"1958 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF/AFC–UEFA play-off) The 1958 FIFA World Cup CAF/AFC–UEFA qualification play-off was a two-legged home-and-away tie between the winners of the CAF/AFC region, Israel, and a randomly drawn group runner-up from UEFA, Wales. The matches were played on 15 January and 5 February 1958 in Ramat Gan and Cardiff, respectively. With Wales qualifying, this was the first (and so far the only) time that a country played at the World Cup finals after having been eliminated in the regular qualifiers. This also meant that for the first (and so far only) time, all four British Home"
"the 2015 World Cup, 45 countries have participated over the 19 competitions. However, only one country has participated in all World Cups, which is Brazil. European teams have dominated in appearances by continent, since 14 of the 45 countries have been from Europe, at least double than that of any other. Before qualification began, many of the same nations were invited back year on year. This meant that once qualification was introduced in 2006, giving all nations in that confederation a chance to earn a berth at the finals, there was an initial influx of new nations making their debut,"
"2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 remaining FIFA member associations were eligible to enter the qualifying process, and for the first time in World Cup history, all eligible national teams registered for the preliminary competition, but Zimbabwe and Indonesia were disqualified before playing their first matches. Bhutan, South Sudan, Gibraltar and Kosovo made their FIFA World Cup qualification debuts."
"the World Cup was decided by FIFA in 2006 as follows: The host country's confederation loses one qualification spot. I.e. since the 2015 World Cup was held in Portugal, they automatically qualified taking up one of the five European spots. Therefore, in the 2015 UEFA qualifiers, only four teams qualified from the championships to join the hosts making the total of five European nations. As shown in the table, attendance of nations in qualification tournaments generally continues to rise year on year; the total global number of participants has nearly doubled since 2006. Despite being the premier tournament in most"
"1950 FIFA World Cup qualification A total of 34 teams entered the qualification rounds of the 1950 FIFA World Cup, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. Brazil, as the hosts, and Italy, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition. The remaining 32 teams were divided into 10 groups, based on geographical considerations, as follows: However, due to the withdrawals of India, Scotland and Turkey after qualifying, only 13 teams actually competed in the final tournament. A total of 19 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 26"
"to qualify, the first and only time the host nation needed to do so. The qualifying matches were arranged on a geographical basis. Withdrawals by Chile and Peru meant Argentina and Brazil qualified without playing a single match. Twelve of the 16 places were allocated to Europe, three to the Americas, and one to Africa or Asia (including Turkey). Only 10 of the 32 entrants, and four of the 16 qualified teams (Brazil, Argentina, United States and Egypt, the first African team to qualify for a World Cup finals tournament), were from outside Europe. The last place in the finals"
"entered the competition. Places in the tournament were allocated to continental confederations, with the allocation unchanged from the 2014 World Cup. The first qualification game, between Timor-Leste and Mongolia, began in Dili on 12 March 2015 as part of the AFC's qualification, and the main qualifying draw took place at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, on 25 July 2015. Of the 32 nations qualified to play at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, 20 countries competed at the previous tournament in 2014. Both Iceland and Panama qualified for the first time, with the former becoming the smallest country in"
"Africa, Asia and Oceania together with only one qualifying place on offer. The draw for the qualifying stages was conducted on 1 February 1968 in Casablanca, Morocco, with matches beginning in May 1968 and the final fixtures being concluded in December 1969. North Korea, quarter-finalists at the previous tournament, were disqualified during the process after refusing to play in Israel for political reasons. El Salvador qualified for the finals after beating Honduras in a play-off match, which was the catalyst for a four-day conflict in July 1969 known as the Football War. Half of the eventual qualifying teams had also"
"4 (including the first three World Cups). They hosted it in 1975, 1979, 1983, 1999 and will host their fifth in 2019. England are also the only nation to have hosted a World Cup alone, doing it in 1975 and 1979. In 1983 & 1999, despite being regarded as the only host for the tournament, some matches were played in Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland and Wales. The West Indies hosted the tournament in 2007 but are not considered as sole hosts because the West Indies represents a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies. England"
"1966 FIFA World Cup qualification The 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the five FIFA confederations. The 1966 FIFA World Cup featured 16 teams with one place reserved for the host nation, England, and one reserved for defending champions, Brazil. The remaining 14 places were determined by a qualification process in which the other 72 teams, from the five FIFA confederations, competed. UEFA, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL qualification was determined within the confederations, whilst AFC and CAF teams (alongside Australia) competed for one place at the tournament. Of the 72 teams, 51 competed, as Guatemala,"
"failed to qualify for the 2006 finals: Belgium, Cameroon, China, Denmark, Ireland, Nigeria, Russia, Senegal, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey, Uruguay."" The 32 spots available in the 2002 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows: A total of 193 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 777 qualifying matches were played, and 2452 goals were scored (an average of 3.17 per match). The Asian Football Confederation was allocated four and half qualifying berths for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, South Korea and Japan, the co-hosts, qualified automatically, leaving two and half spots open for"
"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 211 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"
"from that of the previous tournament except the slot for the hosts is moved from CONCACAF (Canada) to UEFA (France). Qualifying matches started on 3 April 2017, and ended on 1 December 2018. Apart from the host France, 207 of the 210 remaining FIFA member associations could qualify through their own confederation's qualifying process if they choose to enter. The exceptions were Guatemala and Kuwait, whose football associations were suspended by FIFA, and Equatorial Guinea, which were banned from the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. Guam, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, and Turks and Caicos Islands were initially drawn into qualifying stages"
"before playing any matches. No African countries applied to compete at the 1950 FIFA World Cup. Egypt was the only African country to apply to compete at the 1954 World Cup. They were placed in a two-team group with Italy, but lost 1–2 in Cairo and 1–5 in Milan, and thus did not qualify for the World Cup. Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan all applied to enter the qualification process for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, but Ethiopia's entry was rejected by FIFA. Egypt and Sudan competed in an Africa/Asia zone with ten Asian countries for one spot at the World"
"UEFA/CAF playoff with Spain. They lost both legs of this playoff, meaning that no African nation made it to the World Cup finals for the fifth time in a row. Seventeen African countries entered the qualification process for the 1966 FIFA World Cup : Algeria, Cameroon, French Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Tunisia. FIFA rejected the application of French Congo, and had already suspended South Africa for apartheid, resulting in their disqualification. FIFA's allocation of only one place to three continents (Africa, Asia, Oceania) was subject to significant criticism, especially"
"Ninety-eight countries took part in the qualifying tournament. Some of football's most successful nations did not qualify, including 1966 champions England, France, hosts and quarter-finalists of the 1970 tournament Mexico, Spain, 1966 third-place finishers Portugal, 1970 quarter-finalists Peru, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania. The USSR was also disqualified after refusing to travel for the second leg of their playoff against Chile as a result of the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. The Netherlands and Poland qualified for the first time since 1938. Scotland was back in the Finals after a 16-year absence. Argentina and Chile were also back after having missed"
"qualification process started and therefore could not take part. The qualification process consisted of 820 matches, reduced from 824 after the late withdrawals of the Bahamas and Mauritius. The first qualification match, between Montserrat and Belize, was played on 15 June 2011, and the Belizean striker Deon McCaulay scored the first goal in qualification. Qualification ended on 20 November 2013, when Uruguay eliminated Jordan to become the final qualifier for the World Cup. Twenty-three of FIFA's 24 top-ranked countries eventually qualified. ""12 of the 32 teams subsequently failed to qualify for the 2018 finals: Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Chile,"
"and beyond are not included. It is widely considered that home advantage is common in the World Cup, with the host team usually performing above average. Of the eight countries that have won the tournament, only Brazil and Spain have not been champions while hosting, and England has their only title as hosts. Further, Sweden got to its only final as hosts of the 1958 tournament, and only the Swedes and Brazilians finished as runner-up in home soil. The host country reached the semi-finals thirteen times in twenty tournaments, and both Chile and South Korea had their only finishes on"
"while the remaining national teams qualified through their continental confederations. Most confederations used their continental championship tournaments – the AFC Women's Asian Cup, CAF Women's Championship, OFC Women's Championship, Sudamericano Femenino and CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup – to determine qualification. The exception to this was UEFA, which used its own qualifying tournament. One qualification spot was determined by a play-off between a UEFA and CONCACAF team. Colombia and Equatorial Guinea made their debuts in the FIFA Women's World Cup. Brazil, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden and the United States maintained their streak of qualifying for all six tournaments so far,"
"Paraguay and Uruguay qualified from South America by default. In Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Burma all withdrew, leaving India to qualify by default. In Europe, Austria withdrew, claiming its team was too inexperienced. Belgium also withdrew from the qualification tournament. These withdrawals meant that Switzerland and Turkey qualified without having to play their final round of matches. The following 16 teams originally qualified for the final tournament. However, only 13 teams would in the end participate in the World Cup after withdrawals by the rest. Before the qualification competition, George Graham, chairman of the Scottish Football Association (SFA), had"
"March 2017. The hosts, the Bahamas, qualified automatically. European nations usually receive five spots at the World Cup, and North American nations, two. However Since the Bahamas, as hosts, automatically qualified, taking one of the two North American two berths by default, it was decided by FIFA to transfer one spot from UEFA to CONCACAF to still allow two North American countries to qualify as normal, reducing the number of European berths to four. The two African qualifiers were determined via the 2016 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations (the first time the qualification event was held under the ""Africa"
"only) World Cup to be hosted by two countries. The 2002 World Cup was the tournament's 17th staging. It was also the first World Cup held in Asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was utilized. South Korea and Japan, the co-hosts, qualified automatically, leaving 2.5 spots open for competition between 40 teams. Myanmar withdrew from the tournament after being placed in Group 2 but before any matches had been played, therefore reducing the group to three teams. Afghanistan, Bhutan, North Korea and Timor-Leste did not participate in the qualification process. Asia's two remaining automatic qualifying berths"
"Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010. Only one Oceanian qualifier, Australia in 2006, has advanced to the second round. Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Germany are the only teams to win a World Cup outside their continental confederation; Brazil came out victorious in Europe (1958), North America (1970 and 1994) and Asia (2002). Argentina won a World Cup in North America in 1986, while Spain won in Africa in 2010. In 2014, Germany became the first European team to win in the Americas. Only on five occasions have consecutive World Cups been won by teams from the same continent, and"
"2014 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil. The remaining 31 places were determined by a qualification process, in which the other 207 teams, from the six FIFA confederations, competed. Most of the successful teams were determined within these confederations, with a limited number of inter-confederation play-offs occurring at the end of the process. Bhutan, Brunei, Guam and Mauritania did not enter, and South Sudan joined FIFA after the"
"1958 FIFA World Cup qualification A total of 55 teams entered the 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. Sweden as the hosts and West Germany, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition. The qualification rounds for the four previous World Cups were very confusing, with controversial rules and many withdrawals. From this tournament onwards, FIFA decided to divide the teams into several continental zones, assign a pre-determined number of places in the final tournament to each zone, and delegate the organization of the qualifying"
"tournament in South Africa; the second Arab and Muslim-majority country, after the 2022 tournament in Qatar; and the first time in North Africa. Following rumors on each nation bidding individually, the three nations announced on 10 April 2017 a bid to host the World Cup jointly. Canada and Mexico would host 10 games each, while the United States would host the remaining 60 games, including all remaining matches from the quarterfinals onward. It will be the first FIFA World Cup held in three countries, the first men's World Cup held in Canada (the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was held"
"Congo-Brazzaville and Philippines had their applications rejected. South Africa was disqualified after being suspended by FIFA due to apartheid, while 15 African nations boycotted the tournament, with Syria withdrawing to support the African teams. South Korea withdrew due to logistical issues after the Asia/Oceania tournament was moved. The first qualification match, between Netherlands and Albania, was played on 24 May 1964 and the first goal in qualification was a penalty, scored by Dutch defender Daan Schrijvers. Qualification ended on 29 December 1965, when Bulgaria eliminated Belgium in a group tiebreaker to become the final qualifier for the World Cup. There"
"was the only African nation to ever participate in FIFA World Cup qualifying. Since decolonization had yet to begun in earnest, few nations on the African continent were able to assemble national teams that were internationally recognized and thus eligible for FIFA competitions. Various rivalry cups and tournaments were instituted instead. During the 1950s and 1960s, Nigeria and Ghana would compete in three cup competitions. There are various records of matches having been played between the national teams dating back to 1938. These unofficial matches list the scores and winners but, as with the match in 1938, specific details such"
"according to some reports, it was caused by a FIFA ruling that players were not allowed to play barefoot. FIFA decided not to invite anyone else, leaving the World Cup three teams short. ""6 of the 13 teams subsequently failed to qualify for the 1954 finals: Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Spain, Sweden and United States."" 1950 FIFA World Cup qualification A total of 34 teams entered the qualification rounds of the 1950 FIFA World Cup, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. Brazil, as the hosts, and Italy, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots"
"2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 197 teams entered the qualification process for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, for the first time ever, the defending champion (Brazil) did not qualify automatically. The hosts (Germany) retained their automatic spot. In 1934, the defending champions (Uruguay) declined"
"Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda, Myanmar and Western Samoa, and three team were excluded: Yugoslavia and Libya due to UN sanctions and Chile for unsporting conduct during 1990 qualification. A total of 130 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 497 qualifying matches were played, and 1446 goals were scored (an average of 2.91 per match). The first qualification match, between Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, was played on 21 March 1992, and the Puerto Rican forward Marcos Lugris scored the first goal in qualification. Qualification ended on 17 November 1993,"
"is the only team in FIFA World Cup history who played only one match in all competitions, while all other teams played three matches at least. After the Second World War, followed by the Indonesian National Revolution, the highlight of the football history of independent Indonesia occurred at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. The team forced the Soviet Union national football team to a nil-all draw, but lost 0–4 in the replay match, The Soviet Union later was successful in attaining the gold medal. This remains the country's only appearance in the Olympics. In 1958, the team tasted its"
"viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated over 1 billion people watching the 2014 tournament final. Brazil is the most successful national team in the history of the World Cup, having won five titles, earning second-place, third-place and fourth-place finishes twice each. Brazil is one of the countries besides Argentina, Spain and Germany to win a FIFA World Cup away from its continent (Sweden 1958, Mexico 1970, USA 1994 and South Korea/Japan 2002). Brazil is the only national team to have played in all FIFA World Cup editions without any absence or need for playoffs. Brazil also has"