1966 FIFA World Cup qualification


The 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the five FIFA confederations. The 1966 FIFA World Cup featured 16 teams with one place reserved for the host nation, England, and one reserved for defending champions, Brazil. The remaining 14 places were determined by a qualification process in which the other 74 entered teams, from the five FIFA confederations, competed. UEFA, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL qualification was determined within the confederations, whilst AFC and CAF teams competed for one place at the tournament.
Of the 74 teams, 51 competed; Guatemala, Congo-Brazzaville and the Philippines had their entries rejected, while Malta and Iceland withdrew before playing a match.
In the Africa/Asia/Oceania zone, South Africa were disqualified after being suspended by FIFA due to apartheid, while all 15 African nations withdrew in protest after FIFA, citing competitive and logistical issues, confirmed there would be no direct qualification for an African team. South Korea were later forced to withdraw due to logistical issues after the Asia/Oceania tournament was moved from Japan to Cambodia.
The first qualification match, between Netherlands and Albania, was played on 24 May 1964 and the first goal in qualification was a penalty, scored by Dutch defender Daan Schrijvers. Qualification ended on 29 December 1965, when Bulgaria eliminated Belgium in a group tiebreaker to become the final qualifier for the World Cup.
There were 393 goals scored over 127 games, for an average of 3.09 goals per game and 51 teams played in qualification.

Qualified teams

TeamMethod of
qualification		Date of
qualification		Finals
appearance		Consecutive
appearances		Previous best
performance
Hosts22 August 19605th5Quarter-finals
Defending champions17 June 19628th8Winners
CONCACAF Final Group Winners16 May 19656th5Group stage
CONMEBOL Group 1 Winners13 June 19655th2Winners
CONMEBOL Group 3 Winners22 August 19655th3Runners-up
UEFA Group 6 Winners9 October 19656th4Runners-up
CONMEBOL Group 2 Winners12 October 19654th2Third place
UEFA Group 7 Winners17 October 19653rd3Quarter-finals
UEFA Group 4 Winners31 October 19651st1–
UEFA Group 3 Winners6 November 19656th1Third place
UEFA Group 9 Winners10 November 19654th2Fourth place
UEFA Group 2 Winners14 November 19656th4Winners
Asia / Oceania First Round Winners24 November 19651st1–
UEFA Group 5 Winners24 November 19656th2Quarter-finals
UEFA Group 8 Winners7 December 19656th2Winners
UEFA Group 1 Winners29 December 19652nd2Group stage

Qualification process

The 16 spots available in the 1966 World Cup were be distributed among the continental zones as follows:
UEFA, CONMEBOL and CONCACAF had a guaranteed number of places, whereas the CAF and AFC had to contest a play-off to determine which confederation would be represented.
After the first round of 1966 FIFA World Cup finals, the percentage of teams from each confederation that passed through to the Quarter-finals was as follows:

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. If teams were even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams played a play-off at a neutral ground.

Confederation qualification

AFC and Oceania

Five teams from AFC applied to take part in qualification, but the entry of the Philippines was rejected. Australia took part in this section of qualification, although they were not a member of a confederation at the time: the OFC was not founded until 1966.
The qualification process began with four national teams split between two sections for qualification: Israel and Syria competed in European qualification for geographical reasons, whilst North Korea and South Korea were to take part in a group alongside Australia and South Africa. The winner of this group would then go on to play three group winners from the second round of CAF qualifiers.
Problems arose, however, as all 15 members of CAF withdrew to protest against the allocation of places, while South Africa was disqualified after being suspended by FIFA, and South Korea withdrew due to logistical difficulties following the tournament's move from Japan to Cambodia.

CAF

17 teams from Africa entered the qualification, but Congo-Brazzaville had their application rejected, and South Africa, who had been expelled from CAF in 1958 due to the country's apartheid regime, were placed with the Asian and Oceanian teams.
Qualification for the 15 remaining teams saw them sorted in to six groups, three groups of two and three groups of three. The winners of these groups were then to play a two-legged tie in the following combinations: Group 1 winners v Group 5 winners, Group 2 winners v Group 4 winners and Group 3 winners v Group 6 winners, with the winners advancing to play in the final group with each and the victor of the Asia/Oceania group.

African boycott

The African nations were aggrieved their second-round winners needed to enter a final round against the winners of the Asian and Oceanian zone in order to qualify for the final tournament. They protested that their zone was not represented in the tournament, and against the readmission of South Africa to FIFA.
South Africa was subsequently disqualified after being suspended again in 1965 due to pressure from African nations.
After FIFA declined to change the qualifying format or the allocation of places, citing logistical and competitive issues, all fifteen African teams withdrew in protest, and CAF refused to participate in future until at least one African team had an automatic place in the World Cup. This was agreed to for the 1970 World Cup.

CONCACAF

10 teams initially entered, but the entry of Guatemala was rejected.
The remaining nine teams were placed in to three groups of three, with the winner of each group proceeding to a final group. The winner of this group would go on to the final tournament.
Legend
Country that directly qualified for the 1966 World Cup

RankTeam
174310122+10
24412182+6
314013319−16

CONMEBOL

As Brazil has already qualified as reigning champions, the remaining nine CONMEBOL teams were split in to three groups of 3, playing each other twice. The top team from each group qualified.
Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 1966 World Cup
Countries that took part in a group play-off

Final positions (Group Stage)

Group B play-off

UEFA

qualified automatically as hosts and a further 30 European teams took part in qualification. They were joined by Israel and Syria, although Syria then withdrew in support of the African teams. The teams were divided into 9 groups - four groups of 3 and five groups of 4. Syria's withdrawal meant that group 9 only contained two teams.
Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 1966 World Cup
Countries that took part in a group play-off

Final positions (Group Stage)

Group play-offs

The group play-offs were contested for groups 1 and 9, as the top two teams in both groups were level on points.

Goalscorers

;7 goals
;6 goals
;5 goals
;4 goals
;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
;1 own goal