2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
Tournament details
Dates15 June 2011 – 20 November 2013
Teams203 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played820
Goals scored2,344 (2.86 per match)
Top scorer(s)Belize Deon McCaulay
Netherlands Robin van Persie
Uruguay Luis Suárez
(11 goals each)

The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil. The remaining 31 places were determined by a qualification process, in which the other 207 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.

Bhutan, Brunei, Guam and Mauritania did not enter, and South Sudan joined FIFA after the qualification process started and therefore could not take part. The qualification process consisted of 820 matches, reduced from 828 after the late withdrawals of the Bahamas and Mauritius.[1][2][3][4]

The first qualification match, between Montserrat and Belize, was played on 15 June 2011, and the Belizean striker Deon McCaulay scored the first goal in qualification. Qualification ended on 20 November 2013, when Uruguay eliminated Jordan to become the final qualifier for the World Cup. Twenty-three of FIFA's 24 top-ranked countries eventually qualified.[5][6]

Qualified teams

  Country qualified for World Cup
  Country failed to qualify
  Country did not enter World Cup
  Country not a FIFA member
Team Method of
qualification		 Date of
qualification		 Finals
appearance		 Consecutive
appearances		 Previous best
performance		 FIFA
Ranking
[nb 1]
 Brazil Host30 October 200720th20Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)11
 JapanAFC fourth round Group B winners4 June 20135th5Round of 16 (2002, 2010)44
 AustraliaAFC fourth round Group B runners-up18 June 20134th3Round of 16 (2006)57
 IranAFC fourth round Group A winners18 June 20134th1 (Last: 2006)Group stage (1978, 1998, 2006)49
 South KoreaAFC fourth round Group A runners-up18 June 20139th8Fourth place (2002)56
 NetherlandsUEFA Group D winners10 September 201310th3Runners-up (1974, 1978, 2010)8
 ItalyUEFA Group B winners10 September 201318th14Winners (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)9
 Costa RicaCONCACAF fourth round runners-up10 September 20134th1 (Last: 2006)Round of 16 (1990)31
 United StatesCONCACAF fourth round winners10 September 201310th7Third place (1930)13
 ArgentinaCONMEBOL winners10 September 201316th11Winners (1978, 1986)3
 BelgiumUEFA Group A winners11 October 201312th1 (Last: 2002)Fourth place (1986)5
  SwitzerlandUEFA Group E winners11 October 201310th3Quarter-finals (1934, 1938, 1954)7
 GermanyUEFA Group C winners11 October 201318th16Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)2
 ColombiaCONMEBOL runners-up11 October 20135th1 (Last: 1998)Round of 16 (1990)4
 Bosnia and HerzegovinaUEFA Group G winners15 October 20131st1–16
 RussiaUEFA Group F winners15 October 201310th[nb 2]1 (Last: 2002)Fourth place (1966)[nb 3]19
 EnglandUEFA Group H Winners15 October 201314th5Winners (1966)10
 SpainUEFA Group I Winners15 October 201314th10Winners (2010)1
 ChileCONMEBOL third place15 October 20139th2Third place (1962)12
 EcuadorCONMEBOL fourth place15 October 20133rd1 (Last: 2006)Round of 16 (2006)22
 HondurasCONCACAF fourth round third place15 October 20133rd2Group stage (1982, 2010)34
 NigeriaCAF third round winners16 November 20135th2Round of 16 (1994, 1998)33
 Ivory CoastCAF third round winners16 November 20133rd3Group stage (2006, 2010)17
 CameroonCAF third round winners17 November 20137th2Quarter-finals (1990)59
 GhanaCAF third round winners19 November 20133rd3Quarter-finals (2010)23
 AlgeriaCAF third round winners19 November 20134th2Group stage (1982, 1986, 2010)32
 GreeceUEFA play-off winners19 November 20133rd2Group stage (1994, 2010)15
 CroatiaUEFA play-off winners19 November 20134th1 (Last: 2006)Third place (1998)18
 PortugalUEFA play-off winners19 November 20136th4Third place (1966)14
 FranceUEFA play-off winners19 November 201314th5Winners (1998)21
 MexicoCONCACAF v OFC play-off winners20 November 201315th6Quarter-finals (1970, 1986)24
 UruguayAFC v CONMEBOL play-off winners20 November 201312th2Winners (1930, 1950)6

Qualification process

Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro hosted the qualification draw

The FIFA Executive Committee decided to approve the change of date for the preliminary draw of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which was held six months earlier than in the past, to allow the confederations to begin their qualifying competitions in good time. The draw was held on 30 July 2011 at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The distribution by confederation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup is:[7]

  • AFC (Asia): 4 or 5 places
  • CAF (Africa): 5 places
  • CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean): 3 or 4 places
  • CONMEBOL (South America): 4 or 5 places (+ Brazil qualified automatically as host nation for a total of 5 or 6 places)
  • OFC (Oceania): 0 or 1 place(s)
  • UEFA (Europe): 13 places

UEFA and CAF have a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations is dependent on play-offs between AFC's fifth-placed team and CONMEBOL's fifth-placed team, and between CONCACAF's fourth-placed team and OFC's first-placed team. A draw determined the pairings between the four teams involved.

After the first round of 2014 FIFA World Cup finals, the percentage of teams from each confederation that passed through to the round of 16 was as follows:

  • AFC (Asia): 0% (0 of 4 places)
  • CAF (Africa): 40% (2 of 5 places)
  • CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean): 75% (3 of 4 places)
  • CONMEBOL (South America): 83% (5 of 6 places)
  • OFC (Oceania): n/a (0 of 0 places)
  • UEFA (Europe): 46% (6 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
AFC43439429 June 201120 November 2013
CAF52547511 November 201119 November 2013
CONCACAF35431415 June 201120 November 2013
CONMEBOL9+15+145+17 October 201120 November 2013
OFC11011022 November 201120 November 2013
UEFA531340137 September 201219 November 2013
Total203+131+117231+115 June 201120 November 2013

Tiebreakers

For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages using a league format, the method used for separating teams level on points was the same for all confederations.[nb 4] If teams were even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams were ranked by:

  1. Goal difference in all group matches
  2. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches
  3. Greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
  4. Goal difference in matches between the tied teams
  5. Greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
  6. Greater number of away goals scored in matches between the tied teams if only two teams were tied

If teams were still equal after applying all listed tiebreakers, then a single play-off at a neutral venue was played. If scores were level after ninety minutes in the play-off, then two fifteen-minute periods of extra time and, if necessary, a penalty shoot-out would determine the winners.

For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages using a home-and-away knockout format, the team that had the higher aggregate score over the two legs progressed to the next round. In the event that aggregate scores finished level, the away goals rule was applied (i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs progressed). If away goals were also equal, then thirty minutes of extra time were played, divided into two fifteen-minutes halves. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time (i.e. if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team qualified by virtue of more away goals scored). If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie was decided via a penalty shoot-out.

Confederation qualification

AFC

Qualification began with two sets of two-leg knockout qualification rounds – the first held on 29 June and 2 July and 3 July 2011 and the second on 23 and 28 July – reducing the number of teams in the main draw to 20. The draw for the first two rounds of qualifiers was held in Kuala Lumpur on 30 March 2011.

As in the 2010 format, the third stage consisted of 5 groups of 4 teams (with matches held between September 2011 and February 2012) with the top 2 in each group advancing to 2 groups of 5 that played a further group stage during 2012. The top two teams in each group qualified for the 2014 World Cup directly, while the two third-placed teams engaged in a play-off tie for a chance to qualify via a further inter-confederation qualifying tie against a team from CONMEBOL.

The qualification process began with 43 national teams (out of 46 AFC members; Bhutan, Brunei and Guam did not enter) vying for four and a half spots. 4 nations have qualified: Japan, Australia, Iran and Korea Republic. Jordan beat Uzbekistan in round 5 and played Uruguay, the fifth-placed team from CONMEBOL, for the right to qualify, where they were eliminated.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2014 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the AFC play-off

Final positions (fourth round)

Group A
Team Pld Pts
 Iran 8 16
 South Korea 8 14
 Uzbekistan 8 14
 Qatar 8 7
 Lebanon 8 5
Source:

Group B
Team Pld Pts
 Japan 8 17
 Australia 8 13
 Jordan 8 10
 Oman 8 9
 Iraq 8 5
Source:

Play-off for 5th place (fifth round)

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Jordan  2–2 (9–8p)  Uzbekistan 1–1 1–1 (a.e.t.)

CAF

52 out of the 53 national associations affiliated to CAF entered the qualifying tournament to determine the continent's five slots for the next World Cup (only Mauritania failed to enter, while South Sudan joined FIFA after the start of qualifying).

Qualification began with a first round of 12 two-legged knockout ties, which were held between 11 and 16 November 2011. The ties involved the 24 lowest-ranked teams according to FIFA world rankings. The 12 winners joined the remaining 28 CAF entrants in the second round, which consisted of 10 groups of four. The winners of each group – held between June 2012 and September 2013 – advanced to a third round of 5 two-legged knockout ties. The five winners of these ties – held in October and November 2013 – advanced to the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals.

Third round

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Ivory Coast  4–2  Senegal 3–1 1–1
Ethiopia  1–4  Nigeria 1–2 0–2
Tunisia  1–4  Cameroon 0–0 1–4
Ghana  7–3  Egypt 6–1 1–2
Burkina Faso  3–3 (a)  Algeria 3–2 0–1

CONCACAF

In May 2010, the CONCACAF Executive Committee announced a possible change in its qualifying format for the 2014 World Cup, which would start with a preliminary knockout stage followed by three group phases. However, these proposals were abandoned. CONCACAF once again used a six-team final stage (known colloquially as "the Hexagonal"). The ten lowest-ranked nations played two-legged ties, with the five winners joining the nations ranked 7–25 in Round 2. There were six groups of four teams, with the six group winners joining the nations ranked 1–6 in Round 3. There were three groups of four teams and the top two teams in each group advanced to Round 4. These six nations formed one group, with the top three teams qualifying and Mexico, the fourth-placed team, advancing to the inter-continental play-off against New Zealand, the top team from the OFC.

A total of 35 national teams began the qualification process vying for three and a half spots. 31 nations were eliminated and the Bahamas withdrew (because their stadium was not completed in time for the competition).[9]

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2014 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the CONCACAF-OFC play-offs

Final positions (fourth round)

Pos Team Pld Pts
1  United States 10 22
2  Costa Rica 10 18
3  Honduras 10 15
4  Mexico 10 11
5  Panama 10 8
6  Jamaica 10 5
Source:

CONMEBOL

As Brazil has already qualified as host, the remaining nine CONMEBOL teams took part in a double round-robin group, playing each other twice (home and away) using the same schedule as previous qualification tournaments (each team had a bye on the date they would normally be scheduled to play Brazil). The top four teams qualified automatically, whereas Uruguay, the fifth-placed team, proceeded to the inter-confederational play-off against Jordan, the fifth placed team from Asia.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2014 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the AFC-CONMEBOL play-offs

Final positions

Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Argentina 16 32
2  Colombia 16 30
3  Chile 16 28
4  Ecuador 16 25
5  Uruguay 16 25
6  Venezuela 16 20
7  Peru 16 15
8  Bolivia 16 12
9  Paraguay 16 12
Source: FIFA

OFC

The four lowest-ranked nations (American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa, and Tonga) competed in the first round of qualifying: a single round-robin tournament in Apia, Samoa, from 22 to 26 November 2011.[10] The winners of the group, Samoa, joined the remaining 7 OFC teams in the 2012 OFC Nations Cup, which also doubled as the second qualifying round. The four semi-finalists of the OFC Nations Cup advanced to the third round, which consisted of a double round-robin held on a home-and-away basis between 7 September 2012 and 26 March 2013.

New Zealand, as the winners of the third round, proceeded to the inter-confederation play-off against Mexico, the fourth-placed team from CONCACAF, where they were eliminated by a strong Mexico side who beat them 9–3 over two legs.

Final positions (third round)

Team Pld Pts
 New Zealand 6 18
 New Caledonia 6 12
 Tahiti 6 3
 Solomon Islands 6 3
Source:

UEFA

The European qualification games started in September 2012, after Euro 2012. All 53 national associations affiliated with UEFA took part in the qualification process. In round one, teams competed in eight groups of six teams and a single group of five teams. The nine group winners qualified, while the eight best runners-up – ranked according to all their games except for games against the sixth-placed team in their group – entered into the play-offs for the four remaining spots.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2014 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the second round

Final positions (first round)

Group A
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Belgium 10 26
2  Croatia 10 17
3  Serbia 10 14
4  Scotland 10 11
5  Wales 10 10
6  Macedonia 10 7
Source: MacedonianFootball
Group B
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Italy 10 22
2  Denmark 10 16
3  Czech Republic 10 15
4  Bulgaria 10 13
5  Armenia 10 13
6  Malta 10 3
Source:
Group C
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Germany 10 28
2  Sweden 10 20
3  Austria 10 17
4  Republic of Ireland 10 14
5  Kazakhstan 10 5
6  Faroe Islands 10 1
Source:
Group D
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Netherlands 10 28
2  Romania 10 19
3  Hungary 10 17
4  Turkey 10 16
5  Estonia 10 7
6  Andorra 10 0
Source:
Group E
Pos Team Pld Pts
1   Switzerland 10 24
2  Iceland 10 17
3  Slovenia 10 15
4  Norway 10 12
5  Albania 10 11
6  Cyprus 10 5
Source:
Group F
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Russia 10 22
2  Portugal 10 21
3  Israel 10 14
4  Azerbaijan 10 9
5  Northern Ireland 10 7
6  Luxembourg 10 6
Source:
Group G
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 25
2  Greece 10 25
3  Slovakia 10 13
4  Lithuania 10 11
5  Latvia 10 8
6  Liechtenstein 10 2
Source:
Group H
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  England 10 22
2  Ukraine 10 21
3  Montenegro 10 15
4  Poland 10 13
5  Moldova 10 11
6  San Marino 10 0
Source:
Group I
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Spain 8 20
2  France 8 17
3  Finland 8 9
4  Georgia 8 5
5  Belarus 8 4
Source:

Second round

The Second Round was contested by the top eight runners-up. The second round draw took place at the headquarters of FIFA in Zürich, Switzerland, on 21 October.[11] October 2013 FIFA World Rankings were used to decide which of the teams were seeded.[11] The matches were played on 15 and 19 November 2013.

Group runners-up

The eight best group runners-up contested the second round, where they were paired into four two-legged (home-and-away) fixtures. The four winners qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Because one group had one team fewer than the others, matches against the last-placed team in each of the six-team groups were not included in this ranking. Teams were ranked by the following parameters in order:

  1. Highest number of points
  2. Goal difference
  3. Highest number of goals scored

Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 G  Greece 8 6 1 1 9 4 +5 19 Advance to second round (play-offs)
2 I  France 8 5 2 1 15 6 +9 17
3 F  Portugal 8 4 3 1 15 8 +7 15
4 H  Ukraine 8 4 3 1 11 4 +7 15
5 C  Sweden 8 4 2 2 15 13 +2 14
6 E  Iceland 8 4 2 2 15 14 +1 14
7 D  Romania 8 4 1 3 11 12 −1 13
8 A  Croatia 8 3 2 3 9 8 +1 11
9 B  Denmark 8 2 4 2 9 11 −2 10
Source:
Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Portugal  4–2  Sweden 1–0 3–2
Ukraine  2–3  France 2–0 0–3
Greece  4–2  Romania 3–1 1–1
Iceland  0–2  Croatia 0–0 0–2

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 13 November 2013, and the second legs were played on 20 November 2013.[12]

AFC v CONMEBOL

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Jordan  0–5  Uruguay 0–5 0–0

CONCACAF v OFC

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Mexico  9–3  New Zealand 5–1 4–2

Top goalscorers

There were 2,344 goals scored over 820 games, for an average of 2.86 goals per game.[13]

11 goals
10 goals
9 goals
8 goals

Notes

  1. ↑ The rankings are shown as of 17 October 2013. These are the rankings used for the final draw.
  2. ↑ This is Russia's third appearance at the FIFA World Cup; however, FIFA considers Russia as the successor team of the Soviet Union.
  3. ↑ Russia's best result is group stage in 1994 and 2002; however, FIFA considers Russia as the successor team of the Soviet Union.
  4. ↑ The rules for separating teams level on points were decided by FIFA and can be found in article 18 part 6d to 6g of the FIFA Regulations 2014 World Cup Brazil.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "2014 FIFA World Cup – Statistics". FIFA. Archived from the original on 17 November 2007. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  2. ↑ "Rio ready to welcome the world". FIFA. 26 July 2011. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  3. ↑ "Bahamas withdraw from 2014 World Cup Qualifiers". FIFA. 22 August 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Mauritius withdraw from FIFA World Cup qualifiers". FIFA. 31 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2 November 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
  5. ↑ Ukraine, who were ranked 20th, did not qualify.
  6. ↑ "Who has the hardest World Cup 2014 draw?". The Guardian. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2013.
  7. ↑ "Qualifiers". FIFA. Archived from the original on 2 March 2008. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  8. ↑ "Regulations 2014 World Cup Brazil". FIFA. Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  9. ↑ Johnson, Kelsie (22 August 2011). "Unfinished Work Forces BFA to Pull out of Qualifiers". The Nassau Guardian. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "Pacific Games no longer part of qualification". OFC. 29 June 2011. Archived from the original on 3 January 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  11. 1 2 "Dates set for African and European qualifying draws". FIFA. 15 June 2013. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  12. ↑ "International match Calendar 2013–2018" (PDF). FIFA. 1 May 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  13. ↑ "2014 FIFA World Cup preliminaries statistics". FIFA. Archived from the original on 17 November 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
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