2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)


Listed below are the dates and results for the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for UEFA teams.
The European section of the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as qualifiers for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which is being held in South Korea and Japan, for national teams which are members of the UEFA. Apart from France, who qualified automatically as defending champions, a total of 13.5 slots in the final tournament were available for UEFA teams.
The 50 teams were divided into nine groups, five groups of six teams and four groups of five teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. Among the runners-up, the runner-up of [|Group 2] was drawn randomly to advance to the UEFA–AFC Intercontinental [|play-off]. The other runners-up would advance to the UEFA play-offs.
In the play-offs, the eight teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The four aggregate winners qualified. The qualifying process started on [|2] September 2000, after UEFA Euro 2000, and ended on 14 November 2001.

Qualification seeding (UEFA)

The draw was made in December 1999, and was based on average points per game achieved in 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification and UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying. France qualified automatically as title holders, and because Belgium and Netherlands, as hosts, had not had to qualify for UEFA Euro 2000, only their 1998 World Cup result was used. Andorra made their debut in World Cup qualifying.
The national teams which eventually qualified for the final tournament are presented in bold and the national teams who took part in the play-offs are presented in italic.
Pot [|1]Pot 2Pot [|3]Pot 4Pot 5

' 2.61

' 2.60

2.50

' 2.39

2.38

' 2.30

2.28

2.25

2.22
' 2.11

' 2.10

' 2.06

2.05

' 2.00

' 2.00

' 2.00

' 1.94

1.94
1.89

' 1.88

1.65

1.63

1.63

1.61

1.50

' 1.44

1.40
1.38

1.33

1.31

1.20

1.17

1.15

1.11

' 1.00

1.00
0.83

0.80

0.75

0.67

0.55

0.45

0.39

0.39

0.25

0.20

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

Summary

Table - top row: group winners, second row: group runners-up, third row: others. The winner of each group qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup together with winners of play-off. Group 2 was chosen at random before qualifying began for its runner- up to participate in the UEFA/AFC intercontinental play-off. As runner-up in group 2, Republic of Ireland played a play-off against a team from the AFC confederation, whereas the others played against each other.
Group 1Group 2Group 3Group 4Group 5Group 6Group 7Group 8Group 9























First round

The winner of each group qualified directly, the runner-up advanced to play-off.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Group 9

Play-offs

The draw for the play-offs was held on 31 August 2001 at FIFA's headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland. The nine group runners-up were placed into one pot, with eight teams drawn into four pairings. The remaining team would then face an AFC team in the [|inter-confederation play-offs]. UEFA were paired to face the AFC team by decision of the FIFA Executive Committee in October 1999.

UEFA

Belgium qualified by the aggregate score of 2–0.
Germany qualified by the aggregate score of 5–2.
Slovenia qualified by the aggregate score of 3–2.
Turkey qualified by the aggregate score of 6–0.

Inter-confederation play-offs

As the Group 2 runner-up was the last team to be selected in the play-off draw on 31 August 2001, that team would then face an AFC team in the inter-confederation play-offs. UEFA were paired to face the AFC team by decision of the FIFA Executive Committee in October 1999, though the order of legs was decided by the draw on 31 August 2001. The team to meet an AFC team became the Republic of Ireland.

Qualified teams

The following 15 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.
TeamQualified asQualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA World Cup1
10
8
2
2
9
5
1
10
14
10
14
10
0
1
2

Goalscorers

;10 goals
;9 goals
;8 goals
;7 goals
;6 goals
;5 goals
;4 goals
;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
;1 own goal

Europe