1998 FIFA World Cup™ Preliminary

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

This time round all previous records were shattered: 174 entries (with 168 actually playing), 643 matches and over 15 million spectators. There were some individual records too: Iran beat the Maldives by the widest margin in World Cup history, the score being 17-0. Karim Bagheri scored seven of the total, also a new best. Iran continued to capture the headlines as the surprise team: in an AFC/OFC play-off in Australia they were trailing 0-2 but Iran pulled level, to the consternation of 85,000 spectators in the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Already qualified were Korea Republic, now becoming regulars, and Saudi Arabia for the second time in a row.

In Europe, fixed play-offs were arranged between the group second teams for the first time. Norway, Italy, Spain, Germany and Romania came through undefeated, but even five wins and three draws was not enough to take Italy to the top of their group, which was won by England. A goal from Tony Cascarino for Ireland Rep. in the last match against Romania earned his team a 1-1 draw and ruined Romania's 100% record. In the play-offs, Yugoslavia rattled up an aggregate score of 12-1 against the poor Hungarians. Not unexpectedly, Croatia eliminated Ukraine and so one of Europe's new countries would be making a first appearance.

No fewer than 72 matches were played in South America, where the eliminations were held for the first time in a single group. The teams coming out on top were Argentina, Colombia (for the third time in succession), Bolivia (for the first time since 1950) and Paraguay.

The longest qualifying round was, as usual, in the CONCACAF zone, where favourites Mexico and the USA were successful, encountering few problems along the way. Third place went to newcomers Jamaica, the "Reggae Boys" thus confirming the progress they had made over the last few years. Rather curiously, Mexico, who had been undefeated in the qualifiers and were sure of a place in France, released their coach Bora Milutinovic from his contract after a run of disappointing results.

In Africa it was the established teams that made the running; Nigeria, Cameroon, Tunisia and Morocco had all

qualified on previous occasions. The only new name was South Africa, but their success was hardly a surprise, in

view of the potential of their players and their victory in the African Nations' Cup in 1996. But Congo nearly

caused a sensation on 16 August 1997 in Johannesburg, when a single goal decided that South Africa would

So near and yet so far: Australia’s dreams of qualifying for the World Cup where shattered in the very last game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground packed with 85,000 spectators who saw the Socceroos go 2-0 up against Iran only to concede the equaliser late in the second half - and lose the set of tickets to France.

Japan’s Kazu Miura added another 11 goals to the 10 he had scored in the previous Preliminary Competition. His record total of 21 was equalled four years later by Iranian striker Ali Daei.

AFRICA 38: Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau (late entry), Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda (late entry), Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

ASIA 36: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China PR, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives Republic, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Korea Republic, Sri Lanka, Syria, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.

EUROPE 49 +1: Albania, 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, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia FYR, Malta, Moldavia, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales, Yugoslavia + Israel.

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

NORTH, CENTRAL AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN 30: Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda (late entry), Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba (late entry), Dominica, Dominican Republic, EI Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, USA.

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: 31

Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belize, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominica, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Macedonia FYR, Maldives Rep., Moldavia, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Slovakia, Slovenia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Western Samoa

• Mali and Niger withdrew before the groups were drawn up. Burundi withdrew due to civil war and was replaced by Sierra Leone, who had been eliminated by Burundi in the first round. Sierra Leone thus became the first team to be eliminated twice from the same qualifying series.

• Zaire changed their name to Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo DR) in 1997.

• Maldives Rep., Rwanda, Liechtenstein and Western Samoa (since 1997 referred to as Samoa) had entered previous qualifiers but withdrawn without playing a match: the Maldives and Rwanda 1990, Liechtenstein and Western Samoa 1994. Belize had already entered 1990 but the entry had not accepted by FIFA.

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

Argentina, Austria, Belgium Brazil (C), Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, CROATIA, Denmark, England, France (H), Germany, Iran, Italy, JAMAICA, JAPAN, Korea Republic, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, SOUTH AFRICA, Spain, Tunisia, United States, Yugoslavia.

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

Preliminaries tournament statistics (without taking into account technical and annulled results)
Matches (neutral field)	643 (43)
Goals Scored	1922
Host Goals Scored	1123 (58,43%)
Guest Goals Scored	639 (33,25%)
Neutral Goals Scored	160 (8,32%)
Home win	321 (49,92%)
Draws	121 (18,82%)
Away win	158 (24,57%)
Goals Scored (average per match)	2,99
High score (more than 3 goals)	207 (32,19%)
No Score Draw	49 (7,62%)
Attendance (*incomplete data)	15 443 096
Average viewers per match (*incomplete data)	24 017
Penalties awarded (*incomplete data)	32
Penalty goals	29
% Successful Penalty kicks (*incomplete data)	90,62 %
Own goals	17
Cautions (on average) (*incomplete data)	2107 (3,28)
Sent off (aver.)	154 (0,24) - 145/9
Players participated (*incomplete data)	4400