2002 FIFA World Cup qualification

Qualified teams

Qualification process

• Europe : 14.5 places, 1 of them went to automatic qualifier France, while the other 13.5 places were contested by 50 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs
• South America : 4.5 places, contested by 10 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs.
• North, Central America and Caribbean : 3 places, contested by 35 teams.
• Africa : 5 places, contested by 51 teams.
• Asia : 4.5 places, 2 of them went to automatic qualifiers South Korea and Japan, while the other 2.5 places were contested by 40 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs.
• Oceania : 0.5 place, contested by 10 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs.

Confederation qualification

AFC

• First round: The 39 teams were divided into nine groups of four teams each, and one group of three teams. The teams played against each other twice, except in group 2, where the teams played against each other once. The group winners advanced to the final round.
• Second round: The ten group winners from the first round were divided into two groups of five teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners qualified directly to the World Cup. The runners-up advanced to the AFC play-off.
• Play-off: The two group runners-up from the second round played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner advanced to the UEFA–AFC inter-confederation play-off.

CAF

CONCACAF

• Caribbean Zone: The 24 teams were divided into groups of eight teams each. The teams played in a three-round knockout tournament. The winners would advance to the semi-finals, while the runners-up would advance to the play-offs.
• Central American Zone: The six teams are divided into groups of three teams each. The teams played against each other. The winners of the group would advance to the semi-finals, while the runners-up would advance to the play-offs.
• Play-offs: the six teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. A team from North or Central America would play against a team from the Caribbean, and the winners would advance to the semi-finals.
• Semi-finals: the 12 teams were divided into three groups of four teams each. They played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners and runners-up would advance to the final round.
• Final round: the six teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The top three teams would qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

CONMEBOL

OFC

UEFA

Inter-confederation play-offs

Top goalscorers

• AFC
• CAF
• CONCACAF
• CONMEBOL
• OFC
• UEFA
• Inter-confederation play-offs

Trivia

• On their way to the 2002 World Cup, Brazil endured their worst qualifying campaign ever, losing 6 matches and finishing 3rd of the South American qualifying group. However, Brazil went on to win the 2002 World Cup with a record-breaking tally of 7 wins in 7 matches in the final competition, without facing extra time or penalty shoot-outs. The following teams also won all their final competition matches: Uruguay in 1930, Italy in 1938, Brazil in 1970 and France in 1998. In 1970, Brazil had also won all of their 6 preliminary competition matches. Uruguay did not play any preliminary round for 1930, as there was none, and Italy did not either for 1938 as they were automatically qualified for the World Cup as title holders.
• After finishing second in the group, where they 2001 Germany v [England football match|famously lost 1–5 to England], Germany had to play qualifying play-offs for the only time in their history.
• Australia netted 31 goals against newcomers American Samoa, setting the record of the highest-scoring match and biggest margin of victory in an international match ever. This was only two days after Australia thrashed Tonga 22–0, a then international record. Also, Archie Thompson's 13 goals in the match against American Samoa surpassed the previous record of 10.
• Souleymane Mamam of Togo became the youngest player ever to play in a World Cup qualifying match at the age of 13 years and 310 days in the match against Zambia, in May 2001. He subbed in for Komlan Assignon, three minutes from full-time.
• The fastest-ever hat-trick in an "A" international was set when Abdul Hamid Bassiouny of Egypt needed only 177 seconds to bag his three goals in a game against Namibia.
• Switzerland's Kubilay Türkyilmaz scored a hat trick exclusively from penalties against the Faroe Islands. Brazil's Ronaldo would equal this against Argentina in his team's 3–1 win in the 2006 World Cup qualifying round.