Talk:FIFA World Cup qualification

Untitled

Is this what everyone was looking for when it was originally proposed on the talk page of Football World Cup? If not, I understand, I was only trying to help. I don't even know if I should have attempted to start this article so late at night (2 AM). If you have any questions, just ask. Ian Manka ^{Questions? Talk to me!} 08:25, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Let's not duplicate information from articles like Football World Cup 1934 (qualification) here. I intended for this article to contain:

1. A description of the current qualification process (mostly format; fixtures, results, etc can already be found elsewhere).
2. An overview of the past systems, much less comprehensive than it's now.
3. Links to pages about specific qualification tournaments.

Conscious 09:10, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Africa

"The participants of the previous World Cup Finals and a few nations highest in the FIFA World Rankings are given byes to the First Round." - shouldn't that read Second Round...? ChrisTheDude 07:38, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Corrected. Conscious 09:05, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

There is no year in the article title

Some parts of this article seem to be written as if this was the article 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification. It isn't! The article should be a general summary of all qualification methods/procedures over the years. -- Chuq (talk) 11:26, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

This is wrong

Where teams are still not able to be separated, the following tie-breakers are used (in order): 4. greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams 5. goal difference in matches between the tied teams 6. greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams

Now, if the goal difference between the teams is the same (rule 5), then the number of goals is the same (rule 6). Is it the number of away goals in matches between the teams? Anyone know? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.195.80.148 (talk) 00:46, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

No it's not. Away goals are only used for ties that are set up over two legs - although it would be interesting to see what FIFA would decide if (say) two teams withdrew from a four team group - whether away goals would then apply (because the group would effectively be a two-legged play off) or not (because it was still a group, albeit of only two teams). Despite this, I had tended to use this criteria as an "unofficial" tool for ordering the teams in tables I am updating, if only because it tends to favour teams with more home games left (and hence are probably better placed to end up in a higher spot), but there's no necessity for that. Jlsa (talk) 01:57, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

When more than 2 teams are tied, same goal difference doesn't mean same number of goals, e.g. A 0-0 B, B 1-1 C, A 1-1 C, and C progresses. Conscious (talk) 09:43, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Mauritania

Mauritania is in two dates: 1978 and 2002. Which is the correct ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.82.114.53 (talk) 00:25, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Qualification Formats

I think that there should be a table showing the qualification formats each confederation uses. One column should be used for each confederation, and one row should be used for each round. Some cells would be empty because some confederations have more rounds than others. Each cell should express the format used for that confederation in that round.Mapperson (talk) 16:05, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Points

The points system used here isn't really correct per se. It would be correct if each win yielded 3 points however there was a period when wins only yielded 2 points and therefore invalids the current calculation used. Perhaps it would be prudent to remove said parameter? Transaction Go (talk) 08:04, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

It is questionable whether ANY of the new stuff is relevant given the initial rationale for this page (see top of this talk page). Jlsa (talk) 08:12, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough but at least the new stuff should be accurate and correct! Transaction Go (talk) 04:44, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Antique Flags

Whoever decided it was a good idea to use flags appropriate to the year in question is a total retard. Flags should be updated to the current version for clarity —Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.75.39.42 (talk) 20:49, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Disagree. Use flags relevant to era. -- SGBailey (talk) 17:32, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

National teams results in World Cup preliminary competition 1934-2010

What do the colours of the table mean? Grey is presumably nothing special. Gold is perhaps "have won a tournament", No idea for green. A key would be a good idea. -- SGBailey (talk) 17:32, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

I *think* green = past qualifiers, and yes a key is definitely necessary.

The "First appearance in qualification by team" table makes no sense whatsoever. What is the "total" column (it sometimes is total the number of teams from all confederations in the other cells, at other times it seems to be a random number)? Why do teams keep reappearing in the table? How can they have their first appearance multiple times (e.g. Brazil and Turkey in both 1930 and 1954)? Why are some nations in italics?

84.114.214.144 (talk) 22:31, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

First appearance in qualification by team

Hi, just wanted to point out an error:

In the table "First appearance in qualification by team", Australia are listed as making their World Cup debut in 1966. Australia actually made their World Cup debut in 1974 in Germany.

Cheers,

Darren —Preceding unsigned comment added by Janosvoron (talk • contribs) 04:23, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

This is "first appearance in the qualification" - not "first appearance in the finals". Australia tried and failed to qualify for 1966 and 1970. Jlsa (talk) 05:11, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Controversy

There was some controversy in 2010 after FIFA changed the rules to seed the play-off spots. They (allegedly) did this to give the big teams who were unexpectedly forced to play-off a better chance of qualifying. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.87.179.62 (talk) 13:28, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

If you mean the UEFA play-offs they didn't change anything - the rules were exactly the same as applied in 2006. Some people did complain the rules weren't made clear enough (for them at least). Jlsa (talk) 01:34, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

Tuvalu

I think the explanation about the 2007 qualification procedure for OFC (note #15) is unnecessary. Tuvalu wasn't a member of FIFA at the time of qualification to 2010, just as New Caledonia wasn't at the time of qualification to 2006, so we should use the note #14 for Tuvalu. Otherwise, we should explain what New Caledonia is doing on the table too. --187.67.124.216 (talk) 01:07, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

It is a bit different (and will occur against this time) because Tuvalu really entered a different competition (SPGs) that just happened to double as WCQs - in a sense they weren't trying to enter the WCQs at all. New Caledonia, on the other hand, did enter the WCQs (knowing they would become a FIFA member - they just happened to be eliminated a couple of days before the vote that made it official) Jlsa (talk) 01:32, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

Article needs more details for unknowledgeable readers seeking info on a World Cup qualification game

This doesn't tell me anything about what happens for a qualification game. It does not link to any Wiki articles explaining if there is any difference between a World Cup qualification game versus a World Cup championship game or even a non-World Cup soccer game (like compared to the rules of the Major League Soccer series). I could not find this information in the article:

• - How many minutes are in a World Cup qualification game?
• - Is there a difference between how many minutes there are in a World Cup game and a professional league game?
• - How many players are allowed on the field?
• - How big is a World Cup soccer field?
• - How many rounds are in a qualification game?

Can these be added? 50.47.97.34 (talk) 07:49, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

We can certainly give that it actually takes 90 minutes per game but all the rest of the questions are actually general knowledge, the rounds of a game actually varies for what Continent you are actually from. User:Alexandrhnh2 (talk) 4:58, 4 June 2013 (WST)

Topscorers in preliminary competition 1934–2010

Shouldn't Archie Thompson be on this list with this world record haul against American Samoa? It was a preliminary competition. 114.76.252.83 (talk) 15:48, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

Yes I agree they should put him on it but it was actually they decided not to put him on, please tell me why? Because it was a world record for scoring 13 goals in a match. And he actually scored 28 goals not 18 please see </http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Thompson> if you visit it the information is actually wrong. User:Alexandrhnh2 (talk) 17:02, 4 June 2013 (WST)

Bahamas first appearance

Why is Bahamas listed twice in the "first appearance" list? The first listing shows the name italicized, but I don't see any discussion of the reason for two listings.LUxlii (talk) 17:41, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

Italicized teams either withdrew or were disqualified from competition.Musicandnintendo (talk) 20:33, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Table "First appearance in qualification by team"

I commented out the "Totals" section at the foot of the table, it's not terribly helpful information and difficult to keep updated. Dissension is welcome. Also in regards to footnoted teams, if we're noting when a team that has taken part before but competing for the first time under a new flag, there are a couple yet to be noted - the Germany split, Saarland, and South Vietnam / Vietnam being the ones that spring to mind. On the other side of that, is it necessary to note a new Yugoslav competitor every time their form of government changes? That's what it looked like to me anyway. Musicandnintendo (talk) 20:45, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Top scorers per team column

I observe that the column indicating each team's top scorers at the World Cup qualifications is:

• unsourced;
• hard to keep up-to-date;
• cluttering the already very large table;
• not particularly notable and informative.

How about removing it? --Theurgist (talk) 18:56, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Also, some of the lists of "top" scorers per team must actually be uncertain, because many of the scorers in the qualifying matches for the early World Cups are unknown or disputed. I went on and removed the column. --Theurgist (talk) 08:57, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Quirky all-time table

With Excel, I calculated every team's World Cup qualification records. I found out that the current version of the all-time table in this article is inconsistent with the Wikipedia articles on the qualifying tournaments for each World Cup, and that the table in this article matches everything that's on FIFA's website, including some bizarre oddities found on FIFA's website.

This is how the table in this article differs from the Wikipedia articles on the qualifying tournaments for each World Cup.

• The table in this article, like FIFA's website, does include the second match between Czechoslovakia and Poland (1934 qualification), counting it as an (awarded) 2–0 win for Czechoslovakia. The match was not played due to the withdrawal of Poland.

included in the list of results at fifa.com: Czechoslovakia 2–0 Poland

rankings at fifa.com Pld Pts Czechoslovakia 2 4 Poland 2 0

• Similarly, the table in this article, like FIFA's website, does include the return leg of the inter-continental play-off between Chile and the USSR (1974 qualification), counting it as an (awarded) 2–0 win for Chile. The match was not played as the USSR team refused to play.

• The table in this article, like FIFA's website, does not include Sweden's 8–1 victory over Finland (1950 qualification). (RSSSF does list that match, but with the note: "Sweden played B-team"; it also says that "Finland withdrew, FIFA declared their matches friendlies"; no final rankings are given.)

not included in the list of results at fifa.com: Sweden 8–1 Finland

rankings at fifa.com Pld Pts Sweden 2 4 Ireland 4 3 Finland 2 1

• The table in this article, like FIFA's website, counts the return leg of Cameroon vs Congo (1978 qualifying) as 1–2, rather than as an awarded 0–2. As sources report, this match was interrupted at 1–2 and awarded as 0–2.

• The table in this article, like FIFA's website, includes one group match involving Libya (1990 qualification). Libya played one group match, then withdrew; its second group match was initially awarded as a 0–2 loss, but later both were annulled. Here, the first one is counted, and the second is not.

included in the list of results at fifa.com: Ivory Coast 1–0 Libya not included in the list of results at fifa.com: Libya 0–2 (awd.) Algeria

rankings at fifa.com Pld Pts Algeria 4 7 Ivory Coast 5 6 Zimbabwe 4 1 Libya 1 0

• The table in this article, like FIFA's website, includes one group match involving Liberia (1994 qualification). Liberia actually played two matches before withdrawing (both were annulled after the withdrawal); here, the first one is counted, and the second is not.

included in the list of results at fifa.com: Zaire 4–2 Liberia not included in the list of results at fifa.com: Liberia 0–0 Cameroon

rankings at fifa.com Pld Pts Cameroon 4 6 Swaziland 3 3 Zaire 4 3 Liberia 1 0

• The table in this article, like FIFA's website, includes an annulled group match between Egypt and Zimbabwe (1994 qualification). As usual, two matches between Egypt and Zimbabwe had been scheduled, but the second one was annulled and then replayed. So, in fact, these two teams played three matches against each other, including the annulled one. Here, all three of them are counted.

included in the list of results at fifa.com: Zimbabwe 2–1 Egypt Egypt 2–1 Zimbabwe Egypt 0–0 Zimbabwe

rankings at fifa.com Pld Pts Egypt 7 10 Zimbabwe 7 10 Angola 5 4 Togo 5 0

• The table in this article, like FIFA's website, includes four group matches involving Tanzania (1994 qualification). Tanzania withdrew after four matches, which were annulled; here, they are counted.

included in the list of results at fifa.com: Zambia 2–0 Tanzania Tanzania 0–0 Madagascar Tanzania 2–0 Namibia Tanzania 1–3 Zambia

rankings at fifa.com Pld Pts Zambia 6 10 Madagascar 5 7 Tanzania 4 3 Namibia 5 0

• The table in this article, like FIFA's website, includes three group matches involving Guinea (2002 qualification). Guinea was disqualified after three matches, which were annulled; here, they are counted.

included in the list of results at fifa.com: Guinea 3–0 Zimbabwe Burkina Faso 2–3 Guinea Guinea 1–1 Malawi

rankings at fifa.com Pld Pts South Africa 6 16 Zimbabwe 7 12 Guinea 3 7 Burkina Faso 7 5 Malawi 7 2

• The table in this article, like FIFA's website, includes four group matches involving Ethiopia (2010 qualification). Ethiopia was disqualified after four matches, which were annulled; here, they are counted.

included in the list of results at fifa.com: Morocco 3–0 Ethiopia Ethiopia 1–2 Rwanda Mauritania 0–1 Ethiopia Ethiopia 6–1 Mauritania

rankings at fifa.com Pld Pts Morocco 5 12 Rwanda 5 12 Ethiopia 4 6 Mauritania 6 0

--Theurgist (talk) 10:16, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Kinda "fixed"

I've updated and "fixed" the table in the article. Basically, I followed FIFA's website for borderline cases (such as whether a match is counted as an awarded win/loss or not), and I corrected obvious flaws in that website (such as where a team played a few matches in a group, then withdrew, these matches were annulled, the group continued without that team, but the matches in question are nevertheless counted in the rankings).

What I've counted and how:

• 1934: Czechoslovakia 2–0 (awd) Poland
• 1974: Chile 2–0 (awd) USSR
• 1978: Cameroon 1–2 Congo
• 1994: Zimbabwe 2–1 Egypt; Egypt 0–0 Zimbabwe

What I haven't counted:

• 1950: Sweden 8–1 Finland
• 1990: Ivory Coast 1–0 Libya; Libya 0–2 (awd) Algeria
• 1994: Zaire 4–2 Liberia; Liberia 0–0 Cameroon
• 1994: Egypt 2–1 Zimbabwe
• 1994: Zambia 2–0 Tanzania; Tanzania 0–0 Madagascar; Tanzania 2–0 Namibia; Tanzania 1–3 Zambia
• 2002: Guinea 3–0 Zimbabwe; Burkina Faso 2–3 Guinea; Guinea 1–1 Malawi
• 2010: Morocco 3–0 Ethiopia; Ethiopia 1–2 Rwanda; Mauritania 0–1 Ethiopia; Ethiopia 6–1 Mauritania

--Theurgist (talk) 21:23, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

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Rank

Footnotes

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Tallsmart (talk • contribs) 17:30, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

I don't think a "Rank" column is needed. Indeed, all-time tables usually order teams by points as in a league competition, and so does this table. But in this case the "positions" don't have any sort of official backing. Moreover, they're not particularly meaningful, because qualifying tournaments have had very different structures. Anomalies such as Germany and Brazil being ranked 20th and 21st despite having qualified for every single World Cup they've entered, while Costa Rica and Australia being ranked 2nd and 3rd despite having qualified for just about one third of the World Cups they've entered, speak for themselves.

I think the table should refrain from definitively determining which team is ranked at what position. All the other columns are sortable, and that's enough. Maybe a column of the appearances in the finals could be added as well. --Theurgist (talk) 09:12, 24 December 2017 (UTC)

Qualification competition entrants over time

Number of teams entering UEFA qualification 2018 (including automatic qualifier Russia) should be 55 (54+1) instead 54. The 53 UEFA teams entered qualification before draw, and 2 (Gibraltar and Kosovo) entered in June 2016, after were officially admitted as FIFA members on 13 May 2016.

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)	2026 (48)
Europe	21	26	19	29	27	30	33	31	33	32	34	33	33	39	50	51	52	53	53	55	55
Africa	3		0		11	6	21	13	24	26	29	29	26	40	38	51	51	53	52	54	54
Asia		2	4	3		5		7	18	22	21	27	26	29	36	42	39	43	43	46	46
Oceania1	0	0	0	0	0	0						4	5	7	10	10	12	11	11	11	11
North and Central America and Caribbean2	4	7	3	5	6	8	10	14	14	17	15	18	16	23	30	35	34	35	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	10
Total entrants	32	37	34	45	55	56	74	75	99	107	109	121	116	147	174	199	198	2054	204	211	2115
Teams played3	27	21	19	33	46	49	51	68	90	95	103	110	103	130	168	193	194	2004	203	208	12
Matches played	27	22	26	57	89	92	127	172	226	252	306	308	314	497	643	777	847	853	828	872	11
Goals scored	141	96	121	208	341	325	393	542	620	723	797	801	735	1446	1922	2452	2464	2344	2303	2454	32
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	2.81	2.91

--89.70.54.251 (talk) 07:00, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Spots by continent

This is the current table. In the 2026 column, the play-off tournament can be reflected by adding ⅓ to the value for each confederation to be represented there – not ½ per seeded team and ¼ per unseeded team, because the places in that tournament were decided long before it's known which teams will be seeded and which won't.

The teams qualifying from that tournament will still belong to their confederations. The tournament doesn't essentially differ from the inter-continental play-offs used until 2022, so it makes little sense to have a separate row just for it. The table would look like this.

Then we can achieve consistency throughout the table by changing the decimals in other columns to vulgar fractions, even though this would be less faithful to FIFA, which uses decimals. It would now look like this.

Which version do you like most? --Theurgist (talk) 20:15, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

Question

SEE THE TALK PAGE REGARDING THE INCLUSION OR NON-INCLUSION OF CERTAIN MATCHES.

this matches is better listed at the end of article.--Toimeska (talk) 12:30, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

list of matches was removed from table with reason and source:

1. X
2. Y

@Toimeska: This is not necessary. As seen above, most of those are annulled matches that were included in FIFA's databases for some reason, or matches where it's unclear whether the scoreline was awarded or not. Right before the table there's a brief outline of what types of matches are counted and how. It's up to the articles on the respective rounds to dive into details. Those articles should be consistent with official and proper record-keeping, and this page in turn should be consistent with them. --Theurgist (talk) 22:10, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Use of Spanish and Portuguese in the tables

Some tables in this article seem to have been copied from other languages and left without translations. The responsible editors should change them.--2001:16B8:31EC:E00:3CE1:EDCD:6F65:41FE (talk) 17:24, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

I think the new additions aren't even necessary. We don't need three different tables, one of them singling out a clear-cut top 20, for an improvised unofficial ranking. The list of biggest wins is trivia. The numbers of matches and goals per tournament belong to the respective tournament pages. The list of top scorers might be notable, but is out of place in a page otherwise entirely dedicated to team records. Pinging User:Toimeska. In fact I don't think the whole "Current format" part belongs here either, but I never was bold enough to delete it. --Theurgist (talk) 22:16, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Check

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Islands_national_football_team#FIFA_World_Cup

118 / 123

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup_qualification#Overall_team_records

102-Solomon_Islands

GA 121 or 123? --MuoX1, 21:41, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

The confusion stems from the two separate finals that were held in 2004 and 2005. The Solomon Islands lost to Australia 0–7 and 1–2 (agg. 1–9) in the final round of the 2006 qualification, and 1–5 and 0–6 (agg. 1–11) in the final of the 2004 OFC Nations Cup, which was not part of the qualification. The national team article was wrong; I've corrected it. --Theurgist (talk) 01:35, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

The new content

The first and last matches and goals in each campaign might bear a mention in the respective campaign articles, but I don't think they're notable enough for a centralized list. This is merely a matter of scheduling, and the heavyweights are rarely seen in such matches since they usually play neither preliminary rounds nor play-offs. Plus there's the element of original research, given that the timings of certain matches and goals may be ambiguous.

The top scorers of each campaign are somewhat more notable, and the top scorers overall would be even more notable (in fact a list used to be there), but here the concern is how such individual records would fit into an article otherwise entirely about teams. --Theurgist (talk) 01:47, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

2030 berths

2030 World Cup is hosted in 3 continents. It is not clear which continent(s) will get extra berth in the intercontinental play-offs. Should 2030 berths be removed before it has been announced? Shingkei (talk) 15:34, 15 October 2023 (UTC)