2002 FIFA World Cup™ Preliminary

(teams of JAPAN and KOREA REPUBLIC, as the host nation and FRANCE, as the current world champion, are exempt from the qualifying games.)

199 teams registered to take part in the 2002 FIFA World Cup preliminary competition, although only 193 of them actually played in the 777 games contested. The history books now contain some new records too, such as a new goalscoring record both for teams and the fastest-ever hat-trick in an "A". More than 17 million spectators filled the stadia for the games - a new record in itself. Some of the big guns also found the going tough in the early rounds.

In the CONCACAF zone, outsiders Costa Rica stunned everybody by dominating the competition from start to finish. The USA qualified with matches in hand, but needed favourable results from other teams to do so. Pre-tournament favourites Mexico even went into the last match unsure of their destiny, but eventually made it safely over the finishing line. But the Confederation champions, Canada, did not even make it as far as the decisive final round. In South America, Argentina were the top dogs, and left their opponents trailing in their wake. Second place went to Paraguay, just ahead of Ecuador. Brazil, on the other hand, struggled like never before, and eventually qualified with a little help from rivals Uruguay, who slipped up gainst a surprisingly strong Venezuela, who finished in a commendable position themselves, consigning Peru and Chile to the lower reaches of the table.

Asia was home to a keenly-fought battle for the two automatic places, which were finally secured by China PR and Saudi Arabia, the latter living up to their billing as group favourites. In China, scenes of unbridled joy greeted the news that the national team had qualified for the first time ever. Iran could not repeat their success of 1997, and finally bowed out against Ireland Rep. in the playoff round.

In Africa, it was a case of "how you were", with four of the qualifiers from 1998 (Cameroon, Tunisia, South Africa and Nigeria) coming through once again with flying colours. The final African qualifier stunned the world with their showing in the qualification rounds. Senegal outshone seasoned campaigners such as Egypt and Morocco on their way to the greatest triumph in the nation's footballing history.

In Europe, the major surprise was sprung by the Netherlands. The Dutch team was full of international stars, but they only finished in third place in their group, missing out altogether. Poland, a force in world football in the early Seventies, and a constant presence at the FIFA World Cup™ between 1974 and 1986, announced their return with a glut of goals from a nationalised Nigerian, Emmanuel Olisadebe. Germany, previously untouchable in qualifying rounds, were stunned by arch-rivals England, with Sven-Göran Eriksson's men triumphant in Munich in a 5-1 victory. In the end, Germany came through the play-off round against Ukraine unscathed. EURO 2000 outsiders Slovenia qualified for their second high-profile tournament in succession, while Belgium qualified for the sixth consecutive time, and Turkey succeeded for the first time in 48 years.

Australia's successful year was not crowned in the play-off game against Uruguay, who finished fifth in the South American group. The "Celeste" team from Uruguay finally returned to the world stage after 12 long years in the World Cup wilderness.

Togolese Souleymane Mamam became the youngest player ever to take to a World Cup preliminary game field at the tender age of 13 years and 310 days in Lomé in May 2001.

Another all-time superlative which takes some beating: Australia netted 31 goals against newcomers American Samoa - the highest-scoring match and biggest margin victory ever. Also, Archie Thompson’s 13 goals surpassed the previous record (7) by far.

The fastest-ever hat-trick in an "A" international: Abdel Hamid of Egypt needed only 177 seconds to bag his three goals in a game against Namibia.

AFRICA: 51 Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo DR, Cote d`Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé e Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

ASIA: 40+2 (Korea Republic & Japan as hosts): Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China PR, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives Republic, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

CONCACAF: 35 Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Pureto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent/ Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, USA, US Virgin Islands

EUROPE: 51+1 (France as defending champions): Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland Republic, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia FYR, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales, Yugoslavia.

OCEANIA 10: American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, Vanuatu.

SOUTH AMERICA: 10 Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Number of teams participating for the first time in the preliminary competition: 25

American Samoa, Andorra, Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guam, Laos, Mali, Mongolia, Montserrat, Moldova, Palestine, Samoa, Sao Tome e Principé, Seychelles, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands.

• Myanmar (entered 1950 under the name of Burma) withdrew before playing their first match. Guinea was excluded after playing five matches in the 1^stand 2^nd round in the African preliminary competition.

• Palestine entered the qualifying competition for the first time in the run-up to the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan™. The “Palestine” that had participated in previous competitions in the 1930s was actually the forerunner of today’s Isreal team, and as such bears no relation to the national team of modern Palestine.

• Yugoslavia became Serbia and Montenegro in February 2003, and in 2006 the two became independent from each other and are now 2 separate member associations.

Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, CHINA PR, Costa, Rica, Croatia, Denmark, ECUADOR, England, France (C), Germany, Italy, Japan (H), Korea Republic (H), Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, SENEGAL, SLOVENIA, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, United States.

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

Preliminaries tournament statistics
Matches (neutral field)	777 (57)
Goals Scored	2451
Host Goals Scored	1460 (59,57%)
Guest Goals Scored	726 (29,62%)
Neutral Goals Scored	265 (10,81%)
Home win	372 (47,88%)
Draws	160 (20,59%)
Away win	188 (24,2%)
Goals Scored (average per match)	3,15
High score (more than 3 goals)	270 (34,75%)
No Score Draw	51 (6,56%)
Attendance (*incomplete data)	17 094 782
Average viewers per match (*incomplete data)	22 001
Penalties awarded (*incomplete data)	65
Penalty goals	65
% Successful Penalty kicks (*incomplete data)	100%
Own goals	25
Cautions (on average) (*incomplete data)	2630 (3,38)
Sent off (aver.)	188 (0,24) - 117/71
Players participated (*incomplete data)	5201