Day 31 – World Cup history: structure of qualifying
Lesson
Topic Point: The modern World Cup tournament has representatives from 6continental zones: Asia (AFC), Africa (CAF), North and Central America and theCaribbean (CONCACAF), South American (CONMEBOL), Oceania (OFC), and Europe(UEFA). For each World Cup, FIFA allocates the number of teams from each zonebased on the number of teams and their rankings. Some spots will be determinedby a playoff between to continental zones. For example, Continent A may have 6guaranteed spots, Continent B may have 8 guaranteed spots, and there is oneremaining spot to be determined by a playoff between the 7th placeteam from Continent A versus the 9th place team from Continent B.
The host country (or countries ifco-hosted) receives an automatic berth to the tournament. Previously, thedefending champion received an automatic berth (1938-2002) but since the 2006World Cup, the defending champion must qualify.
The respective confederations set thequalifying schedule. The process is not uniform for each zone because of thevariety of nations comprising each zone, along with the relative strength ofteams within each zone.[1]Generally, there are two rounds of games played in a round-robin format withstandings arranged by point totals. The top teams in the standings up to theallocated number of spots will earn berths to the World Cup.
Ted Lasso: Whilethere are a few references to international soccer and national teams, there isno significant reference to World Cup qualifying or the World Cup. Sam Obisanyareveals his goal of making the Nigerian National Team, and references the 1994World Cup team (S1E5). Jaime Tartt gives Roy Kent a gift when invited toUncle’s Day (a holiday created by Roy’s niece, Phoebe) – his 2014 World Cupjersey.
Soccer-related note: The 1930 World Cup in Uruguay was held by invitation only andfeatured 13 total teams (6 South American + the host country, 2 North/centralAmerica, and 4 European). The first World Cup qualifying matches were held in1933. From 1934-1966, there was significant disparity in world representationfor the World Cup with a heavy bias towards Europe. Over 50% of the 16available berths were allocated to Europe while Asia/Africa/Oceania combined hadto compete for 1 spot; CONCACAF had 1-2 spots. Over time, the number of teamsin the World Cup increased. Many of those additional spots were allocated toAsia, Africa, Oceania, and CONCACAF. Asia and Africa were separately andregularly, though minimally, represented starting in 1970, and more equitablyrepresented come the 1990s (Appendix 7).
American Sports comparison: If you consider the World Cup a playoff, World Cup qualifying islike a regular season for national teams. It may be considered similar to theNCAA basketball tournament because of the drama and fanaticism, and the playoffgames between two separate continental zone teams are like the “bubble” teamsthat may or may not receive a bid to the NCAA tournament.
[1] CONMEBOL (South America) is the smallest zone with only 10 teams.OFC (Oceania) has 13 teams. CAF (Africa) is the largest zone with 56 teams andUEFA (Europe) has 55 teams. Asia has 47 and CONCACAF has 41 teams.
Interactive
Below there are links to UEFA and CONCACAF qualifyingprocess including dates of matches, number of teams, and results of thequalifying process. It is a lot to absorb – so don’t do that! Just take a lookat the duration of time and the number of teams that invested in a rigorousprocess to be one of the final 48!
1. PDF of groups and matches – 12groups of 4; 10 matchdays spanning March 2025 to November 2025. Note that thisdoes not include the playoff that occurred in March 2026 (see Day 6interactive)
2. Overview on UEFA qualifiers –how they work
3. Results playoffs (March 2026)and the group play (March 2025 – November 2025)
4. Overview and results of theCONCACAF World Cup Qualifying. There were 3 total rounds and 32 total teams.
a. Round 1 – the 4 lowest-rankedteams played a two-leg playoff with the 2 winners going to round 2
b. Round 2 – the remaining 28countries plus the 2 Round 1 winners competed in group play (6 groups of 5teams)
c. Round 3 – the top 2 teams ineach group competed in the final round which was also group play (3 groups of 4teams). The 3 group winners qualified for the World Cup. The top 2 runners-upplayed in the intercontinental playoff
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