1970 Fifa World Cup Qualification

Hosts Mexico and defending champions England qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition.

1970 FIFA World Cup Qualification

Tournament details
Teams	75 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	172
Goals scored	542 (3.15 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Tostão (10 goals)
← 1966 1974 →

For the first time, the winners of both the African zone and the Asian and Oceanian zone were guaranteed a direct place in the final tournament. The 16 spots available in the 1970 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows:

• Europe (UEFA): 9 places, 1 of them went to automatic qualifier England, while the other 8 places were contested by 29 teams.
• South America (CONMEBOL): 3 places, contested by 10 teams.
• North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 2 places, 1 of them went to automatic qualifier Mexico, while the other 1 place was contested by 13 teams.
• Africa (CAF): 1 place, contested by 13 teams. (13 teams applied, but FIFA rejected the entries of Guinea and Zaire, leaving 11 teams. A 14th team from Africa, Rhodesia, entered through a non-CAF qualifying system.)
• Asia and Oceania (AFC/OFC): 1 place, contested by 7 teams (including Rhodesia).

A total of 68 teams played in at least one qualifying match. A total of 172 qualifying matches were played, and 542 goals were scored (an average of 3.15 per match).

Listed below are the dates and results of the qualification rounds.

Key:

• Teams highlighted in green qualified for the finals.
• Teams highlighted in red in the same table finished level on points and advanced to a play-off on neutral ground.

AFC and OFC

North Korea withdrew because they refused to play Israel. There would be three rounds of play:

• First Round: Israel, New Zealand and Rhodesia received byes and advanced to the Second Round directly. The remaining 3 teams, Australia, Japan and South Korea, played against each other twice in South Korea. The group winner would advance to the Second Round.
• Second Round: The 4 teams were divided into 2 groups of 2 teams each. The teams played against each other twice. The group winners would advance to the Final Round.
• Final Round: The 2 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner would qualify.

First round

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Australia	4	6
2	South Korea	4	4
3	Japan	4	2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Israel	2	3
2	Australia	2	1

Second round

Group 1	Group 2
Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1=   Australia 2 2 1=   Rhodesia 2 2 Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: [citation needed] Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1   Israel 2 3 2   Australia 2 1 Source: RSSSF	Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1   Israel 2 4 2   New Zealand 2 0 3   North Korea 0 0 Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: [citation needed] Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1   Israel 2 3 2   Australia 2 1 Source: RSSSF

Final round

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Israel	3	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1
2	Australia	1	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1

CAF

FIFA rejected the entries of Guinea and Zaire. There would be three rounds of play:

• First Round: Ghana received a bye and advanced to the Second Round directly. The remaining 10 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners (determined by aggregate score) would advance to the Second Round.
• Second Round: The 6 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would advance to the Final Round.
• Final Round: The 3 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would qualify.

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg	3rd leg
Zambia	6–6	Sudan	4–2	2–4 (aet)
Morocco	4–2	Senegal	1–0	1–2	2–0
Algeria	1–2	Tunisia	1–2	0–0
Nigeria	4–3	Cameroon	1–1	3–2
Libya	3–5	Ethiopia	2–0	1–5
Ghana	Bye

Second round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg	3rd leg
Tunisia	2–2	Morocco	0–0	0–0 (aet)	2–2 (aet)
Ethiopia	2–4	Sudan	1–1	1–3
Nigeria	3–2	Ghana	2–1	1–1

Final round

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Morocco	5	4	2	1	1	5	3	+2
2	Nigeria	4	4	1	2	1	8	7	+1
3	Sudan	3	4	0	3	1	5	8	−3

Morocco qualified.

CONCACAF

FIFA rejected the entry of Cuba. There would be three rounds of play:

• First Round: The remaining 12 teams were divided into 4 groups of 3 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would advance to the Semifinal Round.
• Semifinal Round: The 4 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would advance to the Final Round.
• Final Round: The 2 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner would qualify.

First round

Group 1

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	United States	6	4	3	0	1	11	6	+5
2	Canada	5	4	2	1	1	8	3	+5
3	Bermuda	1	4	0	1	3	2	12	−10

Group 2

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Haiti	5	4	2	1	1	9	5	+4
2	Guatemala	4	4	1	2	1	5	3	+2
3	Trinidad and Tobago	3	4	1	1	2	4	10	−6

Group 3

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Honduras	7	4	3	1	0	7	2	+5
2	Costa Rica	5	4	2	1	1	7	3	+4
3	Jamaica	0	4	0	0	4	2	11	−9

Group 4

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	El Salvador	6	4	3	0	1	10	5	+5
2	Suriname	4	4	2	0	2	10	9	+1
3	Netherlands Antilles	2	4	1	0	3	3	9	−6

Second round

Group 1

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Haiti	4	2	2	0	0	3	0	+3
2	United States	0	2	0	0	2	0	3	−3

Group 2

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1=	El Salvador	2	2	1	0	1	3	1	+2
1=	Honduras	2	2	1	0	1	1	3	−2

Play-off

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	El Salvador	2	1	1	0	0	3	2	+1
2	Honduras	0	1	0	0	1	2	3	–1

Third round

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1=	Haiti	2	2	1	0	1	4	2	+2
1=	El Salvador	2	2	1	0	1	2	4	−2

Play-off

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	El Salvador	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1
2	Haiti	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	–1

CONMEBOL

The 10 teams were divided into 3 groups; two groups with 3 teams and one group with 4 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.

Group 1

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Peru	5	4	2	1	1	7	4	+3
2	Bolivia	4	4	2	0	2	5	6	−1
3	Argentina	3	4	1	1	2	4	6	−2

Group 2

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Brazil	12	6	6	0	0	23	2	+21
2	Paraguay	8	6	4	0	2	6	5	+1
3	Colombia	3	6	1	1	4	7	12	−5
4	Venezuela	1	6	0	1	5	1	18	−17

Group 3

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Uruguay	7	4	3	1	0	5	0	+5
2	Chile	4	4	1	2	1	5	4	+1
3	Ecuador	1	4	0	1	3	2	8	−6

UEFA

(30 teams competing for 8 berths)

FIFA rejected the entry of Albania. The remaining 29 teams were divided into 8 groups, 3 groups with 3 teams and 5 groups with 4 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.

Group 1 Team Pld Pts   Romania 6 8   Greece 6 7    Switzerland 6 5   Portugal 6 4	Group 2 Team Pld Pts   Czechoslovakia 6 9   Hungary 6 9   Denmark 6 5   Republic of Ireland 6 1	Group 3 Team Pld Pts   Italy 4 7   East Germany 4 5   Wales 4 0
Group 4 Team Pld Pts   Soviet Union 4 7   Northern Ireland 4 5   Turkey 4 0	Group 5 Team Pld Pts   Sweden 4 6   France 4 4   Norway 4 2	Group 6 Team Pld Pts   Belgium 6 9   Yugoslavia 6 7   Spain 6 6   Finland 6 2
Group 7 Team Pld Pts   West Germany 6 11   Scotland 6 7   Austria 6 6   Cyprus 6 0	Group 8 Team Pld Pts   Bulgaria 6 9   Poland 6 8   Netherlands 6 7   Luxembourg 6 0

10 goals

9 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

• In the African zone, aggregate score was used to determine the winners of two-legged ties. However, different tie-breakers were used in the matches when the aggregate score was tied.
• Morocco was the first African team to qualify since Egypt in the 1934 World Cup.
• As a result of the hostile relationship between El Salvador and Honduras, and rioting during the qualification matches between them, the short-lived Football War broke out between the two countries.
• Israel qualified for their only World Cup to date as an Asian team. However, soon after this, they were expelled from the Asian Football Confederation, and now compete in the European zone as they are now a member of UEFA.

• FIFA World Cup Official Site – 1970 World Cup Qualification Archived 22 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
• RSSSF – 1970 World Cup Qualification