1962 FIFA World Cup qualification
A total of 56 teams entered the 1962 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. Chile, as the hosts, and Brazil, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition.
As with previous World Cups, the rules of the qualification rounds were quite confusing. Moreover, the winners of the four weakest continental zones: North America, Central America and Caribbean, Africa and Asia, were not guaranteed direct spots in the final tournament. Instead, each of them had to enter a play-off against a team from either Europe or South America, with the winners of the three play-offs qualifying.
The 16 spots available in the 1962 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows:
- Europe : 8 direct places + 2 spots in the Intercontinental Play-offs, contested by 30 teams.
- South America : 5 direct places + 1 spot in the Intercontinental Play-offs ; 2 direct places went to automatic qualifiers Chile and Brazil, while the other 3.5 places were contested by 7 teams.
- North, Central America and Caribbean : 1 spot in the Intercontinental Play-offs, contested by 8 teams.
- Africa : 1 spot in the Intercontinental Play-offs, contested by 6 teams.
- Asia : 1 spot in the Intercontinental Play-offs, contested by 3 teams.
Listed below are the dates and results of the qualification rounds.
Europe
The 30 teams were divided into 10 groups. The groups had different rules, as follows:- Groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 had 3 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.
- Group 7 had 5 teams. The teams played in a knockout tournament, with matches on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would qualify.
- Group 9 had 2 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would advance to the [|UEFA / CAF Intercontinental Play-off].
- Group 10 had 2 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would advance to the [|UEFA / AFC Intercontinental Play-off].
UEFA Group 1
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 6 | |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 3 | +7 | 6 | |
| 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 10 | −7 | 0 |
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Sweden and Switzerland finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify.
Switzerland qualified
UEFA Group 2
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 6 | |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 3 | +7 | 6 | |
| 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 12 | −9 | 0 |
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Bulgaria and France finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify.
Bulgaria qualified
UEFA Group 3
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 8 | |
| 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 8 | −1 | 2 | |
| 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | −5 | 2 |
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West Germany qualified
UEFA Group 4
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 7 | |
| 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 | −3 | 2 | |
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | −3 | 1 |
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Hungary qualified
UEFA Group 5
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 3 | +8 | 8 | |
| 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 11 | −8 | 0 |
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Soviet Union qualified
UEFA Group 6
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 2 | +14 | 7 | |
| 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 3 | |
| 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 21 | −16 | 2 |
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England qualified
UEFA Group 7
First round
----Israel advanced to the Second Round.
Second round
Romania withdrew, so Italy advanced to the Final Round automatically.----
Israel advanced to the Final Round.
Final round
----Italy qualified
UEFA Group 8
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 5 | +11 | 6 | |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 6 | |
| 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 17 | −14 | 0 |
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Czechoslovakia and Scotland finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify.
Czechoslovakia qualified
UEFA Group 9
First Round
Second Round
----Spain advanced to the UEFA / CAF Intercontinental Play-off.
UEFA Group 10
----Yugoslavia advanced to the UEFA / AFC Intercontinental Play-off.
South America
Among the 7 teams, Paraguay were drawn to play in the [|CONMEBOL / CCCF / NAFC Intercontinental Play-off]. The remaining 6 teams were divided into 3 groups of 2 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.CONMEBOL Group 1
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 3 | +8 | 4 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 11 | −8 | 0 |
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Argentina qualified
CONMEBOL Group 2
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 3 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 1 |
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Uruguay qualified
CONMEBOL Group 3
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 3 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 1 |
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Colombia qualified
North, Central America and Caribbean
There would be two rounds of play:- First Round: The remaining 7 teams were divided into 3 groups of 2 or 3 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would advance to the Final Round.
- Final Round: The 3 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would advance to the [|CONMEBOL/CCCF/NAFC Intercontinental Play-off].
CCCF/NAFC First Round
Group 1
----Mexico advanced to the Final Round.
Group 2
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Costa Rica and Honduras finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would advance to the Final Round.
Costa Rica advanced to the Final Round.
Group 3
----Netherlands Antilles advanced to the Final Round.
CCCF/NAFC Final Round
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Mexico advanced to the CONMEBOL/CCCF/NAFC Intercontinental Play-off.
Africa
There would be two rounds of play:- First Round: The 6 teams were divided into 3 groups of 2 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would advance to the Final Round.
- Final Round: The 3 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would advance to the [|UEFA/CAF Intercontinental Play-off].
CAF First Round
Group 1
and Sudan both withdrew as FIFA refused to allow them to rearrange their games to avoid the monsoon season.Group 2
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1= | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | |
| 1= | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
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Morocco and Tunisia finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would advance to the Final Round.
Morocco advanced to the Final Round by winning a coin toss.
Group 3
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 3 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | −3 | 1 |
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Ghana advanced to the Final Round.
CAF Final Round
Only 2 teams competed due to the withdrawals of both teams in Group 1.| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 3 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 1 |
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Morocco advanced to the UEFA/CAF Intercontinental Play-off.
Asia
There would be only one round of play. The 3 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would advance to the [|UEFA/AFC Intercontinental Play-off].AFC Final Round
----Korea Republic advanced to the UEFA/AFC Intercontinental Play-off.
Inter-confederation play-offs
In each play-off, the teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winners would qualify.CAF v UEFA
UEFA v AFC
CCCF/NAFC v CONMEBOL
Qualified teams
| Team | Finals Appearance | Streak | Last Appearance |
| 4th | 2 | 1958 | |
| 7th | 7 | 1958 | |
| 1st | 1 | – | |
| 3rd | 1 | 1950 | |
| 1st | 1 | – | |
| 5th | 3 | 1958 | |
| 4th | 4 | 1958 | |
| 5th | 3 | 1958 | |
| 5th | 1 | 1954 | |
| 5th | 4 | 1958 | |
| 3rd | 1 | 1950 | |
| 5th | 1 | 1954 | |
| 4th | 1 | 1954 | |
| 2nd | 2 | 1958 | |
| 5th | 3 | 1958 | |
| 5th | 4 | 1958 |
– qualified automatically as host nation
– qualified automatically as defending champions
3 of the 16 teams subsequently failed to qualify for the 1966 finals: Colombia, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
Goalscorers
;7 goals;6 goals
;5 goals
;4 goals
- Rubén Jiménez
- Marvin Rodríguez
- Tomáš Pospíchal
- Francisco López Contreras
- Nahum Stelmach
- Omar Sivori
- Francisco Flores
- Yaúca
- Chung Soon-Cheon
- Milan Galić
- Oreste Omar Corbatta
- Jimmy Greaves
- Maryan Wisnieski
- Edward Acquah
- Andreas Papaemmanouil
- Lajos Tichy
- Yehoshua Glazer
- Shlomo Levi
- Mario Corso
- Ady Schmit
- Sigfrido Mercado
- Abdallah Azhar
- Billy McAdams
- Ralph Brand
- Ian St. John
- Rune Börjesson
- Metin Oktay
- Albert Brülls
- Gert Dörfel
- Uwe Seeler
- Martín Pando
- José Francisco Sanfilippo
- Rubén Héctor Sosa
- Hristo Iliev
- Dimitar Yakimov
- Manrique Quesada
- Michalis Shialis
- Dieter Erler
- Carlos Alberto Raffo
- Ray Pointer
- Bobby Smith
- Kai Pahlman
- Jacques Faivre
- Augusto Espinoza
- Carlos Humberto Suazo
- János Göröcs
- Károly Sándor
- Eduardo González Palmer
- Mohamed Khalfi
- Henk Groot
- Tonny van der Linden
- Eduvigis Rudolfo Dirksz
- Edwin Miliano Loran
- Dejo Fayemi
- Jimmy McIlroy
- Jim McLaughlin
- José Águas
- David Herd
- Denis Law
- Alex Young
- Yoo Pan-Soon
- Valentin Bubukin
- Mikheil Meskhi
- Slava Metreveli
- Viktor Ponedelnik
- Alfredo Di Stéfano
- Agne Simonsson
- Robert Ballaman
- Heinz Schneiter
- Dragoslav Šekularac
- Ricardo José Maria Ramaciotti
- Roger Claessen
- Paul van Himst
- Marcel Paeschen
- Máximo Alcócer
- Wilfredo Camacho
- Todor Diev
- Ivan Petkov Kolev
- Petar Velichkov
- Eusebio Escobar
- Héctor Garzon González
- Carlos Vivo Goban
- Álvaro Grant MacDonald
- Jorge Hernán Monge
- Walter Pearson
- Rigoberto Rojas
- Jiří Hledík
- Josef Jelínek
- Josef Kadraba
- Josef Masopust
- Peter Ducke
- Alberto Pedro Spencer
- John Connelly
- Ron Flowers
- Johnny Haynes
- Dennis Viollet
- Mohammed Awad
- Luciano Vassalo
- Sauli Pietiläinen
- Lucien Cossou
- Jean-Jacques Marcel
- Roger Piantoni
- Ernest Schultz
- Joseph Ujlaki
- Edward Boateng
- Aggrey Fynn
- Mohamadu Salisu
- Fred Masella
- Ronald Leaky
- Flórián Albert
- Máté Fenyvesi
- Tivadar Monostori
- Ernő Solymosi
- Amby Fogarty
- Johnny Giles
- Joe Haverty
- Boaz Kofman
- Shlomo Nahari
- Reuven Young
- José Altafini
- Antonio Angelillo
- Francisco Lojacono
- Koji Sasaki
- Camille Dimmer
- Nicolas Hoffmann
- Raúl Cárdenas
- Isidoro Díaz
- Crescencio Gutiérrez
- Lahcen Chicha
- Sellam Riahi
- Godwin Emenako
- Bjørn Borgen
- Eldar Hansen
- Roald Jensen
- Faustino Delgado
- Lucjan Brychczy
- Jan Szmidt
- Mário Coluna
- Eusébio
- Gennadi Gusarov
- Aleksei Mamykin
- Valery Voronin
- Enrique Collar
- Marcelino
- Joaquín Peiró
- Alfonso Rodríguez Salas
- Luis del Sol
- August Foe a Man
- Torbjörn Jonsson
- Norbert Eschmann
- Rolf Wüthrich
- Abdelmajid Chetali
- Brahim Kerrit
- Rached Meddeb
- Abdelmajid Tlemçani
- Aydın Yelken
- Helmut Bicek
- Carl Fister
- Al Zerhusen
- Ángel Cabrera
- Luis Alberto Cubilla
- Guillermo Escalada
- Ivor Allchurch
- Phil Woosnam
- Helmut Haller
- Richard Kreß
- Zvezdan Čebinac
- Dražan Jerković
- Tomislav Kaloperović
- Bora Kostić
- Petar Radaković