Football World Cup 2002 (qualification UEFA)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for UEFA teams.

The European section of the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as qualifiers for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which was held in South Korea and Japan, for national teams which are members of the UEFA. Apart from France, who qualified automatically as defending champions, a total of 13.5 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, Group 2 was drawn randomly to advance to the UEFA–AFC Intercontinental play-off while the remaining eight 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.

Qualification seeding (UEFA)

The draw was made on 7 December 1999, and was based on average points per game achieved in 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification and UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying. France qualified automatically as title holders, and because Belgium and Netherlands, as hosts, had not had to qualify for UEFA Euro 2000, only their 1998 World Cup result was used. Andorra made their debut in World Cup qualifying.

Summary

Table - top row: group winners, second row: group runners-up, third row: others. The winner of each group qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup together with winners of play-off. Group 2 was the last team drawn for its runner-up to participate in the UEFA/AFC intercontinental play-off. As runner-up in group 2, Republic of Ireland played a play-off against a team from the AFC confederation, whereas the others played against each other (UEFA play-off).

First round

The winner of each group qualified directly, the runner-up advanced to play-off (either UEFA playoff or UEFA-AFC playoff).

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Group 9

Second round

The draw for the play-offs was held on 31 August 2001 at FIFA's headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland. The nine group runners-up were placed into one pot, with eight teams drawn into four pairings (with the first team drawn hosting the first leg). The remaining team then faced an AFC team in the inter-confederation play-offs. UEFA were paired to face the AFC team by decision of the FIFA Executive Committee in October 1999.

Inter-confederation play-offs

As the Group 2 runner-up was the last team to be selected in the play-off draw on 31 August 2001, that team then faced an AFC team in the inter-confederation play-offs. UEFA were paired to face the AFC team by decision of the FIFA Executive Committee in October 1999, though the order of legs was decided by the draw on 31 August 2001. The team to meet an AFC team became the Republic of Ireland.

Qualified teams

The following 15 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.

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¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

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² Competed as Soviet Union.

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³ Competed as West Germany. A separate team for East Germany also participated in qualifications during this time, having only competed in 1974.

Top goalscorers

Below are full goalscorer lists for all groups and the play-offs:

*Group 1
*Group 2
*Group 3
*Group 4
*Group 5
*Group 6
*Group 7
*Group 8
*Group 9