatic entry was not guaranteed to the previous champion; 2002 winner Brazil qualified for 2006 at the top of their qualifiers group.

FIFA decides beforehand the number of spots awarded to each of the continental zones. For the 2010 World Cup, the following numbers will be used ^[1]:

• UEFA (Europe) - 13 berths
• CAF (Africa) - 5 berths, plus the host South Africa
• AFC (Asia) and OFC (Oceania) - 4 berths for AFC countries, with the fifth going to the winners of an AFC-OFC playoff
• CONMEBOL (South America) - 4 berths
• CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean) - 3 berths
• 1 berth for the winners of CONMEBOL-CONCACAF playoff

These numbers vary slightly between tournaments (see above).

Qualification in all zones ends at approximately the same time, in September–November of the year preceding the finals.

The formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations and are outlined below.

[edit] Africa

The CAF qualification process began with a preliminary round (to narrow the field to 48 teams) prior to the main qualification draw in Durban in November 2007.

The qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup is combined with the qualification process for the 2010 African Cup of Nations. As hosts of the World Cup, South Africa qualified automatically for the finals, but played in the qualifiers themselves (becoming the first hosts to do so since 1934 qualifying) to facilitate the African Cup of Nations version of the qualifiers.

The first group stage consisted of 12 groups of 4, with the group winners and 8 best runners-up advancing to the second group stage. That consists of 5 groups of 4 - with group winners advancing to the World Cup finals and top three nations in each group advancing to the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

[edit] Asia

Brunei, Laos and Philippines did not enter, with Bhutan given permission to enter after the official close of acceptances.

Qualifying has been substantially altered from the 2006 method, with two knock-out preliminary rounds to reduce the 43 entrants to 20, a first group stage with the top two sides from 5 groups of 4 advancing to a final group stage. The winners and runners-up of the two final groups of 5 advance to the World Cup finals with the two third-placed sides playing off for the right to play an Oceania side for a final World Cup spot.

[edit] Europe

The European qualification games started in August 2008. The 53 national teams will be divided into eight groups of six teams, and one group of five. The nine group winners will qualify directly and the best eight runners-up will play home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places.^[2]

[edit] North and Central America and Caribbean

The CONCACAF qualification process^[3] is identical to that for 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF). It consists of two preliminary rounds to reduce the 35 entrants to 24 and then 12 teams, followed by 3 semifinal groups of 4 teams with the top two in each group advancing to a final 6-team group.

The final round is often referred to as "the hexagonal" because of the number of teams involved.^[4]

The top three teams would qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup while the fourth placed side would enter a play-off with the fifth placed CONMEBOL nation.

[edit] Oceania

Qualification in Oceania is composed of two rounds. The first round took place at the 2007 South Pacific Games, with the top 3 teams advancing to a final round group stage with New Zealand. The winner of the final group stage (New Zealand) will then play against the winner of the playoff between the two 3rd-placed Asian sides for a spot in the finals. This is a major change from the initial FIFA information on Oceania's qualification ^[5] which suggested inclusion in the second Asian group stage.

[edit] South America

The CONMEBOL qualification process takes approximately 25 months. Ten participating teams play each other twice in a single group. The top 4 teams advance to the World Cup finals while the 5th placed team goes into a playoff with the fourth placed CONCACAF nation.

[edit] Intercontinental play-offs

Intercontinental play-offs are played as two home-and-away matches. The team that scores a greater aggregate number of goals qualifies. Away goals rule applies. If these rules fail to determine the winner, extra time and penalty shootouts are used.

[edit] Group tournaments rules

In all group tournaments, three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. FIFA has set the order of the tie-breakers for teams that finish level on points:

1. goal difference in all group matches
2. greater number of goals scored in all group matches

Where teams are still not able to be separated, the following tie-breakers are used:

1. greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
2. goal difference in matches between the tied teams
3. greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams

Where teams are still equal, then a play-off on neutral ground, with extra time and penalties if necessary will be played if FIFA deems such a play-off able to be fitted within the coordinated international match calendar. If this is not deemed feasible, then the result will be determined by the drawing of lot.

Note that this order of tie-breaker application differs from that used in the qualification for the 2006 World Cup (although it was - where applicable - used in the 2006 finals themselves). If these rules had applied in 2006, then Nigeria would have qualified rather than Angola.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup

[edit] External links

• FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition Statistics (from FIFA.com)
• FIFA World Cup Preliminary History (from FIFA.com)
• FIFA World Cup 2010 Regulations
• 33 facts you need to know about the 2010 FIFA World Cup preliminary competition

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