2002 Fifa World Cup Qualification

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. 199 teams entered the tournament qualification rounds, competing for 32 spots in the final tournament. South Korea and Japan, as the co-hosts, and France, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 29 spots open for competition.

2002 FIFA World Cup qualification

Tournament details
Dates	4 March 2000 – 25 November 2001
Teams	199 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	777
Goals scored	2,452 (3.16 per match)
Attendance	17,242,036 (22,191 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Archie Thompson (16 goals)
← 1998 2006 →

The 32 spots available in the 2002 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows:

• Europe (UEFA): 14.5 places, 1 of them went to automatic qualifier France, while the other 13.5 places were contested by 50 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from AFC)
• South America (CONMEBOL): 4.5 places, contested by 10 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from OFC).
• North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3 places, contested by 35 teams.
• Africa (CAF): 5 places, contested by 51 teams.
• Asia (AFC): 4.5 places, 2 of them went to automatic qualifiers South Korea and Japan, while the other 2.5 places were contested by 40 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from UEFA).
• Oceania (OFC): 0.5 place, contested by 10 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from CONMEBOL).

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).

AFC

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 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 3 teams.

Afghanistan, Bhutan and North Korea chose not to participate.

Asia's two remaining automatic qualifying berths were taken by Saudi Arabia and China. Iran lost their AFC/UEFA playoff against the Republic of Ireland.

There were three rounds of play:

• First stage: The 39 teams were divided into 9 groups of 4 teams each, and 1 group of 3 teams. The teams played against each other twice, except in group 2, where the teams played against each other once. The group winners would advance to the final round.
• Second stage: The 10 teams were divided into 2 groups of 5 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. The runners-up would advance to the AFC play-off.
• Play-off: The 2 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner would advance to the UEFA/AFC Intercontinental play-off.

Final positions (second round)

Group A	Group B
Team Pld Pts   Saudi Arabia 8 17   Iran 8 15   Bahrain 8 10   Iraq 8 7   Thailand 8 4	Team Pld Pts   China 8 19   United Arab Emirates 8 11   Uzbekistan 8 10   Qatar 8 9   Oman 8 6

AFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Iran	4–0	United Arab Emirates	1–0	3–0

CAF

The Confederation of African Football was allocated five qualifying berths for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. 51 teams entered the qualification process.

Burundi withdrew before the draw was made while Niger and Comoros chose not to participate.

Guinea was excluded from the competition during the Final Round for government interference with its national association, resulting in their results obtained in final round annulled.

Africa's five automatic qualifying berths were taken by Cameroon, Senegal, Tunisia, South Africa, and Nigeria.

There were two rounds of play:

• First Round: The 50 teams were divided into 5 pools of 10 teams each. In each pool, the 10 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners advanced to the Final Round.
• Final Round: The 25 teams were divided into 5 groups of 5 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners qualified.

Final positions (final round)

Group A	Group B	Group C
Team Pld Pts   Cameroon 8 19   Angola 8 13   Zambia 8 11   Togo 8 9   Libya 8 2	Team Pld Pts   Nigeria 8 16   Liberia 8 15   Sudan 8 12   Ghana 8 11   Sierra Leone 8 4	Team Pld Pts   Senegal 8 15   Morocco 8 15   Egypt 8 13   Algeria 8 8   Namibia 8 2
Group D	Group E
Team Pld Pts   Tunisia 8 20   Ivory Coast 8 15   DR Congo 8 10   Madagascar 8 6   Congo 8 5	Team Pld Pts   South Africa 6 16   Zimbabwe 6 12   Burkina Faso 6 5   Malawi 6 1   Guinea 0 0

CONCACAF

A total of 35 CONCACAF teams entered the competition. Mexico, USA, Jamaica and Costa Rica, the four highest-ranked teams according to FIFA, received byes and advanced to the semi-finals, while Canada advanced to the play-offs . The remaining teams were divided into zones, based on geographical locations, as follows:

• Caribbean Zone: The 24 teams were divided into groups of eight teams each. The teams played in a three-round knockout tournament. The winners would advance to the semi-finals, while the runners-up would advance to the play-offs.
• Central American Zone: The six teams are divided into groups of three teams each. The teams played against each other. The winners of the group would advance to the semi-finals, while the runners-up would advance to the play-offs.
• Play-offs: the six teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. A team from North or Central America would play against a team from the Caribbean, and the winners would advance to the semi-finals.
• Semi-finals: the 12 teams were divided into three groups of four teams each. They played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners and runners-up would advance to the final round.
• Final round: the six teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The top three teams would qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Final positions (final round)

Team	Pld	Pts
Costa Rica	10	23
Mexico	10	17
United States	10	17
Honduras	10	14
Jamaica	10	8
Trinidad and Tobago	10	5

CONMEBOL

A total of 10 CONMEBOL teams entered the competition. competing for four and half places in the final tournament.

The 10 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The top 4 teams qualified. The 5th-placed team advanced to the CONMEBOL / OFC Intercontinental play-off.

Final positions

Team	Pld	Pts
Argentina	18	43
Ecuador	18	31
Brazil	18	30
Paraguay	18	30
Uruguay	18	27
Colombia	18	27
Bolivia	18	18
Peru	18	16
Venezuela	18	16
Chile	18	12

OFC

A total of 10 teams entered the competition. competing for a half places in the final tournament.

Papua New Guinea chose not to participate.

There would be two rounds of play:

• First Round: The 10 teams were divided into two groups of five teams each. The teams played against each other once. The group winners would advance to the Final Round.
• Final Round: The two teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner would advance to the CONMEBOL/OFC Intercontinental play-off.

Australia's 31–0 win over American Samoa established a World Cup record for the highest margin of victory in a qualifying match.

Final positions (final round)

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
New Zealand	1–6	Australia	0–2	1–4

UEFA

The European section acted as qualifiers for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, for national teams which are members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Apart from France, who qualified automatically as holders, a total of thirteen and half slots in the final tournament were available for UEFA teams.

The 50 teams were divided into nine groups, five groups of six teams and four groups of five teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. Among the runners-up, the runner-up of group 2 was drawn randomly to advance to the UEFA–AFC Intercontinental play-off. The other runners-up would advance to the UEFA play-offs.

In the play-offs, the eight teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The four aggregate winners qualified. The qualifying process started on 2 September 2000, after UEFA Euro 2000, and ended on 14 November 2001.

The Netherlands and Romania both failed to qualify for the tournament for the first time since 1986, the former finishing third in group 2 behind Portugal and Republic of Ireland and the latter suffering a shock loss to Slovenia in the play-offs.

Final positions (first round)

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3
Team Pld Pts   Russia 10 23   Slovenia 10 20   Yugoslavia 10 19    Switzerland 10 14   Faroe Islands 10 7   Luxembourg 10 0	Team Pld Pts   Portugal 10 24   Republic of Ireland 10 24   Netherlands 10 20   Cyprus 10 8   Estonia 10 8   Andorra 10 0	Team Pld Pts   Denmark 10 22   Czech Republic 10 20   Bulgaria 10 17   Iceland 10 13   Northern Ireland 10 11   Malta 10 1
Group 4	Group 5	Group 6
Team Pld Pts   Sweden 10 26   Turkey 10 21   Slovakia 10 17   Moldova 10 7   Macedonia 10 6   Azerbaijan 10 5	Team Pld Pts   Poland 10 21   Ukraine 10 17   Belarus 10 15   Norway 10 10   Wales 10 9   Armenia 10 5	Team Pld Pts   Croatia 8 18   Belgium 8 17   Scotland 8 15   Latvia 8 4   San Marino 8 1
Group 7	Group 8	Group 9
Team Pld Pts   Spain 8 20   Austria 8 15   Israel 8 12   Bosnia and Herzegovina 8 8   Liechtenstein 8 0	Team Pld Pts   Italy 8 20   Romania 8 16   Georgia 8 10   Hungary 8 8   Lithuania 8 2	Team Pld Pts   England 8 17   Germany 8 17   Finland 8 12   Greece 8 7   Albania 8 3

Play-offs

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Belgium	2–0	Czech Republic	1–0	1–0
Ukraine	2–5	Germany	1–1	1–4
Slovenia	3–2	Romania	2–1	1–1
Austria	0–6	Turkey	0–1	0–5

There were two scheduled inter-confederation playoffs to determine the final two qualification spots to the finals. The first legs were played on 10 and 20 November 2001, and the second legs were played on 15 and 25 November 2001.

UEFA v AFC

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Republic of Ireland	2–1	Iran	2–0	0–1

OFC v CONMEBOL

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Australia	1–3	Uruguay	1–0	0–3

16 goals

•   Archie Thompson

15 goals

•   Carlos Pavón

14 goals

•   David Zdrilic

11 goals

•   Golman Pierre
•   Ibrahima Bakayoko
•   Hani Al-Dhabit
•   Talal Al-Meshal
•   Said Bayazid

10 goals

•   Rolando Fonseca
•   Ali Daei
•   Obeid Al-Dosari
•   Kiatisuk Senamuang
•   Andriy Shevchenko
•   Yaser Salem Ali
•   Jafar Irismetov

• On their way to the 2002 World Cup, Brazil endured their worst qualifying campaign ever, losing 6 matches (the only time they have lost more than 2 games in a qualifying campaign) and finishing 3rd of the South American qualifying group (the only time they have not emerged as leaders of their qualifying group). However, Brazil went on to win the 2002 World Cup with a record-breaking tally of 7 wins in 7 matches in the final competition, without facing extra time or penalty shoot-outs. The following teams also won all their final competition matches: Uruguay in 1930 (4 games), Italy in 1938 (4 games, 1 of which after extra time), Brazil in 1970 (6 games) and France in 1998 (7 games, of which 1 with a golden goal during extra time and 1 on penalties). In 1970, Brazil had also won all of their 6 preliminary competition matches. Uruguay did not play any preliminary round for 1930, as there was none, and Italy did not either for 1938 as they were automatically qualified for the World Cup as title holders.
• After finishing second in the group, where they famously lost 1–5 to England, Germany had to play qualifying play-offs for the only time in their history.
• Australia netted 31 goals against newcomers American Samoa, setting the record of the highest-scoring match and biggest margin of victory in an international match ever. This was only two days after Australia thrashed Tonga 22–0, a then international record. Also, Archie Thompson's 13 goals in the match against American Samoa surpassed the previous record of 10.
• Souleymane Mamam of Togo became the youngest player ever to play in a World Cup qualifying match at the age of 13 years and 310 days in the match against Zambia, in May 2001. He subbed in for Komlan Assignon, three minutes from full-time.
• The fastest-ever hat-trick in an "A" international was set when Abdul Hamid Bassiouny of Egypt needed only 177 seconds to bag his three goals in a game against Namibia.
• Switzerland's Kubilay Türkyilmaz scored a hat trick exclusively from penalties against the Faroe Islands. Brazil's Ronaldo would equal this against Argentina in his team's 3–1 win in the 2006 World Cup qualifying round.