1982 FIFA World Cup™ Preliminary

The format was simpler in Europe this time; there were six groups of five from which the top two teams qualified, and one group of three with only the winner (Poland) going further. In a very balanced group England lost their away matches in Romania, Norway, and Switzerland but qualified anyway, one point behind Hungary. In fact, qualification for all four British teams for the first time since 1958 looked a strong possibility. Wales just missed out in their group with Czechoslovakia taking second place from them on goal difference, behind the dominant Soviet Union. Scotland and Northern Ireland left Sweden and Portugal in their wake. Yugoslavia and Italy did not have much trouble, but things were closer for France, who ended up behind Belgium and just ahead of Ireland Republic on goal difference. Germany FR's record was impeccable - eight wins and a goal line of 33:3 putting them five points clear of Austria.

Of all the teams that had ever won the World Cup, the only one missing this time was Uruguay. Peru came through, and together with the undefeated Brazil and Chile completed the South American line-up.

The African qualifications saw Cameroon and Algeria come out on top, with Cameroon securing their place with a 2-1 home win over Morocco in Yaounde, in front of well over 100,000 jubilant fans. They had already won the away leg of the fixture. Algeria followed the same route, inflicting two defeats on Nigeria. Both of these teams were destined to hit the headlines during the final round in Spain.

In the final round in the CONCACAF zone in Honduras, the host team secured first place and denied favourites Mexico their place in the final round with a goalless draw in the final match. El Salvador won one more game and one more point than Mexico and earned the second set of tickets to Spain.

China PR had never come so close to qualifying for a World Cup, as on 10 January 1982. But they were thwarted at the last minute: New Zealand won the play-off between the two teams who were level on points and accompanied Kuwait, the group winners, to Spain.

A game of three halves! Wales vs Iceland (2-2) went to a 43 minute break when the floodlights at the Vetch Field Stadium in Swansea went down on 14 October 1981.

Canada, although untried on the international stage from 1977 to 1979, won through to come top of the CONCACAF Northern Zone Group in 1980 with three draws and a win. Unfortunately they lost out to the Central and South American sides (Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico) in the final group.

After a record-breaking 15 matches and 1,350 minutes of football, New Zealand were the last country to qualify for their inaugural FIFA World Cup final competition, beating China PR to get there. Along the way, they also broke a number of records to claim the top scorer title with 44 goals, the best defence (9 matches without concession), and took the highest-margin win (13-0 over Fiji on 16 August 1981).

Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, German DR, Germany FR,

England, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands,

Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Soviet

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, EI Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico,

Algeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya,

Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone,

Australia, Bahrain, China PR, Chinese Taipei, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan,

Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Macao, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria,

Number of Teams participating for the first time in the Preliminary Competition: 8

• Liberia and Madagascar had entered previous qualifiers, but withdrawn without playing a match: Liberia for 1966,

• Czechoslovakia split up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. After the split, the politically separated countries still

fielded a joint team, the RCS (Representation of Czechs and Slovaks), for the 1994 remaining qualifying matches. First

• Libya qualified for the second round and then withdrew. Egypt and Libya were in dispute when Libya withdrew after refusing

• Yugoslavia became Serbia and Montenegro in February 2003, and in 2006 the two became independent from each other

Preliminaries tournament statistics (without taking into account technical and annulled results)
Matches (neutral field)	305 (29)
Goals Scored	795
Host Goals Scored	481 (60,5%)
Guest Goals Scored	245 (30,82%)
Neutral Goals Scored	69 (867,92%)
Home win	145 (47,54%)
Draws	66 (21,64%)
Away win	65 (21,31%)
Goals Scored (average per match)	2,61
High score (more than 3 goals)	83 (27,21%)
No Score Draw	34 (11,15%)
Attendance (*incomplete data)	9 544 965
Average viewers per match (*incomplete data)	31 295
Penalties awarded (*incomplete data)	59
Penalty goals	58
% Successful Penalty kicks (*incomplete data)	98%
Own goals	9
Cautions (on average) (*incomplete data)	443 (1,45)
Sent off (aver.)	41 (0,13) - 37/4
Players participated (*incomplete data)	2252

ALGERIA, Argentina (C), Austria, Belgium, Brazil, CAMEROON, Chile, Czechoslovakia, El Salvador, England, France, Germany FR, HONDURAS, Hungary, Italy, KUWAIT, NEW ZEALAND, Northern Ireland, Peru, Poland, Scotland, Soviet Union, Spain (H), Yugoslavia

Legend
NEWCOMERS TO FINALS in upper case italics
(C) Defending champions, qualified automatically
(H) Host country, qualified automatically