1994 Fifa World Cup Qualification
The 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations.
The 1994 FIFA World Cup featured 24 teams with one place reserved for the host nation, United States, and one place for the defending champions, Germany. The remaining 22 places were determined by a qualification process, in which 147 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.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 21 March 1992 – 17 November 1993 |
| Teams | 147 (from 6 confederations) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 497 |
| Goals scored | 1,446 (2.91 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |  Kazuyoshi Miura(13 goals) |
Fifteen teams withdrew: Liechtenstein, Cuba, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Myanmar and Western Samoa, and three teams were excluded: Yugoslavia and Libya due to UN sanctions, and Chile for the El Maracanazo cheating incident 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, when European qualification ended and the OFC–CONMEBOL play-off match was played. Eighteen of FIFA's twenty-four top-ranked countries eventually qualified.
Qualified teams
| Team | Method of qualification | Date of qualification | Finals appearance | Streak | Previous best performance | FIFA Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 United States | Hosts | 4 July 1988 | 5th | 2 | Third place (1930) | 27 |
 Germany | Defending champions | 8 July 1990 | 13th | 11 | Winners (1954, 1974, 1990) | 3 |
 Mexico | CONCACAF Final Round Winners | 9 May 1993 | 10th | 1 (Last: 1986) | Quarter-finals (1970, 1986) | 17 |
 Greece | UEFA Group 5 Winners | 23 May 1993 | 1st | 1 | – | 32 |
 Russia | UEFA Group 5 Runners-up | 2 June 1993 | 8th | 4 | Fourth place (1966) | 14 |
 Colombia | CONMEBOL Group A Winners | 5 September 1993 | 3rd | 2 | Round of 16 (1990) | 21 |
 Bolivia | CONMEBOL Group B Runners-up | 19 September 1993 | 3rd | 1 (Last: 1950) | Group stage (1930, 1950) | 59 |
 Brazil | CONMEBOL Group B Winners | 19 September 1993 | 15th | 15 | Winners (1958, 1962, 1970) | 4 |
 Nigeria | CAF Final Round Group A Winners | 8 October 1993 | 1st | 1 | – | 16 |
 Cameroon | CAF Final Round Group C Winners | 10 October 1993 | 3rd | 2 | Quarter-finals (1990) | 24 |
 Morocco | CAF Final Round Group B Winners | 10 October 1993 | 3rd | 1 (Last: 1986) | Round of 16 (1986) | 30 |
 Norway | UEFA Group 2 Winners | 13 October 1993 | 2nd | 1 (Last: 1938) | Round of 16 (1938) | 5 |
 South Korea | AFC Final Round Runners-up | 28 October 1993 | 4th | 3 | Group stage (1954, 1986, 1990) | 39 |
 Saudi Arabia | AFC Final Round Winners | 28 October 1993 | 1st | 1 | – | 38 |
 Sweden | UEFA Group 6 Winners | 13 October 1993 | 9th | 2 | Runners-up (1958) | 11 |
 Belgium | UEFA Group 4 Runners-up | 17 November 1993 | 9th | 4 | Fourth place (1986) | 22 |
 Bulgaria | UEFA Group 6 Runners-up | 17 November 1993 | 6th | 1 (Last: 1986) | Round of 16 (1986) | 23 |
 Italy | UEFA Group 1 Winners | 17 November 1993 | 13th | 9 | Winners (1934, 1938, 1982) | 1 |
 Netherlands | UEFA Group 2 Runners-up | 17 November 1993 | 6th | 2 | Runners-up (1974, 1978) | 2 |
 Republic of Ireland | UEFA Group 3 Runners-up | 17 November 1993 | 2nd | 2 | Quarter finals (1990) | 13 |
 Romania | UEFA Group 4 Winners | 17 November 1993 | 6th | 2 | Round of 16 (1934, 1938, 1990) | 12 |
 Spain | UEFA Group 3 Winners | 17 November 1993 | 9th | 5 | Fourth place (1950) | 7 |
 Switzerland | UEFA Group 1 Runners-up | 17 November 1993 | 7th | 1 (Last: 1966) | Quarter-finals (1934, 1938, 1954) | 9 |
 Argentina | Inter-confederation play-off Winners | 17 November 1993 | 11th | 6 | Winners (1978, 1986) | 9 |
Qualification process
The draw was made in New York on 8 December 1991 at Madison Square Garden.
For the first time, three teams qualified from the African zone, because of its performance in the previous tournament. The 24 spots available in the 1994 World Cup were distributed among the continental zones as follows:
- Europe (UEFA): 13 places. 1 of them went to automatic qualifier Germany, while the other 12 places were contested by 38 teams (including Israel).
- South America (CONMEBOL): 3.5 places, contested by 9 teams.
- North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 2.25 places, 1 of them went to automatic qualifier United States, while the other 1.25 places were contested by 22 teams.
- Africa (CAF): 3 places, contested by 40 teams.
- Asia (AFC): 2 places, contested by 29 teams.
- Oceania (OFC): 0.25 places, contested by 7 teams.
UEFA, AFC and CAF have a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations is dependent on play-offs between OFC's first-placed team and CONCACAF's second-placed team and the winner of this fixture against CONMEBOL's fourth-placed team.
After the first round of 1994 FIFA World Cup finals, the percentage of teams from each confederation that passed through to the round of 16 was as follows:
- AFC (Asia): 50% (1 of 2 places)
- CAF (Africa): 33% (1 of 3 places)
- CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean): 100% (2 of 2 places)
- CONMEBOL (South America): 50% (2 of 4 places)
- OFC (Oceania): n/a (0 of 0 places)
- UEFA (Europe): 77% (10 of 13 places)
Summary of qualification
 | ||||||||
| Confederation | Teams started | Teams that secured qualification | Teams that were eliminated | Total places in finals | Qualifying start date | Qualifying end date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFC | 29 | 2 | 27 | 2 | 8 April 1993 | 28 October 1993 | ||
| CAF | 40 | 3 | 37 | 3 | 9 October 1992 | 10 October 1993 | ||
| CONCACAF | 22+1 | 1+1 | 21 | 1+1 | 21 March 1992 | 15 August 1993 | ||
| CONMEBOL | 9 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 18 July 1993 | 17 November 1993 | ||
| OFC | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 June 1992 | 17 November 1993 | ||
| UEFA | 38+1 | 12+1 | 26 | 12+1 | 22 April 1992 | 17 November 1993 | ||
| Total | 145+2 | 22+2 | 123 | 22+2 | 21 March 1992 | 17 November 1993 | ||
