1958 FIFA World Cup qualification

March 2022 March 2022 1958 FIFA World Cup Qualification 30 September 1956 – 5 February 1958 55 6 89 341 ENG Tommy Taylor (8 goals) 1954 1962 A total of 55 teams entered the 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. Sweden as the hosts and West Germany, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition. Qualification process The qualification rounds for the four previous World Cups differed widely, with controversial rules and many withdrawals. From this tournament onwards, FIFA divided the teams into several continental zones, assigned a pre-determined number of places in the final tournament to each zone, and delegated the organisation of the qualifying tournaments to its confederations: UEFA of Europe, CONMEBOL of South America, NAFC of North America, CCCF of Central America and Caribbean, CAF of Africa and AFC of Asia (and OFC of Oceania after it was formed later). The 16 spots available in the 1958 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows: Europe (UEFA): 11 places, 2 of them went to automatic qualifiers Sweden and West Germany, while the other 9 places were contested by 27 teams. South America (CONMEBOL): 3 places, contested by 9 teams. North, Central America and Caribbean (NAFC/CCCF): 1 place, contested by 6 teams. Africa (CAF) and Asia (AFC): 1 place, contested by 11 teams (including Israel, Cyprus and Turkey). However, FIFA also imposed a rule that no team would qualify without playing at least one match because many teams qualified for previous World Cups without playing due to withdrawals of their opponents. Because Israel won the African and Asian zone under this circumstance, FIFA required them to enter a play-off against a team from Europe who initially did not qualify, with the winner of this play-off qualifying. Therefore, effectively in the end, a total of 11.5 places were granted to Europe while only 0.5 places were granted to Africa and Asia. A total of 46 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 89 qualifying matches were played, and 341 goals were scored (an average of 3.83 per match). Listed below are the dates and results of the qualification rounds. Confederation qualification AFC and CAF 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC and CAF) Group 1Group 2Group 3Group 4Group 1 y nGroup 2 y nGroup 3 y nGroup 4 y n Second roundSecond Round y n Third roundThird Round y n CCCF and NAFC 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification (CCCF and NAFC) The 6 teams were divided into 2 groups with 3 teams each (Group 1 with teams from North America and Group 2 with teams from Central America and Caribbean). The teams played each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners advanced to the Final Round. The two teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis with the winner qualifying for the final tournament. Group 1Group 2Group 1 y nGroup 2 y n Final RoundFinal Round y n CONMEBOL 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL) The 9 teams were divided into 3 groups of 3 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. Group 1Group 2Group 3y ny ny n UEFA 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) The 27 teams were divided into 9 groups, each featuring 3 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. Denmark, East Germany, Iceland and the Soviet Union made their debuts in World Cup qualification. Group 1Group 2Group 3y ny ny nGroup 4Group 5Group 6y ny ny nGroup 7Group 8Group 9y ny ny n Inter-confederation play-offs: AFC/CAF v UEFA 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC/CAF–UEFA play-off) A special play-off was created between Israel and the runner-up of one of the UEFA/CONMEBOL/CCCF/NAFC Groups, where the teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis, with the winner qualifying. Two-time champions Uruguay withdrew, while Northern Ireland and Italy had one final match yet to play, so all three were left out. Belgium, Bulgaria, Wales, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Peru, Bolivia and Costa Rica were left to draw. After Belgium refused, Wales, the runner-up of UEFA Group 4, was the team drawn from the UEFA group runners-up.Doyle Paul The Joy of Six: international football play-offs https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/nov/13/the-joy-of-six-international-play-offs 13 November 2015 The Guardian main WDL 180 2 yes complete FIFA WAL ISR 0 0 2 0 4 2 0 0 4 0 Q ISR ISR WAL 1953 WAL 1953 Q green1 1958 FIFA World Cup 0–2 2–0 Qualified teams thumb|500px|Qualifying countries TeamDate of qualificationFinals appearanceStreakLast appearanceARG27 October 19573rd11934AUT29 September 19573rd21954BRA 188921 April 19576th61954TCH27 October 19574th21954ENG19 May 19573rd31954FRA 179427 October 19575th21954HUN10 November 19574th21954MEX 193427 October 19574th31954NIR15 January 19581st1—PAR 195414 July 19573rd11950SCO6 November 19572nd21954SWE (hosts)23 June 19504th11950URS 195524 November 19571st1—WAL 19535 February 19581st1—FRG (defending champions)4 July 19544th21954YUG17 November 19574th31954 Goalscorers 8 goals 20em yes ENG Tommy Taylor 7 goals 20em yes FRA 1794 Thadée Cisowski 5 goals 20em yes MEX 1934 Crescencio Gutiérrez SCO Jackie Mudie 4 goals 20em yes BEL Paul Vandenberg TCH Tadeusz Kraus ENG John Atyeo HUN Ferenc Machos IDN Rusli Ramang POL Edward Jankowski URS 1955 Nikita Simonyan ESP 1945 Ladislao Kubala 3 goals 20em yes ARG alt Omar Oreste Corbatta ARG alt Norberto Menéndez AUT Gerhard Hanappi BEL Maurice Willems BOL Máximo Alcócer BUL 1946 Hristo Iliev CRC Jorge Hernán Monge CRC Rodolfo Herrera González CRC Álvaro Murillo FRA 1794 Jean Vincent IRL Dermot Curtis MEX 1934 Alfredo Hernández MEX 1934 Héctor Hernández MEX 1934 Salvador Reyes Monteón NED Abe Lenstra NED Noud van Melis PAR 1954 Juan Bautista Agüero PAR 1954 Florencio Amarilla URS 1955 Anatoli Ilyin URS 1955 Eduard Streltsov WAL 1953 Des Palmer YUG Muhamed Mujić 2 goals 20em yes ARG alt Roberto Zárate AUT Hans Buzek AUT Theodor Wagner BEL Henri Coppens BEL Victor Mees BEL Richard Orlans BUL 1946 Georgi Dimitrov BUL 1946 Panayot Panayotov CAN 1921 Art Hughes CAN 1921 Brian Philley CAN 1921 Gogie Stewart CRC Mario Cordero CRC Rubén Jiménez Rodríguez CRC Danilo Montero Campos Territory of Curaçao Wilfred de Lanoy DEN Ove Bech Nielsen GDR 1949 Günther Wirth ENG Duncan Edwards FRA 1794 Célestin Oliver FRA 1794 Roger Piantoni FRA 1794 Joseph Ujlaki GUA Francisco López Contreras HUN Lajos Csordás HUN Nándor Hidegkuti ISL Ríkharður Jónsson ISL Þórður Jónsson ISL Þórður Þórðarson ITA Guido Gratton MEX 1934 Carlos González MEX 1934 Ligorio López MEX 1934 Enrique Sesma NED Cor van der Gijp NIR Jimmy McIlroy NOR Harald Hennum PAR 1954 Ángel Jara Saguier PAR 1954 Enrique Jara Saguier POL Lucjan Brychczy POL Gerard Cieślik POR Manuel Vasques ROU 1952 Alexandru Ene URS 1955 Anatoli Isayev URS 1955 Igor Netto ESP 1945 Estanislao Basora ESP 1945 Alfredo di Stéfano ESP 1945 Luis Suárez Miramontes SUI Josef Hügi SUI Roger Vonlanthen USA 1912 Ed Murphy WAL 1953 Ivor Allchurch WAL 1953 Cliff Jones YUG Miloš Milutinović 1 goal 20em yes ARG alt Norberto Conde ARG alt Eliseo Prado AUT Robert Dienst AUT Walter Haummer AUT Karl Koller AUT Ernst Kozlicek AUT Helmut Senekowitsch AUT Karl Stotz AUT Otto Walzhofer BEL André Van Herpe BEL Denis Houf BEL André Piters BOL Ricardo Alcón BOL Ausberto García BOL Máximo Ramírez BRA 1889 Didi BRA 1889 Índio BUL 1946 Spiro Debarski BUL 1946 Todor Diev BUL 1946 Ivan Petkov Kolev BUL 1946 Krum Yanev CAN 1921 Norm McLeod CAN 1921 Ostap Steckiw CHI Guillermo Díaz CHI Jaime Ramírez CHN Nian Weisi CHN Sun Fucheng CHN Wang Lu CHN Zhang Honggen COL Carlos Arango COL Ricardo Díaz COL Jaime Gutiérrez CRC Juan Soto Quiros Territory of Curaçao Edgard Meulens Territory of Curaçao Hubert Sambo TCH Vlastimil Bubník TCH Pavol Molnár TCH Anton Moravčík TCH Ladislav Novák DEN Aage Rou Jensen DEN John Jensen GDR 1949 Manfred Kaiser GDR 1949 Helmut Müller GDR 1949 Willy Tröger ENG Johnny Haynes FIN Olavi Lahtinen FIN Mauri Vanhanen FRA 1794 Said Brahimi FRA 1794 René Dereuddre FRA 1794 Maryan Wisnieski GRE old Kostas Nestoridis GRE old Vaggelis Panakis GUA Augusto Espinoza GUA Jorge Vickers HUN József Bozsik HUN Károly Sándor HUN Lajos Tichy IDN Eddang Witarsa IRL George Cummins IRL Johnny Gavin IRL Alf Ringstead ITA Sergio Cervato ITA Dino da Costa ITA Gino Pivatelli LUX Jean-Pierre Fiedler LUX Johnny Halsdorf LUX Léon Letsch MEX 1934 Jaime Belmonte NED Toon Brusselers NED Coen Dillen NED Kees Rijvers NED Servaas Wilkes NIR Billy Bingham NIR Tommy Casey NIR Wilbur Cush NIR Billy Simpson NOR Kjell Kristiansen PAR 1954 Óscar Aguilera PER Alberto Terry POL Ginter Gawlik POR Matateu POR António Dias Teixeira ROU 1952 Cornel Cacoveanu ROU 1952 Titus Ozon ROU 1952 Iosif Petschovsky ROU 1952 Nicolae Tătaru SCO John Hewie SCO Tommy Ring SCO Archie Robertson SCO Alex Scott SCO Gordon Smith URS 1955 Genrich Fedosov URS 1955 Valentin Kozmich Ivanov URS 1955 Boris Tatushin URS 1955 Yuri Voinov ESP 1945 Miguel González ESP 1945 Enrique Mateos SDN 1956 Suleiman Faris SDN 1956 Siddiq Manzul SUI Robert Ballaman SUI Ferdinando Riva SYR 1932 Jabra Al-Zarqa USA 1912 Harry Keough USA 1912 Ruben Mendoza USA 1912 James Murphy URU Javier Ambrois URU Eladio Benítez URU William Martínez URU Óscar Míguez WAL 1953 Dave Bowen WAL 1953 Mel Charles WAL 1953 Roy Vernon YUG Dobrosav Krstić YUG Aleksandar Petaković 1 own goal 20em yes NOR Edgar Falch (playing against Hungary) WAL 1953 Ray Daniel (playing against Czechoslovakia) Notes Wales is the only team to ever qualify after having been eliminated and then reinstated. Their qualification meant that all four Home Nations qualified (the only time in history), and that no team from the separate African and Asian zone qualified. This remained Wales' only appearance in the finals until 2022, when they qualified through the European zone for the first time. Two-time former champions Uruguay, who in their three previous appearances had always benefited from direct qualifications or withdrawals, now failed in what was the first time they actually had to play qualifying games. Italy were eliminated in qualifying for the first time. Footnotes External links FIFA World Cup Official Site - 1958 World Cup Qualification RSSSF - 1958 World Cup Qualification Qualification Category:FIFA World Cup qualification