FIFA World Cup qualification

The FIFA World Cup qualification is the process that a national association football team goes through to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Finals. The FIFA World Cup is the largest international team sport competition in the world with a qualification process required to reduce the large field of countries from 209 to just 32 for the World Cup Finals.

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 places in the finals allocated to each of the continental zones, based on the numbers and/or relative strength of the confederations' teams. 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification commenced in 2011 and finished in late 2013.

The hosts of the World Cup receive an automatic berth. 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 this is no longer the case.

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 the current two-year process. The first World Cup qualifying match was played on 11 June 1933 when Sweden defeated Estonia 6–2 in Stockholm. The first ever goal in a World Cup qualifying match was scored 7 minutes into the game: it was scored according to some sources by Swedish captain Knut Kroon, or according to other sources by Estonian goalkeeper Evald Tipner (own goal).

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 places, with one or two places awarded to the winners of intercontinental play-offs.

Qualification spots by continent

The table below lists the numbers of spots allocated by FIFA for each continent in each tournament. If no places were allocated to a continent, such as in the case of Oceania prior to 1966 and Africa in 1950, this does not indicate an exclusion of those continents by FIFA, but rather that no country of those continents made an entry to the aforementioned Cups.

A large part of Africa was under colonial rule during part of the 20th century, mainly the first half of the century. As of 1954, only 3 African countries were affiliated to FIFA: Egypt, in 1923, Sudan, in 1948, and Ethiopia, in 1952. Sudan and Ethiopia made entries for no Cup prior to 1958. Egypt made entries for the 1934, 1938 and 1954 Cups, though not for the 1930 and 1950 Cups. Though an African country, Egypt entered in 1938 and 1954 in the European group, therefore the table below gives no data about Africa for these two Cups.

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)	2018 (32)	2022 (32)
Africa	1	0			0.53	0.54	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	5	5	5	5 +H	5	5
Asia		1	12	1		0.54		1	1	1	2	2	2	2	3.5	2.5 +2H	4.5	4.5	4.5	4.5	H
Oceania	0											0.5	0.5	0.255	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5
Europe	12	111 +C+H	72 +C	11 +H	9.53 +C+H	8+4 2×0.5	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	13 +H
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	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	4.5
Total	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	24	24	24	24	32	32	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.

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. Though an African country, Egypt entered in 1938 and 1954 into the European group, therefore being zero the below indicator as for Africa in these years.

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)	2014 (32)	2018 (32)	2022 (32)
Africa	3	0	0	0	11	6	21	13	24	26	29	29	26	40	38	51	51	53	52	54
Asia		2	4	3		5		7	18	22	21	27	26	29	36	42	39	43	43	46
Oceania1	0	0	0	0	0	0						4	5	7	10	10	12	11	11	11
Europe	21	26	19	29	29	30	33	31	33	32	34	33	33	39	50	51	52	53	53	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	35	35
South America	4	2	8	6	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	10
Total entrants	32	37	34	45	55	56	74	75	99	107	109	121	116	147	174	199	198	2053	204	209
Teams played2	27	21	19	33	46	49	51	68	90	95	103	110	103	130	168	193	194	2003	203	207
Matches played	27	22	26	57	89	92	127	172	226	252	306	308	314	497	643	777	847	853	828	26
Goals scored	141	96	121	208	341	325	393	542	620	723	797	801	735	1446	1922	2452	2464	2344	2303	75
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	2.81	2.88

• 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 that non-FIFA countries may play 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 competed in the 2007 South Pacific Games Football tournament, which doubled as qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup. As they were not FIFA members at the time of the completion of the competition, they are not included in the 11 OFC entrants, although their results counted towards the qualification of other teams.
• ² "Teams played" is the total number of teams that played at least one qualifying match.
• ³ This number includes Tuvalu (see note 1) and South Africa. Although South Africa qualified automatically 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 Africa Cup of Nations, a tournament for which South Africa had to attempt to qualify.

First appearance in qualification by team

Note: 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 other teams' withdrawals, are not considered.

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 Italy Lithuania Luxembourg Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Spain Sweden Switzerland Yugoslavia	none	Cuba Haiti Mexico United States	Palestine, British Mandate	Egypt	none	27
1938	Finland Latvia Norway	none	none	none	none	none	3
1950	England Ireland Scotland Turkey Wales	none	none	Syria	none	none	6
1954	Saar	Brazil Chile Paraguay	none	Japan South Korea	none	none	6
1958	Denmark East Germany Iceland Soviet Union	Argentina Bolivia Colombia Peru Uruguay	Canada Costa Rica Guatemala Territory of Curaçao	China PR Indonesia	Sudan	none	16
1962	Cyprus	Ecuador	Dutch Guyana Honduras	none	Ethiopia Ghana Morocco Nigeria Tunisia	none	9
1966	Albania	Venezuela	Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago	North Korea	none	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 Dahomey Guinea Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Mauritius Sierra Leone Tanzania Togo Zaire	none	21
1978	none	none	Barbados Dominican Republic Guyana Panama	Bahrain Qatar Republic of China Saudi Arabia Singapore	Malawi Mauritania Niger Uganda Upper Volta	none	14
1982	none	none	Grenada	Macau	Gambia Liberia Madagascar Mozambique Somalia	Fiji	8
1986	none	none	none	Bangladesh Brunei Jordan India Nepal North Yemen South Yemen United Arab Emirates	Angola	none	9
1990	none	none	none	Oman Pakistan	Gabon	none	3
1994	Faroe Islands San Marino	none	Nicaragua Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Lebanon Sri Lanka Vietnam	Botswana Burundi Namibia South Africa Swaziland	Solomon Islands Tahiti Vanuatu	16
1998	Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Georgia Liechtenstein Macedonia Moldova Slovakia Slovenia Ukraine	none	Aruba Belize Cayman Islands Dominica Saint Kitts and Nevis	Cambodia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Maldives Philippines Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan	Guinea-Bissau Rwanda	Cook Islands Papua New Guinea Tonga Western Samoa	31
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	21
2006	none	none	none	Afghanistan	none	New Caledonia	2
2010	Montenegro	none	none	Myanmar Timor-Leste	Comoros	Tuvalu	5
2014	none	none	none	none	none	none	0
2018	none	none	none	Bhutan	South Sudan	none	2
Total							214

National teams results in World Cup preliminary competition 1934–2014

• Note that prior to qualification for the 1998 World Cup 2 points were awarded for a victory but all victories in the table below are awarded 3 points; a draw is awarded 1 point.

Key to colours in the table
	Country has won the World Cup
	Country has qualified for the main tournament

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Pts%	Confederation
Mexico	159	102	33	24	407	118	339	71.1	CONCACAF
Costa Rica	156	76	38	42	270	165	266	56.8	CONCACAF
Netherlands	115	76	23	16	275	81	251	72.8	UEFA
South Korea	117	70	33	14	226	76	243	69.2	AFC
Russia (1994—) Soviet Union (1958–1990)	115	73	23	19	227	75	242	70.1	UEFA
United States	138	70	32	36	229	165	242	58.5	CONCACAF
Spain	107	72	24	11	240	73	240	74.8	UEFA
Czech Republic (1998—) Representation of Czechs and Slovaks (1994) Czechoslovakia (1934–1994)	128	71	26	31	249	106	239	62.2	UEFA
Sweden	119	73	19	27	240	112	238	66.7	UEFA
Serbia (2010—) Serbia and Montenegro (2006) Yugoslavia (1998–2002) Yugoslavia (1950–1990) Yugoslavia (1934–1938)	118	69	28	21	249	104	235	66.4	UEFA
Australia	119	68	30	21	311	95	234	65.5	AFC
Portugal	129	67	33	29	230	135	234	60.5	UEFA
Argentina	118	68	29	21	216	111	233	65.8	CONMEBOL
Belgium	123	68	24	31	234	135	228	61.8	UEFA
England	102	68	23	11	257	64	227	74.2	UEFA
Iran	110	66	28	16	231	76	226	68.5	AFC
Honduras	132	64	33	35	235	145	225	56.8	CONCACAF
Italy	97	67	23	7	200	60	224	77.0	UEFA
Uruguay	136	60	38	38	186	144	218	53.4	CONMEBOL
Romania	118	64	22	32	211	124	214	60.5	UEFA
Germany (1994—) West Germany (1954–1990) Germany (1934–1938)	84	64	18	2	249	66	210	83.3	UEFA
El Salvador	130	60	25	45	221	152	205	52.6	CONCACAF
Paraguay	136	59	27	50	182	164	204	50.0	CONMEBOL
Scotland	115	57	25	33	175	124	196	56.8	UEFA
France	101	58	21	22	198	82	195	64.4	UEFA
Switzerland	120	54	32	34	181	139	194	53.9	UEFA
Bulgaria	119	56	26	37	195	158	194	54.3	UEFA
Brazil	92	56	25	11	199	59	193	69.9	CONMEBOL
Saudi Arabia	100	56	25	19	187	79	193	64.3	AFC
Republic of Ireland (1954—) Ireland (1950) Irish Free State (1934–1938)	129	51	38	40	186	158	191	49.4	UEFA
Austria	113	55	25	33	198	124	190	56.0	UEFA
Colombia	134	50	40	44	159	140	190	47.3	CONMEBOL
Japan	102	55	23	24	203	78	188	61.4	AFC
Hungary	112	54	25	33	202	149	187	55.7	UEFA
Nigeria	96	53	27	16	162	74	186	64.6	CAF
Chile	128	53	27	48	191	168	186	48.4	CONMEBOL
China PR	90	58	11	21	195	63	185	68.6	AFC
Denmark	110	51	27	32	187	132	180	54.5	UEFA
Tunisia	96	51	26	19	165	78	179	62.2	CAF
Morocco	104	48	35	21	140	79	179	57.4	CAF
Poland	107	52	20	35	200	129	176	54.8	UEFA
Trinidad and Tobago	121	50	25	46	181	155	175	48.2	CONCACAF
Canada	115	47	34	32	157	128	175	50.7	CONCACAF
Greece	116	49	24	43	141	161	171	49.1	UEFA
Cameroon	79	49	17	13	134	57	164	69.2	CAF
Egypt	86	48	18	20	155	85	162	62.8	CAF
Guatemala	112	44	29	39	173	138	161	47.9	CONCACAF
Ecuador	125	41	31	53	143	173	154	41.1	CONMEBOL
Turkey	118	43	21	54	162	174	150	42.4	UEFA
New Zealand	83	45	14	24	197	93	149	59.8	OFC
Norway	116	40	29	47	153	162	149	42.8	UEFA
Kuwait	85	45	13	27	148	82	148	58.0	AFC
Zambia	90	43	18	29	139	82	147	54.4	CAF
Iraq	85	42	19	24	177	85	145	56.9	AFC
Northern Ireland (1954—) Ireland (1950)	122	37	34	51	132	154	145	39.6	UEFA
Qatar	94	41	21	32	144	102	144	51.1	AFC
Israel (1950—) Palestine, British Mandate (1934–1938)	112	36	34	42	156	163	142	42.3	UEFA
Ivory Coast	71	38	23	10	134	62	137	64.3	CAF
Peru	129	35	31	63	135	185	136	35.1	CONMEBOL
Algeria	81	38	21	22	111	79	135	55.6	CAF
Uzbekistan	76	38	18	20	151	81	132	57.9	AFC
Bolivia	132	35	27	70	161	246	132	33.3	CONMEBOL
Ghana	75	38	17	20	123	61	131	58.2	CAF
Jamaica	96	35	26	35	109	119	131	45.5	CONCACAF
Haiti	82	36	16	30	144	115	124	50.4	CONCACAF
North Korea	75	34	18	23	102	69	120	53.3	AFC
Wales	110	33	21	56	138	164	120	36.4	UEFA
United Arab Emirates	79	33	17	29	126	94	116	48.9	AFC
Guinea	70	34	11	25	112	86	113	53.8	CAF
Ukraine	60	30	20	10	95	43	110	61.1	UEFA
Finland	119	30	20	69	125	274	110	30.8	UEFA
DR Congo (1998—) Zaire (1974–1998)	69	31	16	22	112	77	109	52.7	CAF
Bahrain	80	28	25	27	95	84	109	45.4	AFC
Croatia	50	29	15	6	89	42	102	68.0	UEFA
Syria	64	27	15	22	137	75	96	50.0	AFC
Angola	61	24	22	15	79	57	94	51.4	CAF
Oman	62	25	17	20	104	63	92	49.5	AFC
Slovakia	54	26	14	14	93	57	92	56.8	UEFA
Venezuela	122	23	19	80	101	279	88	24.0	CONMEBOL
Senegal	55	21	19	15	75	51	82	49.7	CAF
South Africa	42	25	7	10	55	34	82	65.1	CAF
Jordan	62	23	13	26	84	85	82	44.1	AFC
Iceland	96	21	18	57	100	208	81	28.1	UEFA
Panama	78	21	17	40	88	142	80	34.2	CONCACAF
Zimbabwe (1982—) Rhodesia (1970)	63	21	16	26	63	80	79	41.8	CAF
Kenya	68	23	16	29	77	91	85	41.7	CAF
Cuba	66	20	18	28	84	101	78	39.4	CONCACAF
Bosnia and Herzegovina	48	23	8	17	88	56	77	53.5	UEFA
Togo	63	21	14	28	68	86	77	40.7	CAF
Burkina Faso (1990—) Upper Volta (1978)	53	23	7	23	76	73	76	47.8	CAF
Slovenia	52	21	12	19	69	61	75	48.1	UEFA
East Germany	47	22	8	17	87	65	74	52.5	Defunct
Thailand	73	20	14	39	96	126	74	33.8	AFC
Indonesia	71	19	16	36	87	143	73	34.3	AFC
Suriname (1978—) Dutch Guyana (1962–1974)	63	19	14	30	90	107	71	37.6	CONCACAF
Hong Kong	65	19	12	34	78	123	69	35.4	AFC
Congo	54	19	11	24	59	67	68	42.0	CAF
Fiji	46	19	9	18	104	84	66	47.8	OFC
Libya	49	18	12	19	55	52	66	44.9	CAF
Gabon	49	19	8	22	54	57	65	44.2	CAF
Latvia	65	17	14	34	75	112	65	33.3	UEFA
Sudan	64	15	17	32	56	101	62	32.3	CAF
Lithuania	63	16	13	34	52	91	61	32.3	UEFA
Lebanon	48	16	12	20	75	71	60	41.7	AFC
Solomon Islands	44	17	8	19	101	95	59	44.7	OFC
Malaysia	51	15	13	23	66	81	58	37.9	AFC
Singapore	60	16	9	35	65	112	57	31.7	AFC
Malawi	59	14	17	28	57	84	59	33.3	CAF
Albania	94	14	13	67	62	175	55	19.5	UEFA
Liberia	59	15	12	32	41	88	57	32.2	CAF
New Caledonia	27	16	4	7	74	28	52	64.2	OFC
Curaçao (2014—) Netherlands Antilles (1962–2010) Curaçao (1958)	54	12	15	27	48	110	51	31.5	CONCACAF
Tahiti	36	14	6	16	52	74	48	44.4	OFC
Estonia	66	13	9	44	52	147	48	24.2	UEFA
Cyprus	104	12	12	80	78	281	48	15.4	UEFA
Bermuda	32	13	8	11	68	45	47	49.0	CONCACAF
Mali	32	13	7	12	46	41	46	47.9	CAF
Belarus	48	12	10	26	55	76	46	31.9	UEFA
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	48	13	6	29	62	128	45	31.2	CONCACAF
Kazakhstan	50	12	8	30	65	102	44	29.3	UEFA
Turkmenistan	32	13	4	15	54	48	43	44.8	AFC
Ethiopia	45	12	10	23	55	71	46	34.1	CAF
Macedonia	50	11	10	29	56	87	43	28.7	UEFA
Benin (1986—) Dahomey (1974)	44	13	7	24	46	89	46	34.8	CAF
Tajikistan	28	12	5	11	54	35	41	48.8	AFC
Madagascar	37	12	9	16	45	51	45	40.5	CAF
Yemen (1994—) North Yemen (1986–1990)	40	10	10	20	47	62	40	33.3	AFC
Uganda	34	11	6	17	34	55	39	38.2	CAF
Sierra Leone	45	11	9	25	39	69	42	31.1	CAF
Antigua and Barbuda	38	11	5	22	60	87	38	33.3	CONCACAF
Georgia	46	9	11	26	43	75	38	27.5	UEFA
Armenia	52	8	13	31	42	96	37	23.7	UEFA
Vanuatu	34	11	3	20	73	81	36	35.3	OFC
Dominican Republic	27	10	5	12	41	45	35	43.2	CONCACAF
Saint Kitts and Nevis	26	9	7	10	49	44	34	43.6	CONCACAF
India	33	8	10	15	36	69	34	34.3	AFC
Cape Verde	26	10	3	13	28	33	33	42.3	CAF
Namibia	42	9	9	25	37	84	36	28.6	CAF
Tanzania	37	8	11	18	38	55	35	31.5	CAF
Bangladesh	40	9	4	27	31	90	31	25.8	AFC
Rwanda	37	7	9	21	31	55	30	27.0	CAF
Mozambique	34	8	8	18	30	50	32	31.4	CAF
Samoa (2002—) Western Samoa (1998)	23	9	1	13	37	69	28	40.6	OFC
Barbados	33	8	4	21	29	69	28	28.3	CONCACAF
Kyrgyzstan	23	8	2	13	28	41	26	37.7	AFC
Botswana	34	10	5	19	33	52	35	34.3	CAF
Vietnam	32	8	2	22	35	68	26	27.1	AFC
Niger	30	9	5	16	27	48	32	35.6	CAF
Guyana	32	7	4	21	30	75	25	26.0	CONCACAF
Moldova	48	5	10	33	31	92	25	17.4	UEFA
Azerbaijan	48	4	13	31	19	85	25	17.4	UEFA
Montenegro	20	5	9	6	27	31	24	40.0	UEFA
Gambia	24	6	6	12	20	36	23	31.9	CAF
Tonga	22	7	1	14	23	82	22	33.3	OFC
Grenada	21	6	3	12	46	47	21	33.3	CONCACAF
Palestine	18	5	4	9	24	31	19	35.2	AFC
Saint Lucia	22	6	1	15	28	57	19	28.8	CONCACAF
Faroe Islands	60	5	4	51	30	168	19	10.6	UEFA
Chinese Taipei	50	5	4	41	28	180	19	12.7	AFC
Luxembourg	124	4	7	113	61	407	19	5.1	UEFA
Burundi	20	7	4	9	19	25	25	41.7	CAF
Belize	20	5	3	12	25	48	18	30.0	CONCACAF
Puerto Rico	23	4	6	13	21	53	18	26.1	CONCACAF
Maldives	24	5	2	17	28	100	17	23.6	AFC
Papua New Guinea	13	4	3	6	24	23	15	38.5	OFC
Bahamas	12	4	3	5	20	35	15	41.7	CONCACAF
Sri Lanka	29	3	6	20	20	72	15	17.2	AFC
Nepal	28	4	3	21	23	98	15	17.9	AFC
Malta	92	2	9	81	30	275	15	5.4	UEFA
Chad	16	6	1	9	15	23	19	39.6	CAF
Lesotho	24	2	8	14	14	51	14	19.4	CAF
Liechtenstein	50	2	6	42	22	146	12	8.0	UEFA
Equatorial Guinea	20	4	2	14	17	36	14	23.3	CAF
American Samoa	18	3	1	14	11	136	10	18.5	OFC
Cook Islands	20	3	1	16	16	63	10	16.7	OFC
Macau	33	3	1	29	14	161	10	10.1	AFC
Swaziland	19	4	4	11	15	39	16	28.1	CAF
Dominica	16	2	3	11	12	46	9	18.7	CONCACAF
Laos	18	2	2	14	17	95	8	14.8	AFC
Aruba	12	2	1	9	18	37	7	19.4	CONCACAF
Nicaragua	16	2	1	13	10	39	7	14.6	CONCACAF
Guinea-Bissau	12	1	4	7	8	19	7	19.4	CAF
U.S. Virgin Islands	13	2	0	11	7	76	6	15.4	CONCACAF
Mauritania	22	3	4	15	21	43	13	20.0	CAF
Mauritius	14	0	2	12	7	34	2	4.8	CAF
Philippines	13	1	2	10	8	45	5	12.8	AFC
Cambodia	16	1	2	13	11	62	5	10.4	AFC
Andorra	42	1	2	39	12	139	5	4.0	UEFA
Saar	4	1	1	2	4	8	4	33.3	Defunct
São Tomé and Príncipe	8	2	1	5	4	22	5	20.8	CAF
Mongolia	12	1	1	10	5	46	4	11.1	AFC
Djibouti	13	1	1	11	6	56	4	7.7	CAF
South Vietnam	3	1	0	2	1	5	3	33.3	Defunct
Eritrea	8	0	3	5	3	16	3	12.5	CAF
Central African Republic	10	1	1	8	8	21	4	13.3	CAF
Myanmar	6	1	0	5	2	17	3	16.7	AFC
Somalia	11	0	3	8	1	26	3	9.1	CAF
Cayman Islands	14	0	3	11	5	34	3	7.1	CONCACAF
Turks and Caicos Islands	8	1	0	7	2	34	3	12.5	CONCACAF
Pakistan	28	0	3	25	11	115	3	3.6	AFC
British Virgin Islands	8	0	2	6	5	31	2	8.3	CONCACAF
Seychelles	14	0	2	12	6	36	2	4.8	CAF
San Marino	56	0	2	54	9	259	2	1.2	UEFA
South Yemen	2	0	1	1	4	7	1	16.7	Defunct
Afghanistan	6	0	1	5	2	21	1	5.6	AFC
Tuvalu	4	0	1	3	2	22	1	8.3	OFC
Anguilla	8	0	1	7	2	33	1	4.2	CONCACAF
Comoros	8	0	3	5	4	18	3	12.5	CAF
Timor-Leste	4	0	0	4	4	18	0	0.0	AFC
Guam	2	0	0	2	0	35	0	0.0	AFC
Montserrat	7	0	0	7	5	41	0	0.0	CONCACAF
Brunei	12	0	0	12	2	57	0	0.0	AFC
Bhutan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Indet	AFC
South Sudan	2	0	1	1	1	5	1	16.7	CAF

Last updated: eliminated CAF teams after 2nd round, all OFC, Canada

Footnotes

Top scorers in preliminary competition 1934–2014

Players in bold are still active.

Rank	Nation	Player	Goals	Games played	Goal ratio	Qualification tournaments
1		Ali Daei	35	51	0.69	1994 (7 goals), 1998 (9), 2002 (10), 2006 (9)
2		Carlos Ruiz	31	37	0.81	2002 (8 goals), 2006 (10), 2010 (6), 2014 (6), 2018 (1)
3		Karim Bagheri	28	29	0.97	1998 (19 goals), 2002 (8), 2010 (1)
4		Kazu Miura	27	25	1.08	1994 (13 goals), 1998 (14)
5		Andriy Shevchenko	26	40	0.65	1998 (4 goals), 2002 (10), 2006 (6), 2010 (6)
6		Carlos Pavón	25	37	0.68	1998 (2 goals), 2002 (15), 2006 (1), 2010 (7)
7		Jared Borgetti	23	24	0.96	2002 (6 goals), 2006 (14), 2010 (3)
8		Paulo Wanchope	21	37	0.57	1998 (6 goals), 2002 (7), 2006 (8)
9		Stern John	20	45	0.44	1998 (3 goals), 2002 (3), 2006 (12), 2010 (2)
10		Archie Thompson	20	15	1.33	2002 (16 goals), 2006 (2), 2014 (2)
11		Vaughan Coveny	19	19	1.00	1998 (4 goals), 2002 (9), 2006 (6)
12		Emmanuel Sanon	19	20	0.95	1974 (11 goals), 1978 (8)
13		Edin Džeko	19	22	0.86	2010 (9 goals), 2014 (10)
14		Pauleta	19	24	0.79	2002 (8 goals), 2006 (11)
15		Zlatan Ibrahimović	19	29	0.66	2002 (1 goal), 2006 (8), 2010 (2), 2014 (8)
16		Hernán Crespo	19	33	0.58	1998 (3 goals), 2002 (9), 2006 (7)
17		Didier Drogba	18	19	0.95	2006 (9 goals), 2010 (6), 2014 (3)
18		Moumouni Dagano	18	24	0.75	2002 (1 goal), 2006 (5), 2010 (12)
19		Samuel Eto'o	18	29	0.62	2002 (3 goals), 2006 (4), 2010 (9), 2014 (2)
20		Raúl Díaz Arce	18	29	0.62	1994 (2 goals), 1998 (9), 2002 (7)
21		Marcelo Salas	18	32	0.56	1998 (11 goals), 2002 (4), 2006 (1), 2010 (2)
22		Robbie Keane	18	37	0.49	2002 (2 goals), 2006 (4), 2010 (6), 2014 (6)
23		Deon McCaulay	17	unk	unk	2010 (2 goals), 2014 (11), 2018 (4)

(update of FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifiers in progress, last update: 18 May 2014)

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. From 1934 to 2002, one berth was reserved for the winners of the previous World Cup. In November 2001, FIFA announced that the defending champion would no longer get automatic entry to the subsequent tournament, starting with the 2006 finals. This decision was made to address the issue of the returning champions being at a disadvantage to their fellow competitors due to having not played a competitive match in the previous two years. The problem was amply demonstrated at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, as returning champions France tumbled out in the first round, finishing bottom of their group without scoring a single goal. 2002 winner Brazil qualified for 2006 at the top of their qualifiers group. However, Italy, defending champions from 2006, finished bottom of their group in 2010, despite playing in the qualifying matches. At Brazil 2014, 2010 champions Spain finished third in their group and failed to advance to the Round of 16, despite having qualified first of their group.

FIFA decides beforehand the number of spots awarded to each of the continental zones. For the 2018 World Cup, the following numbers are being used:

• UEFA (Europe) – 13 berths, plus the host Russia
• CAF (Africa) – 5 berths
• AFC (Asia) – 4 berths
• CONMEBOL (South America) – 4 berths
• CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean) – 3 berths
• 2 berths for the winners of play-offs between the best team from the OFC (Oceania), as well as additional teams from the AFC, CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. The pairings for these play-offs will be determined by an open draw.

The number of berths allocated per continent is widely debated, with the main point of contention being the extent to which berths should be allocated to regions based on sheer population vs. talent. A historically weaker continent, Africa has called for more places, as they are allocated only 5 in comparison to Europe's 13.

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 over time. The systems being used in 2014 are outlined below.

Africa

The CAF qualification process began with a preliminary round (to narrow the field of 52 entrants to 40 teams) in November 2011. Mauritania was the only team not to enter the qualifying draw.

The group stage consisted of 10 groups of 4, with the group winners advancing. The final stage will pair the 10 remaining teams in 5 knock-out ties, with the winners advancing to the World Cup finals.

Asia

Bhutan and Guam did not enter the AFC qualification process, while Brunei were suspended and therefore ineligible.

Qualifying has only been altered slightly from the 2010 method, with changes to the structure of the preliminary rounds – which were held before the main draw. As with the 2010 qualifying, two knock-out preliminary rounds reduced the 43 entrants to 20, followed by 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 advanced to the World Cup finals with the two third-placed sides, Jordan and Uzbekistan, playing off for the right to play in an inter-confederation play-off for a final World Cup spot.

Europe

The European qualification is unchanged from the 2010 system. The 53 national teams were divided into nine groups, with the group winners qualifying directly to the finals, and the best eight runners-up playing home-and-away ties for the remaining four places.

North and Central America and Caribbean

The CONCACAF qualification process has changed significantly from the 2010 qualification cycle. A single preliminary round involved the 10 lowest ranked teams, reducing the 35 entrants to 30. The six highest ranked sides received byes in the first group stage, while the remaining 24 teams played in six groups of four, with the winners advancing to a second group stage. As in 2006 and 2010, the remaining 12 teams are playing in 3 semifinal groups of 4 teams with the top two in each group advancing to a final 6-team group.

The final round – often referred to as "the hexagonal" because of the number of teams involved – will see the top three teams advance to the World Cup finals, while the fourth placed side will enter an inter-confederation play-off for a final World Cup spot.

Oceania

Qualification in Oceania was held as part of two further competitions. The first stage took place at the 2011 Pacific Games, with the top 3 eligible teams advancing to a final round group stage with New Zealand. The winner of the final group stage (which also acted as the 2012 OFC Nations Cup) will enter an inter-confederation play-off for a World Cup spot.

South America

As in recent qualification series CONMEBOL qualification consists of a single group of all entrants not automatically qualified for the finals. Brazil, as hosts of the 2014 finals, qualified automatically and are not competing in qualifying.

The top 4 teams from the 9 teams group will advance to the World Cup finals, while the fifth placed team will enter an inter-confederation play-off for a World Cup spot.

Intercontinental play-offs

Unlike previous tournaments, the pairings for the two play-offs were determined by an open draw on 30 July 2011, a day prior to the main draw. Intercontinental play-offs are played as home-and-away ties.

Qualification tournament rules

Qualification tournaments generally consist of a number of stages, made up of groups or knock-out ties.

Groups

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 has not always been applied. While it was used in the 2010 qualifiers, the qualification for the 2006 World Cup used the head-to-head comparison prior to goal difference (although this system was – where applicable – used in the 2006 finals themselves). If these rules had applied in 2006, then Nigeria would have qualified rather than Angola.

Home-and-away ties

Most knock-out qualifiers (such as the inter-confederation play-offs, the second round of UEFA qualifying and many preliminary ties) are played over two legs. 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.

Occasionally – usually when one entrant lacks adequate facilities to host international matches – ties are played over a single leg, in which case matches level after 90 minutes will go to extra time and then to a penalty shootout if required.

Alternatively, "home" matches can be played in neutral countries, or occasionally one team will host both matches. In the latter case the visiting team will still be considered as the "home" team for one of the legs – which may determine which side advances under the away goals rule, as occurred in CONCACAF qualification in 2010.

See also

• National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup
• UEFA European Championship qualifying

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