1958 FIFA World Cup qualification


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.
The 16 spots available in the 1958 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows:
  • Europe : 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 : 3 places, contested by 9 teams.
  • North, Central America and Caribbean : 1 place, contested by 6 teams.
  • Africa and Asia : 1 place, contested by 11 teams.
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.
Listed below are the dates and results of the qualification rounds.

Confederation qualification

CCCF and NAFC

The 6 teams were divided into 2 groups with 3 teams each. 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.

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.

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.

Inter-confederation play-offs: AFC/CAF v UEFA

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.

Qualified teams

TeamDate of qualificationFinals appearanceStreakLast appearance
27 October 19573rd11934
29 September 19573rd21954
21 April 19576th61954
27 October 19574th21954
19 May 19573rd31954
27 October 19575th21954
10 November 19574th21954
27 October 19574th31954
15 January 19581st1—
14 July 19573rd11950
6 November 19572nd21954
23 June 19504th11950
24 November 19571st1—
5 February 19581st1—
4 July 19544th21954
17 November 19574th31954

Goalscorers

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