The

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

confederations A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa),

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

(North, Central America and Caribbean),

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

(South America), OFC (Oceania), and

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

(Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. 199 teams entered the

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

rounds, competing for 32 spots in the final tournament.

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, as the co-hosts, and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 29 spots open for competition.

Qualified teams

¹Includes 10 appearances by DFB representing West Germany between 1954 and 1990. Excludes 1 appearance by ''DVF'' representing East Germany between 1954 and 1990.

²Includes appearances by

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Qualification process

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

): ''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 (

): ''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 (

): ''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 Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

( 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).

Summary of qualification

Confederation qualification

AFC

The Asian Football Confederation was allocated four and half qualifying berths for the

and

, the co-hosts, qualified automatically, leaving two and half spots open for competition between 40 teams.

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

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 Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

and

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

chose not to participate. Asia's two remaining automatic qualifying berths were taken by

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

lost their AFC–UEFA playoff against the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

. There were three rounds of play: *First round: The 39 teams were divided into nine groups of four teams each, and one group of three teams. The teams played against each other twice, except in group 2, where the teams played against each other once. The group winners advanced to the final round. *Second round: The ten group winners from the first round were divided into two groups of five teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners qualified directly to the World Cup. The runners-up advanced to the AFC play-off. *Play-off: The two group runners-up from the second round played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner advanced to the UEFA–AFC inter-confederation play-off.

Final positions (second round)

AFC play-off

CAF

The Confederation of African Football was allocated five qualifying berths for the

. 51 teams entered the qualification process.

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

withdrew before the draw was made while

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

and

Comoros The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros, is an archipelagic country made up of three islands in Southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city is Moroni, ...

chose not to participate.

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

was excluded from the competition during the final round for government interference with its national association, resulting in their results obtained in the final round being annulled. Africa's five automatic qualifying berths were taken by

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, and

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. There were two rounds of play: * First round: The 50 teams were divided into five pools of ten 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 second round. * Second round: The 25 teams were divided into five groups of five teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners qualified.

Final positions (second round)

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)

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

OFC

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

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

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 second round. * Second round: The two teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner would advance to the CONMEBOL/OFC inter-continental 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 (second round)

UEFA

The European section acted as qualifiers for the

, for national teams which are members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Apart from

, 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 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

, and ended on 14 November 2001. The

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

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)

Play-offs

Inter-confederation play-offs

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

OFC v CONMEBOL

Top goalscorers

Below are goalscorer lists for all confederations and the inter-confederation play-offs: * AFC * CAF *

* OFC *

* Inter-confederation play-offs

Trivia

*On their way to the 2002 World Cup,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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 Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

or penalty shoot-outs. The following teams also won all their final competition matches:

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

in 1930 (4 games),

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in 1938 (4 games, 1 of which after extra time), Brazil in 1970 (6 games) and

in 1998 (7 games, of which 1 with a

golden goal The golden goal is a sports rule used in association football, Australian rules football, bandy, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, and rugby league to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the ...

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 Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

had to play qualifying play-offs for the only time in their history. *

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

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 Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

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 A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in an "A" international was set when Abdul Hamid Bassiouny of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

needed only 177 seconds to bag his three goals in a game against Namibia. *

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. 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.

Notes

References

External links

RSSSF – 2002 World Cup Qualification
{{FIFA World Cup

Qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

FIFA World Cup qualification