1954 FIFA World Cup qualification

A total of 45 teams entered the 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. fb|SUI, as the hosts, and fb|URU, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition.

FIFA rejected the entries of fb|ISL, fb|BOL, fb|CRC, fb|CUB, fb|South Vietnam and fb|IND. The remaining 37 teams were divided into 13 groups, based on geographical considerations, as follows:
* Groups 1 to 10 - Europe: "11 places", contested by 27 teams (including Egypt and Israel).
* Group 11 and 12 - The Americas: "2 places", contested by 7 teams.
* Group 13 - Asia: "1 place", contested by 3 teams.

A total of 33 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 57 qualifying matches were played, and 208 goals were scored (an average of 3.65 per match).

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

Groups

The 13 groups had different rules, as follows:
* Groups 1, 2, 4, 8 and 10 had 3 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.
* Group 3 had 4 teams. The teams played against each other once. The group winner and runner-up would qualify.
* Groups 5, 6, 7 and 9 had 2 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.
* Group 11 had 4 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would qualify.
* Group 12 had 3 teams. The teams played against each other twice. The group winner would qualify.
* Group 13 had 3 teams. After Taiwan withdrew before the matches began, the remaining 2 teams played against each other twice. The group winner would qualify.

Group 1

Belgium qualified.

Group 3

This group was also the 1953-1954 British Home Championship.

October 3, 1953, Belfast, Northern Ireland - fb|NIR 1 - 3 fb|SCO

October 10, 1953, Cardiff, Wales - fb|WAL 1 - 4 fb|ENG

November 4, 1953, Glasgow, Scotland - fb|SCO 3 - 3 fb|WAL

November 11, 1953, Liverpool, England - fb|ENG 3 - 1 fb|NIR

March 31, 1954, Wrexham, Wales - fb|WAL 1 - 2 fb|NIR

April 3, 1954, Glasgow, Scotland - fb|SCO 2 - 4 fb|ENG

Austria qualified.

Group 6

January 6, 1954, Madrid, Spain - fb|ESP|1939 4 - 1 fb|TUR

March 14, 1954, Istanbul, Turkey - fb|TUR 1 - 0 fb|ESP|1939

Italy qualified.

Group 10

May 9, 1953, Belgrade, Yugoslavia - fb|YUG 1 - 0 fb|GRE|old

November 1, 1953, Athens, Greece - fb|GRE|old 1 - 0 fb|ISR

November 8, 1953, Skopje, Yugoslavia - fb|YUG 1 - 0 fb|ISR

March 7, 1954, Ramat Gan, Israel - fb|ISR 0 - 2 fb|GRE|old

March 21, 1954, Ramat Gan, Israel - fb|ISR 0 - 1 fb|YUG

March 28, 1954, Athens, Greece - fb|GRE|old 0 - 1 fb|YUG

Mexico qualified.

Group 13

fb|ROC withdrew.

March 7, 1954, Tokyo, Japan - fb|JPN 1 - 5 fb|KOR

March 14, 1954, Tokyo, Japan - fb|JPN 2 - 2 fb|KOR

Korea Republic qualified.

Qualified teams

(h) - qualified automatically as hosts

(c) - qualified automatically as defending champions

Notes

* Turkey is the only team to gain a place in the World Cup through the drawing of lots, over Spain after failing to decide which team was the winner of Group 6 after three matches.
* For the first time, qualification matches were actually played in South America, since in all previous World Cups, the South American teams all qualified automatically due to withdrawals.
* As the French-occupied Saarland protectorate became part of the Federal Republic of Germany only in 1957, the Saarland entered their only World Cup competition and actually had to play Germany in the qualifiers. Both German teams were joint first before the final game.

External links

* [http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/p/pwc/q/1954.html FIFA World Cup Official Site - 1954 World Cup Qualification]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tables/54q.html RSSSF - 1954 World Cup Qualification]